| shams said: I don't really care about either, so Im not going to get too involved in this thread. Just wanted to add one big thing though... Not sure if this is happening in the US, but it is taking off BIG-TIME here in Australia. A company sells/hires you a hard-disk playback box, and then you get content you then by TAKING the box to a retail store, and they copy movies over that you order. Our Internet speeds suck balls (and are generally too expensive), so this becomes a very viable distribution method. I can see this expanding when USB Flash drives/keys become cheap/large enough for it. And everyone has a video store near their house (in the cities anyway). |
The cable companies are the ones on the forefront of VOD. They are extremely attractive to content providers because they can offer a 70/30 revenue split, whereas the dvd rental business is nearly the opposite.
As far as the playback device, cable companies are distributing DVRs right now for $10/mo with no up front costs. I could see them just integrating the DVR into all cable boxes. They can recoup the cost through VOD in the long run.
The cable companies also have a HUGE advantage over internet delivery, as they can deliver data as fast as the local network will allow. That could mean speeds 100s, sometimes 1000s of times faster than internet delivery.
VOD could potentially decimate the DVD rental business. I don't think I'd want to be Netflix or Blockbuster right now.
