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MOVIE
DISTRIBUTION: Movieline.com
By
The Undisputed Master
Five
of Hollywood's biggest studios (Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment,
Universal, and Warner Bros.) launched a video-on-demand service
that will allow consumers to access the studios' libraries
of films via a broadband Internet connection. The joint venture
is one of the biggest distribution advances since Hollywood's
earliest days, when studios distributed their films to a network
of studio-owned theaters. Will this venture succeed? What
is it anyway? |
| For
those not familiar with that, they call themselves an "IP based
movie rental service". You basically rent movies by downloading
them to your PC (as of now, only Windows Media or Real Player
formats) for watching at a convenient time. |
| It's
convenient and prices are OK. Selection includes some "new"
releases with no late fees. The cons: no widescreen format,
technical issues in download, and only a 24-hour-watch period,
and no search function, for US only. |
| As
of press time and after reviewing the system it's unclear as
to the potential future of this particular model's service.
We had issues just getting the system to work and the final
downloaded movie image and quality to-date is has not created
a great impression to our researchers and product testers. By
far it's a great idea and as technology and systems merge and
advance, this distribution outlet is sure to be a win win for
all. The question is, is it too soon? Is there an immediate
market and customer base? |
| Netflix,
a new mail order DVD distribution outlet seems to deliver a
different approach. They slip a small DVD in a mail pouch and
in two days you have a DVD movie. When you're done viewing,
pop it back in the return mail pouch, postage paid. Quality,
and again, no late charges. Is this the beginning of the end
of the local video store? |
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