Ex-Softie in Se... 的个人资料Rantings from Seattle照片日志列表更多  |  工具 帮助 |
|
|
2006/1/26 Closing The GapFor those of you who know me, you know that I am an avid evangelist of digital media and how digital delivery is so great. However, there has been a new trend that has made me take a step back and think about the reprecussions of moving too fast with digital media delivery.
Historically, films shown on the big screen took an average of a year to nine months to move to DVD. In the last few years, the gap between big screen and dvd release has shrunk to 6 months, 3 months, and now this Friday - immeidately. Steven Soderbergh's "Bubble" will be shown in the theaters, shown on HDNET, and have the dvd release a couple days later. Needless to say, the movie theaters are not happy about this decision. So much so that there will only be 250 theaters that will be showing the film.
This to me opens up the window for things we may see in the not too distant future. It is very plausible to see movies being offered on demand via your cable company on the same day as the theatrical release. Why not have customers be able to purchase and watch the movies online or buy ipod/media player versions? Some people don't care about the theater experience but just want to see the movie.
Obviously, this will be a big bonus to customers as well as the picture companies. Instead of having of relying so much on a dual stage source of income via theater and dvd sales, they (motion picture companies) could capitalize on both at the same time. They would only have to spend money on one marketting campaign instead of two. And if they really push for online/at home content delivery, think how much money in manufacturing and excess stock?
So if this is indeed the future trend, how will the theaters fare? Why not make deals with the theater production companies to distribute dvds and host online movie delivery? And of course, there will always be patrons like myself and many others out there who would still much rather go to the theater and get the whoel experience. |
|
|
