Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Disney Plans Service To Beam New Movies Right Into Your Home
Disney just announced a new service to compete with Netflix and DVD rentals. Called MovieBeam, it promises to send regular and hi-def movies right into people's homes. Disney got a bump in its stock, while Blockbuster took a hit. The service includes all the major studios and just launched in 29 major cities. But so what? It's a terrible idea that will flop. People are expected to buy a $200 set-top box (which they'll presumably balance on top of their cable set-top box and the DVD player and perhaps that old VCR as well). Then they pay $30 for an installation fee and then pay $5 to watch new releases and $2 for older titles. The box comes loaded with 100 titles and Disney rotates in ten new releases a week. In short, you have an incredibly limited number of titles to choose from, you pay more than you would at Blockbuster, a LOT more than you do at Netflix and you have to buy another expensive box for the privilege of doing so. And does it somehow provide a better experience than the VOD with countless titles already available from most people's cable companies? Not in the least. MovieBeam is a joke and I have no idea why Wall Street fell for it.
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6 comments:
I hadn't heard about this but you eviscerated it pretty good. Who exactly is the audience for this thing?
What a stupid idea.
Havne't they ever heard of Video on demand? Or iPod? This is just dumb. $200 to use their service when I already can use those other things, not to mention Blockbuster and Netlfix basically for free?
Anyone willing to spend $200 on another box has lots of easier ways to rent new movies. Bsad idea.
Very stupid. I can't imagine anyone paying for this.
i used to work as a product tester for MovieBeam, and i had the same doubts coming in... but after spending a lotta time with it, i gotta say i'm sold: the interface is simple and intuitive, so much so that i imagine people with families, short on time, who literally want to push a button and throw their kids in front of a movie are the target audience... also, unlike netflix and blockbuster, the popular newest releases aren't out of stock (netflix staggers new disc rentals, and how many times have you been to blockbuster only to find the back wall cleared out by hungry vidiots?) and you can't forget the HD part -- people gotta have fodder for their newfangled HD Home Theater systems... maybe it ain't for everyone...but you gotta at least admit its a viable offering....
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