3 Reasons Digital Video Won’t Get Cheaper
By all accounts, video downloads should be cheaper than purchasing physical goods. There’s nothing to build, package, ship or shelve. But like with so many things, the man wants to kill the online video fun before it even gets started. As we speak, big government, big companies and big Hollywood are conspiring to make you pay more for that digital movie — via these three methods:
Taxation
Digital goods have up until now enjoyed a tax-free existence, but all that could change. There are 17 states (plus D.C.) that tax digital downloads, according to CNET. And while companies without a physical presence in certain states may not be currently forced to collect those taxes, bills were introduced in the House and Senate to try and make them start. With a widespread economic slump, the growth of digital goods like movies could prove to be too juicy a target to pass up.
Metered Broadband
Our colleagues over GigaOM have been all over this issue. In an effort to squeeze even more dollars from your wallet (in the name of network management), ISPs like Comcast and Time Warner are experimenting with so-called metered access, meaning you have a bandwidth cap. Go over that cap and you pay more. Downloading video (especially HD video) is a really fast way to go over that limit, and jack up the price for that movie rental.
DVDs
This one isn’t a maybe; it’s already happening. Sales of DVDs are flattening for the studios, and they are loath to let digital downloads completely undercut the prices of those shiny little discs. Variety reported last year that Apple wanted to cut the price of TV shows for sale on iTunes to just 99 cents, but Hollywood scoffed at the idea. Case in point: The movie 21 costs $15.99 to buy the DVD on Amazon and $14.99 to buy the download through iTunes.
With so many people looking to charge me more for my digital movies and TV, maybe I’d be better off just Sweding my own versions.
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nope. you got it wrong. No one is protecting DVD, or pushing to Blu Ray. Smart media companies realize that the money isnt on the net for downloads, its from VOD.
internet downloads are a nice complimentary business. VOD is the real deal.
Compare the number of people who have digital cable and satelite and the cost to watch a movie and margins on those movies to those who have broadband and their computers connected in some way to their TVs. There are far more VOD enabled TVs than internet enabled TVs
and remember those things called DVRs. They work a whole lot better in storing movies and tv shows for playback than the internet
but your taxation point was definitely interesting
m