Sunday, June 29, 2008

Hollywood DVD - a buck a pop, beat that...maybe with ice cream?

My primary source of Hollywood entertainment is the Videocenter movie rental store located at a stones throw from my flat in Prenzlauerberg. Each movie is available for 1 Euro per day, the collection is as current as the DVD release schedule, and the place is run by courteous bunch of folks. There is a popcorn machine, soda fridge, snack isle, and even the Ben & Jerry's cooler. All yours, for 1 Euro. 1 movie per weekend * 1 euro per movie = 4 Euros per month.
Thats the monthly Hollywood bill for me and the wife. Now that is a hard-to-beat deal.

If I was wearing a cable/IPTV VoD service provider's hat I would be hard-pressed to beat this deal because breaking even at 1 Euro for another distribution medium is a tough cookie (see my related post on Netflix's VoD distribution cost). Plus cable/IPTV cannot deliver my Ben & Jerry's ice cream tub.

Wait, that gives me an idea. Maybe Cable/IPTV VoD service providers can team up with ice cream trucks to have them deliver ice-cream and get a cut from Ben & Jerrys. Pizza, snacks, popcorn, T-Shirts, I don't know, movie specific stuff. Perhaps this may allow service providers to compete with Videocenters. The thing is, they need to start looking outside technology and into ice cream trucks.

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