Walmart says Uncle to Netflix

Hacking NetFlix : NY Times Wrong About Walmart & Netflix

Walmart throws in the towel on DVD rentals by mail and concedes to pioneer Netflix. This article claims that Walmart has done this because they make more money on DVD sales rather than rentals (with warehouses to maintain, packaging costs, and postage, they are probably very right). To me, this signals that physical media is coming to an end soon. Not tomorrow soon, but soon indeed. If Walmart exits a business because it doesn't make enough money, then you know it's a dead end (they aren't the largest company on the earth for no reason).

Do you remember the Qwest commercial where a guy walks into a shabby looking motel lobby, books a room, and asks about movies? The girl behind the counter said, "Yeah, we have every movie ever made." It's coming. The way I see this going down is the movie studios eventually killing companies with their arcane policies not to open their entire catalogs to online delivery. If Netflix, Apple, or another company or combination of companies don't get the movie studios to pry open the online distribution rights, then DVD rentals by mail will eventually whither (evidenced by Walmart fleeing the scene rapidly). What these goons don't realize is that their movies are already being pirated on the Internet...Star Wars III was released on the Internet before the first showing any where in the world. They have to realize that pandora's box has been opened and the only thing left to do is scrape the distribution model down to it's very bone to eek out whatever profits they can get. For one thing...there should be an "online DVD" format with DVD-like menus but presented completely online (no disc required). While the user navigates the online DVD menu, making language, sound, and chapter choices, the movie would begin downloading in the background. Making the experience extremely DVD-like, but not requiring any physical medium (aside from a hard drive for buffering). Could you imagine the great boon for the environment as well? No more shrink wrap to throw away when you buy a DVD, no more gas wasted on shipping a DVD manufactured in a near by town to a warehouse 500 miles away only to be shipped back to your house when you order it, no more warehouses eating up energy, no more media cases filling up your home and making it cluttered (therefore requiring more room in your house and therefore requiring you to buy larger houses with greater energy costs to heat and cool the house), etc. etc. Don't even get me started on the dawning of the efficient home...less space usage, multi-use rooms, thin devices that take up less space, etc. I'm no Democrat, but I do enjoy breathing clean air, drinking clean water, and try to pollute less than the average joe.

Anyway, I'm not going to hold my breath for Hollywood to realize the writing on the wall, but online distribution of all media will occur sooner or later. Entertainment for all and all for entertainment.