Monday, June 2, 2008

Still a Way to Go Until DVD's Demise

Link to NewsBlog post, "Netflix is dead if it listens to Wall Street".

Quote: But that's not going to happen overnight. [Customers switching from receiving DVDs through the mail to getting "content" via the Web.]

What [Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael] Pachter doesn't seem to get is that the online distribution of movies is coming whether investors like it or not. [Netflix CEO Reed] Hastings said last week that he expects his DVD revenue to peak within five years. [My emphasis.] Perhaps the best proof that the move-rental business is on the threshold of dramatic change is the set-top box introduced two weeks ago by none other than Netflix.

In this scenario, public libraries are likely to keep DVDs in their collections at least until my 70th birthday. (And maybe by then I'll have watched all 3 discs -- 1003 minutes -- of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season 1 set that I purchased a few years ago.)

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