Lasse Penttinen
4 Nov 2002 12:27
The major Hollywood movie studios are finally getting serious about delivering movies over the Internet, but their performances still could end up on the cutting-room floor.Read more about movies online
Movielink--a joint venture among MGM, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal and Warner Bros.--last week announced technology partnerships with Microsoft and RealNetworks to help power its movie-rental service on the Net, set to launch by December. The deals represent crucial final edits to a venture long overdue, and they lend credence to promises that the movie studios will open film vaults to widespread Internet distribution.
By offering a legal service, Movielink could also thwart online piracy of movies and help Hollywood evade "Napsterization"--that is, tumult like that which file-swapping site Napster let loose in the music business.
Definitely positive about this is that the movie industry seems to have learned something from the struggles in the music industry. Interesting though is that movie industry is avoiding napsterization even though swapping movies has been the next big thing for quite some time. Well, not in the extent of Napster, but that is due to bandwith limitations more than anything else.
This quick developement of streamable video makes me wonder that where do we actually need DigiTV for? The bandwith available to home users is increasing so rapidly that we will very likely be able to stream high bitrate movies before the DigiTV actually gains ground.
News.com