It depends on the medium, but for TV shows and movies, the market is a mess. It’s all streaming services, you have to pay multiple vendors to have access to everything etc. I’ve low key stopped watching movies because the whole thing is an expensive mess. It’s no wonder people prefer piracy.
I wonder how difficult it would be for a vendor to be like Steam. Buy a movie once, add it to the library, watch it whenever. Afaik Youtube does that but I haven’t tried it yet and I’m not sure if it’s worth it.
That’s pretty much how Amazon instant video works.
You can rent or buy it digitally. Some can’t be rented, some can ONLY be rented.
The problem isn’t the “last mile” vendor, it’s with how the entire movie and music industry is set up.
I’ve never heard of game producers telling Steam that they must invalidate all existing licenses, and Steam at this point, has enough market share that if that were to happen, they’d push back hard
But TV and movies go back much farther than the Internet, and rebroadcast licenses are not permanent, unlike your typical digital game license.
Digital TV and movies use the existing rebroadcast license structure, which means those license fees can change for existing media, and if the broadcasting agency, like cable/satellite providers or streaming services refuse to either absorb those fees or pass them on their own customers, then those providers lose access to movies and shows they have had access to.
Ever see those commercials run by broadcast channels saying “Your cable company is dropping us! Call them and complain!” ? It’s those media conglomerates using you to force your providers to pay higher fees, which then means you will soon, too.
And when those cable/satellite/streaming fees go up, who gets the blame? Not the media conglomerates.
It depends on the medium, but for TV shows and movies, the market is a mess. It’s all streaming services, you have to pay multiple vendors to have access to everything etc. I’ve low key stopped watching movies because the whole thing is an expensive mess. It’s no wonder people prefer piracy.
I wonder how difficult it would be for a vendor to be like Steam. Buy a movie once, add it to the library, watch it whenever. Afaik Youtube does that but I haven’t tried it yet and I’m not sure if it’s worth it.
That’s pretty much how Amazon instant video works.
You can rent or buy it digitally. Some can’t be rented, some can ONLY be rented.
The problem isn’t the “last mile” vendor, it’s with how the entire movie and music industry is set up.
I’ve never heard of game producers telling Steam that they must invalidate all existing licenses, and Steam at this point, has enough market share that if that were to happen, they’d push back hard
But TV and movies go back much farther than the Internet, and rebroadcast licenses are not permanent, unlike your typical digital game license.
Digital TV and movies use the existing rebroadcast license structure, which means those license fees can change for existing media, and if the broadcasting agency, like cable/satellite providers or streaming services refuse to either absorb those fees or pass them on their own customers, then those providers lose access to movies and shows they have had access to.
Ever see those commercials run by broadcast channels saying “Your cable company is dropping us! Call them and complain!” ? It’s those media conglomerates using you to force your providers to pay higher fees, which then means you will soon, too.
And when those cable/satellite/streaming fees go up, who gets the blame? Not the media conglomerates.