Today, if you wanted to rent a movie, you have plenty of options. If you want the actual DVD, you can get it instantly at Blockbuster and RedBox, or you can have it mailed to you from Netflix. You can also rent it over the Internet from iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu Plus or rent it through your cable provider such as DirecTV and Comcast. Now YouTube may enter the field by offering online rentals for $5 each, however this might just be too little, too late.
Movies and television shows are currently as cheap as $1 per day through RedBox, $1.99 on iTunes and at BlockBuster, $3 on Amazon, $10 per month on Hulu Plus, and $9 per month on Netflix. YouTube’s price of $5 could be too high, and so far it doesn’t offer any advantages over the other options. However, Blockbuster is already on its way out of the business. Already declared bankrupt, the task of having to drive to a store cannot compete with instant gratification through the other companies for much longer.
Although DirecTV does offer movies starting at $4.99, the same price as YouTube, it offers a more convenient viewing experience as it plays the movie directly onto your TV instead of onto your computer. This concept of downloading movies directly to your TV has been very popular. It is much more desirable to watch what you want on your big screen as opposed to watching it on your computer. Apple just announced its new Apple TV on September 2nd, which makes it more convenient for viewers to stream movies and TV shows directly to their television for the prices of $4.99 for an HD movie, and 99 cents for a TV show from ABC and Fox. Netflix can also do the same for its monthly rate through disks that you can put into your Xbox, Wii, Playstation, BluRay Player, or streaming station.
It’s not incredibly difficult to connect a computer to a TV so that these YouTube videos can be watched on the big screens, but it is a hassle compared to the other competitors. Google is certainly innovative enough to come up with its own solution for getting movies from the computer to the TV, but until then it would not be smart for them to enter the business. Granted it might have some success because it will offer instant movies, it will not appeal to a broad enough spectrum of customers to make the big bucks that Google is used to. Google consistently wow’s the market with its fresh and inventive technology, such as Google Instant, the new search engine that practically reads your mind. Frankly, if YouTube went ahead with this pay-per-view plan, it would be seen as a follower, instead of the leader that it is.
http://theweek.com/article/index/206673/how-would-a-pay-per-view-youtube-stack-up
No comments:
Post a Comment