• dailyachesandpains said on Feb 06, 2007....

  Ed,
  I can't get that link, it's broken!
  Daily

• BombShell said on Feb 06, 2007....

  I think it's pretty smart.  I don't think the movie service will compete with apple.  I think Netflix is more of a contender.  That's a good idea to test their technology with music first.  In that case, they would be competing with apple.  If they could underprice iTunes and had the capacity to handle the traffic, they would make billions.
   
  On a related note, did you also know that Wal Mart is going to start selling electricity too?  Where else can you go and get groceries, toys, home decor, garden flowers, an oil change, a manicure, lunch, a bank account, fill your gas tank, and have your taxes done all in one place?

• lioneljay said on Feb 06, 2007....

  WalMart already does sell music by the download. See this page, which has been up for at least a year or two. My guess is that they have a very good idea how well their servers will stand up to an increased demand on bandwidth.

• silverwhisper said on Feb 06, 2007....

  daily: should be fixed now--but thanks!
  
  bombshell: ah...i didn't realize what LJ just pointed out. and i had no idea they sell electricity, too...i would think that's a legal nightmare for them, as that makes them a utility, too, and utilities are highly regulated.
  
  LJ: ah. in that case, i suppose they would, at that.
  
  ed

• lioneljay said on Feb 06, 2007....

  Does anyone else get the idea that WalMart would like to establish a monopoly on all retail sales in America?

• silverwhisper said on Feb 06, 2007....

  considering they don't restrict their range of offerings in any meaningful way whatsoever while ruthlessly eliminating competition? no, whatever would make you say such a thing?
  
  ed

• BombShell said on Feb 06, 2007....

  Lionel, I don't think they intend to monopolize.  Seriously, I don't think National Tire and Battery is threatened by Wal Mart's auto service.  And Lenscrafters isn't going out of business because people can only get glasses at Wal Mart.  They're just diversifying their portfolio of services.  LOL.  It's pretty smart to have your hands in a little bit of everything. 

• silverwhisper said on Feb 06, 2007....

  i dunno, bombshell--when wal-mart goes after something, they don't screw around about it.
  
  ed

• Col_Mustard said on Feb 07, 2007....

  We live in interesting times. I don't doubt that there will be contenders for the download market. I shall be curious to see what level of service the new providers give.
   
  What really intrigues me is the distribution issue.
   
  Controlling the distribution of the product allows the providers maximum potential revenue. The movie makers have known this for decades. There's an old noir - Dashiell Hammett, I think, but I'd have to look it up - where the main character (the Continental Op? can't remember) is talking with a big movie mogul. The conversation turns to the movies and how to make a million in the pictures biz. The mogul says (and I'm paraphrasing like mad): 'You want to know how to make a million from a movie? You own ten thousand movie theatres.'
   
  The thing is, the net allows anyone to distribute, provided they have the set-up to manage it. Moreover the net also makes managing the set-up easier and easier. We've seen the same thing with publishing. All of a sudden everyone's his own editor, bringing out all kinds of self-published works at a very professional level for a relatively small investment of time and capital. I don't doubt that exactly the same thing will happen with movie distribution.
   
  Which will mean, in the longer term, that anyone can get into the game. In ten years time, I may be able to download direct from Germany, or Japan, or Dubai. I might be able to get Bollywood direct from India, or Nollywood direct from Nigeria. 
   
  Wal-mart's just the tip of the iceberg. Monopolies should be the least of our concerns. The bigger picture is that, very soon, we'll be exchanging data with the larger world in a way that, until this point, hasn't been available to the majority of the world's citizens.
   
  It's all about to get very interesting.

• BombShell said on Feb 07, 2007....

  That's a great perspective, CM!  I hadn't even thought of that.  Daggumit, I need to put more $$ into my Wal Mart stock.

• dailyachesandpains said on Feb 07, 2007....

  Thanks, Ed.

  I just forwarded this to my friend in Iraq.  The day I tried to read your post, he asked if I know where he/they can watch TV for free.  They want network shows like CSI.  I pointed him to CBS.com where you can watch the most recent episode.  I had also asked him if there were any movies he wanted me to pick up for him. 

  He has no idea what movies are out, what's good, what's not.  He doesn't have enough time when he gets on the computer to look up stuff like that.  So, if WalMart were to do this, he could easily browse, download, and stop and start it as he wished. I would imagine it would be cheaper??  I read the articles where it said that their prices would be competitive. 

  Daily

• Col_Mustard said on Feb 08, 2007....

  Cheers, Bombshell.
   
  It reminds me of when video first came out, actually. There were two movie theatres at home, back then, and both of them ran at pretty slim margins. Video broke them, and the theatres shut. They've reopened since, mind you, but for about ten years the only way you could see a movie was by renting it.
   
  There are going to be changes in the way we watch movies, and in the way movies reach the public. It will mean some companies go to the wall, while others make their nut and maybe even acheive growth. I wish I had a crystal ball, to be honest. Will cinemas survive? Will the distributors who currently control the market be broken up? Who will control the product, in twenty year's time? Will there even be a product, in the same way that we know the product today? Will companies like Studio Ghibli still partner up with distributors like Disney to break into the American market, or will they sell direct to the cinema chains? Will there even be cinema chains, or will the larger conglomerates fragment into more local entities?
   
  You could go further and ask: what will organized crime do? It's no secret that some criminal groups - eg the Triads - make good money out of bootlegging films and TV shows. So far it's limited to passing a physical product - a disk, eg - to the end buyer, but that involves transport, and all the messy details that go with it. Take the physical product out of the equation and you've got a whole new ball game. Why smuggle crates and crates filled with the latest Hong Kong soap opera all the way across the ocean, when at the push of a button you can supply straight to the source?
   
  All kinds of possibilities here.  

• silverwhisper said on Feb 08, 2007....

  daily: superb--so long as he can be entertained while staying safe, i say!
  
  col mustard: an excellent point re: the threshold-reduction of publishing to movie studio or recording studio. i think that cinemas will survive but will become a niche thing--already, when my wife & i discuss seeing a movie in the theater, we classify them as "big screen required" (e.g., LOTR, anything w/ great visual effects) or netflix. if you're familiar w/ nicholas negroponte's on being digital he addresses the same general issues of physical objects vs. data--or as he calls it, atoms vs. bits.
  
  ed

• Col_Mustard said on Feb 08, 2007....

  Hi ed
   
  ref: cinemas & niche things.
   
  Sure, but consider: a cinema isn't just bricks and mortar. Very few of them are independents, and those that are tend to be clustered in urban areas where they've got access to a larger potential customer pool.
   
  The vast majority are owned by one of several larger chains, which sometimes are themselves linked either directly or strategically to production houses. These buildings and the equipment in them represent major capital investments. A loss doesn't just affect the cinema; it threatens the viability of the chain, and with it potentially also the production houses. Hollywood's an expensive place, and cinemas are their life support systems. What happens when the life support shuts down?
   
  It's an adapt-or-die situation, and I suspect there will be some names, famous now, which'll die.

Comment on "wal-mart to offer downloadable movies"

Currently tagged	walmart bandwidth Big Brother movies Downloads iTunes Wal-Mart (Click to add tags below)
Tag this post	(Separate tags using commas, for example: New York, dating, vegetarian)
Your comment