Last Updated on: 19th September 2013, 09:35 am
God, what a stupid idea this is, and I’m not just saying that because I personally don’t watch a lot of movies.
According toreports,Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., and Disney are considering launching a service that would give customers the privilege of watching their films on set-top boxes before they come out on DVD or Blue-ray, and even before they hit the other on demand services. Doesn’t sound half bad, I hear you saying. What would this set me back? The answer is $30…per movie! $30 Per movie, and you only get to watch it once! What’s that? Doesn’t sound so good anymore? Yeah, didn’t think so.
The same people who come up with ideas like this are the same ones who are sitting back scratching their heads and wondering why people have this pesky tendency to pirate content. I’d never claim to have all the answers to that question, but I do know that value for money has a little something to do with it, and on that front, this is going to do just about everything but help.
You would have to be a complete idiot to try this out for any reason, even if covering stuff like this falls into your job description. It’s one of those things you don’t even have to test out to know that it’s a patently stupid idea. It costs more than actually going to the movies, for crying out loud! And if the hook is getting to watch a movie through the box you already own, you can already do that for a flat monthly fee by subscribing to an on demand service that let’s you watch gazillions of the things or by paying around $6 to see it on pay-per-view.
I realize that Hollywood executives think we’re stupid (just look what they’re passing off as entertainment), but this is a whole new level of disrespect. Even if the service never rolls out, just the mere fact that somebody was able to think up and present this cunning plan with a straight face is disrespect enough, and enough to make me never want to put another dime into the film industry for as long as I live.