Digital Cable And Direct Broadcast Satellite Pay-Per-View A Threat To Home Video
The message at the recent Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), a digital cable and pay-per-view (PPV) show, was that major Hollywood studios and cable operators are now aggressively focusing their attention on new digital cable technologies to deliver near video-on-demand PPV movies. Digital cable has advanced to the stage in which up to 30 channels of pay-per-view movies can be offered to subscribers with 15-minute to 30-minute start times. Industry observers see this aggressive move toward digital cable and direct broadcast satellite digital delivery as the successor to the home video industry with DVD positioned as the premium new movie and catalog collectorís packaged format. At the show, Encore Media Group announced the creation of a ""KICK Coalition,"" to promote commercial-free movies under the ""Virtual Video Store at Home"" moniker. The campaign is supported with a logo image of a cartoon character giving a swift kick to a videotape with the caption ""Kiss The Video Store Goodbye."" The coalition believes that digital cable is now positioned to entice VHS video consumers to spend their entertainment dollars on digital cable PPV rather than rent VHS. With digital delivery consumers will benefit with better picture and sound quality and service at less cost. In time, the content will advance to HDTV picture quality delivered through the same hardware systems. Hundreds of channels are in the formation stages and will soon be offered by system operators to cable and satellite subscribers. As well, multiplexed premium services such as Home Box Office, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Cinemax and Encore ñ all offering hundreds of movie titles per month ñ will be offered at no cost. And these premium services are all planning high-definition signal delivery. To facilitate this digital cable and satellite revolution, a new generation of digital set-top box is required. Currently the cable and satellite industries are working out the standards, and while there are examples of digital capable set-top boxes, operators are rolling out the boxes cautiously as standards have yet to be agreed upon. But there is no question that digital cable and digital direct broadcast satellite delivery of movies will be ""big."" Then too, advanced digital delivery of movies over the Internet is in development as well and is expected to also be ""big."" Each of the industries are expected to combine their resources to create their dream of a virtual video store at home, and as such, the end result is expected to create a paradigm shift in the way consumers acquire and experience movies.