There's a fascinating article in this week's TIME magazine on the impact of NETFLIX on DVD buyer's habits and on popular culture in general. It is
written by TIME movie critic Richard Corliss who laments the passing of Kim's Video in Manhattan while noting that DVD sales hae dropped sharping in the
first half of 2009. At the same time NETFLIX rentals have surged. People may be going out to movies theatrically more but they are buying less DVD's and
renting more. He speculates that we are possibly at the end of the DVD era and heading to the Streaming Video era, where movies will be delivered on the
Internet and TV through cable providers and Intenet hookups.
I tend to think he has a point. DVD's will be around for some time but people have less disposable income in the wake of the economic downturn and would rather rent or download content. I can't blame them. We've seen the end of the VHS/Mom and Pop Video store era (and I really miss those venues), the coming and going of Laserdiscs. I'm buying fewer DVD's, but I still don't plan to get into Streaming video or increase my mainstream moviegoing.
But I do wonder what the DVD landscape will look like, say, five years from now.
I tend to think he has a point. DVD's will be around for some time but people have less disposable income in the wake of the economic downturn and would rather rent or download content. I can't blame them. We've seen the end of the VHS/Mom and Pop Video store era (and I really miss those venues), the coming and going of Laserdiscs. I'm buying fewer DVD's, but I still don't plan to get into Streaming video or increase my mainstream moviegoing.
But I do wonder what the DVD landscape will look like, say, five years from now.
