The Future is Downloading... More Choices for Legal Movie Downloads
By Chris Boylan
The Future is Downloading
It used to be that if you wanted to check out a new musical artist or song, you'd either have to buy a full CD or turn to the grey area of file-sharing networks. One day, the music industry woke up to the fact that people are willing to pay for the convenience of music downloading to check out new artists, new songs, or simply to avoid having to leave the house and buy a complete CD just for one great song. Enter
iTunes,
Yahoo Music, etc.
Now, years later the movie industry is finally catching on. As they say, "if you can't beat them, join them." Services such as
Movielink and
Cinemanow have agreements with the major studios to provide movie download services so you can download films that are currently released on DVD and video for viewing in the comfort of your home theater. Sure, it's still a far cry from downloading films that are currently in theaters, but hey, it's a start and (I believe) a sign of things to come when movies will be released day and date in cinemas and via internet download.
Wouldn't you pay $10 to download a brand new film to your computer, the same day it was released in theaters? Perhaps it could be time-limited so you could watch it for up to 24 hours, then on the DVD release date, you could pay another small fee to unlock the film for unlimited viewing? And while we're at it, let's have the ability to download the artwork so you could burn your own DVD copy complete with labels. While this may still be a pipe dream, there are signs that the movie industry may one day wake up to this huge revenue opportunity.
Steven Soderbergh (director of "Traffic") has announced that his upcoming film, the low budget murder mystery "Bubble" will open simultaneously (day and date) in theaters
and on DVD and pay-per-view. His feeling is that if you make it easy to see - and buy - then more people will see it. And those who like it in the theater may even choose to buy the DVD on the way out for repeat viewing and to view the extras.
It will be interesting to see if this model succeeds and this may influence the bigwigs at the larger studios to explore a similar approach. But if the film is available on DVD and on cable TV, then it's reasonable to expect that it will be available for *unauthorized* download shortly thereafter. Why not make it available for legal download and thereby capitalize on that additional potential revenue stream?
A short walk down Canal Street in Manhattan will take you past vendors of bootleg DVDs of films currently in theaters, or in some cases
not yet in theaters. But these bootlegs generally come from shaky camcorders held in theaters complete with terrible audio and video, crowd noise and shoddy "telecine" transfers (ahem... from what I've heard). Why not offer consumers a high quality legal alternative, and allow us to choose
where and when we watch our content? Either via DVDs (as Soderbergh is doing) or via secure, legal internet download.
After all,
Big Picture Big Sound readers typically have invested a considerable chunk of change into fine home theater systems that rival the performance of their local Cineplex. So why should we have to put up with the lines, excessive ticket pricing, overpriced concessions, inconsiderate or unruly fellow audience members and sometimes poor projection and sound quality? Give us the option of downloading a high quality version and we'll give you our hard-earned cash.
Hey, Hollywood, wake up and smell the money!!
Movie Downloading Services and Special Offers:
Music Download Sites and Special Offers:
