Comcast’s service may work just fine, but you’re assuming that people already have the cable TV package. While that’s true for most people these days, as broadband speeds (gradually) increase, the rationale for keeping cable TV gets weaker.

Also, as others have pointed out, VOD and video purchases are likely more complimentary than in competition with each other. The ability to take a downloaded movie and pop it in my iPod makes it quite valuable to time/place-shifters who don’t like being tethered to the TV. But when you are sitting in front of the TV and have a spur of the moment need see Ben Stiller, VOD may be the way to go.

Check this out Microsoft Surface. A few weeks back I wrote about a research team who were doing some stunning things with touch screens, producing some really intuitive user interfaces. Microsoft seem to be pursuing something similar with their Surface…

I’m not sold on the AppleTV concept at this point. It seems too limited and too time consuming. Also, the whole portable video scene doesn’t interest me, whether on an iPod, iPhone…

As the Cable-on-demand vs. iTune video downloads, essentially pay content on demand. It really is just a matter of time now before some company or other offers entire catalogs of movies / shows etc. for one low monthly fee. At which point, everything is on demand and would no doubt be streamed to my set-top box from whichever service provider I choose to use.

I think as the cable companies move closer and closer to the state at which they are providing unlimited bandwidth to the home, it will become a market for content providers vs. carriage. This is a similar revolution as is currently taking place in the telephony world today with the VOIP vs. wire services.

Comcast OnDemand, as you describe it, is the perfect solution for renting movies. If you see a movie and never want to watch it again, it’s ideal.

Apple’s approach requires that you download the movie before seeing it (or playback will be poor), and then you get to keep it.

These seem to me to be complimentary approaches; sometimes you will want to own something, and other times you’ll want to rent. Comcast is the cheapest and easiest way to rent, because you don’t need to download the movie; it comes up in full speed and real time.

Of course you could always TIVO your ComCast OnDemand movie and record it that way – although illegal, that sounds like something plenty of people will do in practice, and then it’s the best of both worlds.

That may be the real threat to iTunes.

D