The real issue here is whether or not there's going to be a paradigm shift or real channel shift (to video players).
But the idea is sound: leveraging the power of broadband to showcase what it does best -- video,
Here, you have a great example of two sister operations with mutual needs being satisfied by the other,
I think they've set the whole D.R.M. thing back at least a year or two.
Overall, it's important to stress on the revenue side that sales are up. It's not about Amazon not being able to increase its top line growth.
Microsoft was already far behind regardless of whether this deal would have been sealed or not.
While the larger footprint and revenue-generating units provide a great base for delivering video services, there is one catch: deployment. Mounting any kind of reliable -- and desirable -- video service is harder than press releases make it seem.
At this point in time, I see direct-to-consumer digital downloads of DVD titles as being a nice, incremental market for studios. It will not be a wholesale substitution of the retail channel.
There's only so much programming that the U.S. public will pay for at any given point of time.
The Web will become a testing ground for older library content. Older content is desirable because you don't have to build up marketing for it. It's still part of the cultural zeitgeist.
This is about Motorola being able to compete in the European market.
This is about Amazon trying to control the cost side of the equation and also trying to control the cost side in a market that is getting increasingly crowded.
It's pretty small compared to, say, DVD player penetration.
The big deal is the fact that the heads of the media companies are beginning to think creatively about how can we sell our content directly to consumers but without antagonizing our current distribution arrangement.
The big deal is the fact that the heads of the media companies ... are beginning to think creatively about how can we sell our content directly to consumers but without antagonizing our current distribution arrangement.
The big challenge they face, which would be the same for any video distribution channel, is that there's more and more options for receiving video in the home.
That is not insignificant. But it isn't enough to dislodge traditional video services such as home video rentals, box office and traditional TV watching, because you only have 25 percent of the American TV households capable of doing it.
It's cheaper for Hollywood to deliver videos digitally than ship DVDs.