Movies OnLine?

In our story entitled ""Broadcast.com ñ A Broadband Technology Revolution,"" dated April 1, 1999, we wrote: ""Broadcast.com, the Dallas, Texas-based ëNetí broadcaster, is creating renewed confidence in the idea that the future of the Internet will be a multimedia one made possible by fast access to the home. Those believers see entertainment content as becoming just as important as information on the Web. That sense of the future is shared by Yahoo and other portals such as Excite and Go2Net which are embracing deals with cable Internet companies. Yahoo is reportedly merging with Broadcast.com. as part of the portalís preparation in the event that multimedia delivery will be here much sooner than later. Yahoo and other portals do not want to be irrelevant five years from now when broadband technologies are expected to become effective conduits for delivering full motion digital video and multichannel discrete digital surround into the home via the personal computer. Broadcast.com is one of those Internet audio and video start-ups that are succeeding as an online broadcaster. Reportedly, Yahoo will pay an estimated $5.7 billion in stock to buy Broadcast.com. The deal would add Broadcast.comís streaming media service, which allows audio and video to be broadcast over the Internet, to Yahooís popular information portal. Yahooís purchase of Broadcast.com will be one of the largest Internet deals ever and opens streaming media to a much broader audience, if not to the masses."" While there is much to be said about the potential of movies online, for the Internet to eventually take its place alongside broadcasting, cable and home video, ""streaming"" of programming to millions will require new technologies that provide far faster connections and better playback of streamed video and audio. Such technologies are cable modems, T1 phone lines, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), and exotic wireless systems based on microwave transmitters or satellite dishes. Then too, there will have to be vast advancements in video architecture and authoring support for enhanced server functionality as well as improvements to server data rates and random access. All this is a prerequisite for comparably good video and audio quality delivered via the Internet.Still, even with poor video quality on the Internet, as recently demonstrated by Broadcast.comís streaming of Warlock, one of the films in the Trimark library licensed to the Net broadcaster, the Web holds out the prospect of radical change in movie distribution. Buena Vista Home Entertainment, curiously on the same day as the street date release of Mighty Joe Young, dubuted the trailer on the Disney.com site. Then days later the Disney folks steamed to the site the actual Mighty Joe Young TV commercials. Disney sees the Web as an ideal target-marketing tool for both its theatrical and home video sectors. Other studios are bound to follow Disneyís lead, despite too little bandwidth and a masses of personal computers without the necessary capability or software to enable good video streaming. Soon every studio Web site will feature trailers of their films that can be streamed over the Internet. At Widescreen Review, we are preparing for such a revolution by providing streaming capabilities in our DVD and LaserDisc interactive databases. Stay tuned for more video innovations downstream.