Amazon Looking At Download To DVD Plan

from the watch-now,-put-on-shelf-later dept

Amazon has been notoriously hesitant to get into any business that involves offering downloadable products. However, apparently, they're now looking at more creative ways to use digital downloads to encourage more DVD purchases, recognizing that the download adds value. It's not entirely clear what form it will take, but one method may be that you pay a small amount to download some content, and if you then buy the DVD, that amount gets credited. Another, more likely, approach would be that when you buy a DVD, you automatically get access to watch the movie streaming over your computer. It's unclear how locked down this will be, or for how long you'd have access to the streaming version. What would be nice is if Amazon acted as a backup locker for the content you bought, but somehow that seems unlikely. Of course, they're trying to come up with ways to do this with Hollywood's approval, which should get around some of the problems that some music dot coms had years ago when they tried to do similar things without the recording industry's approval. Though, since Hollywood's approval probably means the content will be locked down to a ridiculous level, it may make the service a lot less interesting to many people.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Jan 2006 @ 11:50am

    No Subject Given

    and ppl can't just download the DVD file to their comp. and burn 1 (ONE) copy to a DVD using DRM as an option other than having it shipped?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 27 Jan 2006 @ 12:35pm

      Re: No Subject Given

      Why would you want to? If we do that, we're removing the _one_ good thing about actually buying DVDs, the packaging.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        ccc, 27 Jan 2006 @ 8:22pm

        Re: No Subject Given

        They'll never get hollywood's approval, because as far as the MPAA is concerned, if you get a DVD and a download that's two things you should be paying for, not one.

        link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.