Its going to be a long time before the dust settles and I’m sure every 6-12 months the latest and greatest option will continue to change.
Right now I get new HD movies from iTunes and stream lots of old stuff from Netflix. I don’t do DVDs, I rarely watch movies and when I do it is an impulse thing. I don’t sit in front of the boob tube all day and would prefer it worked on my schedule. Streaming, on demand HD content is what I prefer. I can get with my cable (and do often).
The industry is going to make itself weaker in the near future I fear, more players and more exclusives means more accounts and they start to add up.
It will also be interesting to see how we handle all the bandwidth. I mean, most of us get our TV and internet from the same people, and if you’re streaming everything, you’re going to chew more bandwidth, and there’s going to be more inventive to charge more for the same level of internet only service.
Personally, I’d just prefer it to be consolidated and high quality, I’d pay for it. Hell, I pay $150/mo for cable (that I rarely watch) plus all the other shit like netflix, pandora and spotify.
^^ Do you buy individual items off itunes? I have seen recently they do season passes for shows so you can go on itunes, download automatically your show and watch when ever. With the new iTunes and iCloud, the ability to watch it on any device would be pretty cool too.
^ Bingo. You’re going to see a lot of people go back to torrents when this BS with exclusives really starts developing. You have all these people who went to a paid model because it was a reasonable fee and convenient. Tell them they now need paid accounts at multiple companies if they want to watch all the latest releases, and you increase those costs on each account, they’ll say fuck it and pirate.
You would think at a time when the DVR and it’s fast forward button is such a threat to the TV network’s commercial driven financial model they would be beating down Hulu’s door (or even using their own web sites) to have their shows streamed on a medium where commercial skipping isn’t allowed (or is at least a technical PITA). But no, they’re greedy assholes who think the streaming rights to something they broadcast OTA for free should generate massive revenue.
I can speak from personal experience that my torrent DLing has dropped since getting netflix. I havent had cable for years and lived off of rabbit ears and torrents. Since getting a PS3, we use netflix streaming ALL THE TIME! I never got into the DVDs. I too watch movies on an impulse. If I want to watch it, I pull it off the shelf or DL right away. Netflix is there to fill in the gaps. I watch a lot of documentaries and various TV shows. Lately it has been “The Wonder Years.”
I still use Torrents for The Office and Two and a half men. But I am not DLing like I used to.