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MillimeterDownload This
Apr 1, 2006 12:06 PM, By Cynthia Wisehart
It had to be Brokeback Mountain. The movie that mainstreamed gay cowboy love ushers in the era of Hollywood movie downloads … sort of. Just as Hollywood toe-dipped into Anne Proulx's themes of love and prejudice, it has toe-dipped into the future of digital media.
Don't blame technology for the tentative start. Lots of things are possible but not — as the business folks say — doable. In fact, digital technology is standing far down the road, watering the horses under a shade tree, waiting for economics to catch up.
But just as digital cinema had to wait for things like Jack Klein's innovative Access IT idea to give it a goose, the networked digital marketplace of content won't be a reality without some very clever business thinking and, in the meantime, toe-dipping.
I thought it was ironic that in the Los Angeles Times the headlines on Movielink and CinemaNow shared the front page of the business section with an even bigger headline on how Starbucks' is getting into movie promotion, a follow-on from the company's successful music marketing venture.
To me, it's all part of the gradual untangling and renegotiating of entitlement, power, economics, and culture that is driven by, but more important than, technology. While the old business models still have life in them (the Los Angeles Times reports that DVDs account for more than double box office receipts and HD-DVD still needs to have its turn), the seeds of something much more interesting must at least be started. How else will I ever have my whole-house media server playing my downloaded (and maybe even remixed) content to the OLED TVs I will one day be able to afford? (I don't want to watch anything on my cell phone, since I don't need to spend any more time in its service than I already do).
There's another selfish reason for wanting to see things change — and change fast. We in journalism are having to change everything we thought we knew, and it's really fun. You all should have to do the same (again).
In that sprit, please check out our NABlog at blog.digitalcontentproducer.com/nab and download our podcasts from the show. They will not play on your television, but they will play on your PC.
