British Telecom (BT) has signed a deal with Universal Pictures that would allow broadband users in the UK to purchase DVDs online and gain immediate access to a downloadable version which they can keep. The DVDs cost up to £16.99 and the consumer is entitled to two digital copies of the downloaded title.
At this time, BT's download service is only available with DVD purchases, however they expect to launch a rental based service in Autumn under the name BT Vision, where consumers can rent TV shows and movies as downloads. The service will work using a Philips set-top box which connects using the consumer's broadband connection and the service will be open to anyone with a broadband connection, regardless of which broadband provider they may use.
BT is not the first to offer a movie download service as Sky Digital, Wippit and Lovefilm already have movie download services on the UK market, although these services already offer pay-per-view in which the download expires after a certain period of time. Thanks to GristyMcFisty for letting us know about this news:
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The deal is similar to deals Universal already has in place with DVD rental company Lovefilm and UK website Wippit. Fans will pay up to £16.99 for a DVD of their chosen film, plus two digital copies to keep indefinitely. Inside Man, King Kong, American Dreamz and Jarhead are among the titles that will be available from 31 July. |
At first, it looks like it would be nice to get a digital download of a movie to play while waiting on the DVD to arrive in the mail, however there is a drawback in that not many people watch the same movie twice in succession. However for those who don't mind as much about quality of the download and just want the DVD for later playback, this service would be very useful.
In my opinion, this type of service would be better suited towards online CD purchases where consumers can download digital versions of CDs they purchase to transfer to their handheld straight away and get the original CDs in the mail. Apparently the former MP3.com use to offer a similar service where consumers could stream MP3 versions of CDs they purchase online until they ran into legal issues with the music industry.
Source: BBC News - Entertainment
