Don't Underestimate Bollywood's Cyber Acceptance

from the creating-new-means-of-distribution dept

While the world mostly ignored or played down the announcement that a company called Cinema On Web (COW) was going to be using DivX video-on-demand service to broadcast all sorts of Bollywood-based entertainment online for a fee, some think it's worth taking note. Michael S. Malone is saying that while many westerners may not care so much for the content coming out of Bollywood, the fact that someone is really trying to embrace an online distribution model for movies is a good sign. He notes that the system won't involve a single price across all content, but will let the content owners set a price. His basic argument is that advances like this come from unexpected places, and if Bollywood finds success in this distribution method, Hollywood may end up losing out. Of course, if it does catch on in a serious way, it's hard to understand why Hollywood couldn't just jump in as well. It still seems like the much more interesting trend is to watch how efficient the underground unauthorized file distribution systems are working. That, more than simply copying the "download store" model, seems to hold a lot more promise for the future of movie distribution -- but it's unlikely that very many studios will be open minded enough to see how they can benefit from such a network.