Netflix, Hollywood and the Future of Online Video Distribution
By David Walker |
June 7th, 2006
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Netflix, five million subscribers strong, carries over 60,000 movies, TV shows and whatnot that’s currently available on DVD. Of those, 35 to 40 thousand unique titles are rented on a typical day, showing the absolutely diversity of tastes that exist in our country for all things entertainment. David Leonhardt, at The New York Times, brings up these points and a few key others in an interesting look at Netflix, Hollywood and what all of this could mean to the future of online movie delivery.
Where online delivery is concerned, services like CinemaNow and MovieLink are already offering digital movie downloads to your PC while MovieBeam’s service offers a proprietary box for retrieving and renting digital movies. One would think that Netflix is threatened by these models, but according to Leonhardt, Hollywood is proving otherwise. Netflix and it’s library of over 60,000 titles absolutely trumps the paltry offerings currently available from the online models. Movielink only has 1500 movies available - not even 3% of the library Netflix is boasting. Why is Hollywood to blame? Well, television channels like HBO get exclusive digital rights to many movies - deals that last several years. These arrangements pad the studios with millions in revenue, a model that’s not likely to change anytime soon.
So, for those waiting for a comprehensive online digital library of downloadable movies, your wait may be a long one. Be sure, when the infrastructure is ready and the market demands it, the movies will become available. Until then, we’ll have to settle for the little red envelopes and our two-day turn-arounds.
Betty Vanderbeek – 1 hour 57 minutes ago