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Disney to Make Movies Available Online
musiholic writes "Disney has cut a deal with Movielink to make various Disney (and Disney subsidary) films available for 30-day paid downloads. Users can watch the film an unlimited amount of times before the movie expires. The movies requre Real Player or WMP."
Ah, a new hell for us parents:
"IS THE DOWNLOAD DONE YET?"
"No, 63% to go."
"IS THE DOWNLOAD DONE YET?"
"No, 62% to go."
"IS THE DOWNLOAD DONE YET?"
"No, 61% to go."
"IS THE DOWNLOAD DONE YET?"
"sigh"
I'm much funnier now that I'm a subscriber.
Now if only the RIAA could follow this lead. I don't seen anyone hating disney - oh wait, they're not suing the youth of America.
find / -name "*.sig" | xargs rm
Should be fun, but I don't think the disney rental world is the best for downloaded time stamped movies. I know as a parent, the KID movies are the ones you end up BUYING, as they are most likely to be watched over and over and over again for the next several years... and disney is the most common of that genre. Though if it's not TOO expensive I would probably try it... and if they tied it into a discount if you purchase the DVD... hmmmmmm
wordtrip.com
This is closer to renting a movie than anything else, aside from the 30-day storage option. From the story: 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.
Another article is more detailed: The movie files can be viewed on a PC or on a television connected to a computer, but customers have a maximum of 30 days to begin watching their downloaded movie. Once they begin to do so, the movie can be viewed only over the next 24 hours."IS THE DOWNLOAD DONE YET?"
"No, 1% to go."
"IS THE DOWNLOAD DONE YET?"
"Yes! You can watch Monsters Inc 2 now!"
"I DON'T WANT MONSTERS INC ANYMORE I WANNA PLAY PLAYSTATION"
*twitches, vein in forehead pops*
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
While I may have a misunderstanding of Disney's market, I am under the impression that they primarily sell family entertainment, esp. movies for children.
Now, children's entertainment is a special category, in that kids watch movies OVER and OVER and OVER again - more often on VHS format than DVD, due to the relative durability of the former (though this may be changing). because of this, families tend to BUY disney movies (vs. renting); if they rent, it's to check something out before buying it.
Now what aspect of the above market does Disney hope to satisfy with downloadable movies?
- these movies will have to be accessed on the computer (not as easy as VCR/VHS, let alone half as childproof)
- these movies expires after 30 days
(not as permanent - and kids will obsess over their shows for far longer than 30 days...)
- the cost is $3-$5 dollars per download (cheaper than rental for the amount of time, but even considering an optimistic 1-hour download time, it's still going to be faster to drive to the store and back (for most US citizens) than to download - and (I believe) that there's still not much coverage for broadband in most rural areas...
d) Also, for those who don't mind waiting (or lack broadband), Netflix (and its competitors) offer a similarly-priced, keep-as-long-as-you-feel rental system.
Now I realize that Disney is not just a kids' movie company, but I still don't see how this system makes much sense.
OTOH, I am pleasantly surprised to see (even this much) innovation from a company with such a draconian distribution history.