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July 24, 2003

Superdistribution

Today is a landmark day which means that this year is a landmark year. Check this out:


Disney and Movielink will make such films as "Monsters Inc.," "Chicago," "Gangs of New York," "The Recruit," "25th Hour" and "The Jungle Book 2" available for download at prices ranging from $2.95 to $4.99. Users will need a broadband connection and a PC with Microsoft's (MSFT: news, chart, profile) Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP operating systems, as well as the latest versions of either the Real Networks (RNWK: news, chart, profile) RealOne player or the Windows Media player.

Customers will be able to store movies for up to 30 days. Over that span, they can watch a movie as many times as they wish in a 24-hour period.

Now this could just be a loss leading fakeout, but it means that people who know the technology are getting paid to do it. The genie is out of the bottle.

Posted by mbowen at July 24, 2003 02:35 PM

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Comments

It's also the movie industry realizing that netflix is gonna kick their asses.

Posted by: delilah at July 25, 2003 01:22 PM

When I was living in Texas last summer, the local Blockbusters were experimenting with a subscription model sorta like Netflix. Considering the amount of money I wasted, I should have taken them up on their offer. I decided to try it later when I came back home, but realized that it was something specific to Texas.

Netflix has said that it has some sort of patent on the process, but that's just a bargaining chip. It's a good idea but it didn't take real genius. If and when Blockbuster gets into the market, things will change bigtime.

I don't know what the IT folks at media companies are thinking. I suspect that they are either clueless or hamstrung. They should be able to show how all this can work. It should be interesting if I get this next gig. I'll find out.

Posted by: Cobb at July 25, 2003 03:25 PM