Video-on-demand hopes to do for broadcasting what iTunes did for the record industry. In a VoD world, armchair viewers tap into a vast onscreen catalogue and download the film or TV programme of their choice, which can be stored on a hard drive or set-top box, burned on to a disc or rented.
Watching films when it suits a viewer rather than a scheduler is already commonplace in the cable and satellite industries, but the widespread availability of fast broadband connections is bringing VoD within the reach of almost all UK households.
I wrote about this a few days ago, it is obviously the only way forward.
You cannot fight piracy in any other way, unless they provide an "affordable" system that enables people to get hold of the material they want.
We have the technology, there is little point in moaning about piracy if nothing is done to distribute what is available.
I would prefer a subscription or rental based system as personally I very rarely watch movies more than once so I'm not that interested in owning them.
