Download Movies vs Renting Movie - Case Study Example

Renting a movie has long been a common way for families or couples to spend time on their weekends. A trip to the video store on a Friday night is a tradition for many people, even if it is sometimes inconvenient. This trend might be coming to an end, however, as more and more people are beginning to download movies from the internet. These downloads come in two forms, legal and illegal. Legal downloads allow for the person to avoid the line-ups at the video store and to choose what to watch from the comfort of his or her own home. This, however, has disadvantages, as a significant amount of time must be factored in so that the movie has enough time to download. Illegal downloads are completely free, but they bring a great deal of trouble with them, in the form of potential legal problems and viruses. Stores like Blockbuster need to take notice of this growing trend, but they are not in any danger of being replaced immediately by downloadable movies. The advantages of downloadable movies start with the convenience factor. Today's world is very fast-paced, leaving very little time to do things like go to the video store. The video store is also a very crowded place on weekends. This leads to a great deal of hassle for anyone who is attempting to rent a movie, as there are constant line-ups and there is no guarantee that the movie that the customer wants will be in stock. This can lead to a wasted trip to the video store or the customer travelling around to various video stores in an attempt to find the desired movie. Downloadable movies take this hassle away from the equation, as they allow for the customer to download any movie at any time. Another key feature of downloading movies is that it gives the customer the option to buy it later on. For example, if a customer chooses to rent a movie, he or she can pay an additional fee to have the movie unlocked permanently, as the original version that is downloaded will have a time limit. This can all be done by home, so it eliminates the problem of returning to the video store in order to find the movie again and buy it. This convenience is one of the factors that downloadable movie companies rely on, since people enjoy finding the easiest way to do things. The price is also a selling feature of downloadable movies, as "some movies will only be available as purchases and others as rentals, depending on what the distribution gods of Hollywood have deemed allowable. Most purchase movies we saw went for $9.99, but some were as high as $19.99; rentals were mostly $2.99 or $3.99" (ExtremeTech, 2006). Another advantage of this system is that the customer can set a movie to download before he or she leaves for work and it will be finished by the time he or she gets home from work. This is important because the movie will, in essence, be waiting for him or she after work. This type of convenience is very important because after a long and hard day of work, a person can simply return home and relax while watching the movie of his or her choice. Finally, late fees are something that every movie renter hates, as "Netflix exists thanks to the one thing about Blockbuster that many people hate: late fees. You rent a movie, you forget to take it back on time, and Blockbuster adds fines until you return it. Rack up big late fees, and you feel mad and stupid for not avoiding the avoidable. Late fees generate a big chunk of Blockbuster's revenue while giving its customers all the warm and fuzzy feelings of a parking ticket" (Maney, 2004). With this system, there is never the threat of any late fees, since movies are infused with a time limit when they are rented. Once this time limit runs out, the movie will no longer work, so there is no return necessary. This eliminates a hassle for both the customer and the business, as late returns are costly for both. As with anything, however, there are disadvantages with this system. The first disadvantage is the amount of time these movies take to download, as "online movies have a long way to go before they're as easy-to-use as downloadable music. Even compressed movie files can be a hundred times larger than an individual song, and Wal-Mart says a full-length movie may take as long as an hour and a half to download even over a high-speed connection" (Freed, 2007). Even with a high-speed internet connection, the amount of time that is needed to completely download a movie is very significant. This means that the movie cannot be viewed instantaneously, but must rather be planned ahead. Therefore, spontaneous viewing of movies cannot be done when downloading. While some websites have features that allows for the viewer to begin watching the film while it is downloading, this can lead to many problems, as computer download speeds are often inconsistent. Therefore, when a movie is being viewed, it will often cut out if it is being downloaded while it is being viewed. This is a major inconvenience because the movie cannot be viewed as it is meant. Another major problem is how the movies must be viewed. Since the companies that are selling and renting these movies wish to make money, they make it very difficult for the customer to reproduce the movies. This means that provisions are made to the movie in order to ensure that the movie cannot be burned onto a disk. What this means is that the movie must be watched on the computer screen, unless the computer is hooked up to a television. While many people now spend much more time on their computers than watching television, the computer is hardly the ideal viewing environment for watching movies. Currently, consoles like the XBOX 360 allow for people to download movies and watch it on their computer screens, but these consoles are expensive and, therefore, are not found in the majority of houses. Another disadvantage is that while "CinemaNow lets you burn copies of some movies to DVDs, too, but because the software saves the movies in Windows Media format, you can't watch them on a standard DVD player" (Cassavoy, 2007). This means that the movie can be burned, but it is only available to watch on the computer screen. This takes away the chance of an individual filling up his or her hard drive with too many movies, but does not account for a person wishing to watch the movie on a regular television. In addition, "the rules are complicated; some movies you can own, while others must be 'rented' and played within 24 hours" (Pogue, 2006). Companies like Blockbuster are watching this situation closely, as it could conceivably hinder its business in the future. Blockbuster has been aware of thing growing trend in recent years, as it bought filmcaddy.com, which is a company that specializes in internet rentals through the mail. This is slightly different from downloading movies, but it shows that Blockbuster has recognized that people might not want to utilize video stores as they once did and, therefore, it is doing everything possible to ensure that it does not lose too much of it business. The final part of this equation is the illegal download industry, which is quickly becoming the most popular manner for people to acquire movies. An individual can spend a few hours downloading a movie for free and then burn it onto a DVD and watch it on his or her television. This is becoming more and more common, so it is something that must be looked at by the industry. The advantages of this are that it allows for any movie to be downloaded at any time for no cost and the hardware with which to do so is becoming relatively cheap as well. The disadvantages, however, are also significant. Firstly, this practice is illegal and could even result in jail time under the right circumstances. This risk really is not worth it just for a free movie to watch. Also, the download speeds on file sharing software vary considerably, making it very difficult to know when the download will be completed. This means that the person will never know when he or she will finally be able to view the movie, which is a huge inconvenience. In addition, there is no way to know if the movie that the individual is attempting to download is in fact that movie. Often times, viruses and other malware will be disguised as a movie and as soon as the individual attempts to view the movie, the computer becomes infected. Therefore, this type of movie viewing is not recommended for the viewer or for the movies companies. Downloadable movies are becoming increasingly popular, but they have not yet succeeded in taking over for video stores. This is because is takes a considerable amount of planning in order to download a movie, while an individual can stop at a movie store on the way home from work, regardless of how inconvenient it is. Movie stores are engrained into our society to the point where it will take something significant to remove them and while that thing could be Video on Demand, downloading movies onto a computer will not immediately do this because download speeds are still too slow to make spontaneity possible. Works Cited Cassavoy, Liane. (2007). "Will Your PC Kill the Video Store'". PC World. Viewed 22 May 2007. http://pcworld.about.com/news/Mar102004id115160.htm'terms=online+movie+rental ExtremeTech. (2006). "Which Movie Download Site Is Best'". Viewed 22 May 2007. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2078465,00.asp Freed, Joshua. (7 April 2007). "Retailers Explore Movie Download Options". Yahoo! Finance. Viewed 22 May 2007. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070407/online_movies.html'.v=8 Maney, Kevin. (16 June 2004). "Netflix plans blockbuster future of serving movie watchers". USAToday.com. Viewed 22 May 2007. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kevinmaney/2004-06-15-maney_x.htm Pogue, David. (14 September 2006). "Review: Apple's refinements postpone a revolution". The New York Times. Viewed 22 May 2007. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/14/business/pogue.php Read More