Now that the music industry has finally accepted (kind of) that customers are not thieves and that we can in fact be trusted with MP3’s of there most treasured artists (with some exceptions, Beetles,etc). This helps us all play music on any device we own or any device I we may chose to buy in the future. I am wondering when this kind of discussion will happen with our videos, I know this is a more complicated discussion but I believe it is one that should be taken on.
If I pay for Showtime movies through my cable box why can I not have access to play that same movie on other devices I own. Our DVRs let us retain the information for as long as we like. The distributor and producer is paid using my subscription. There needs to be a more meaningful connection between the producers of the content, various distributers, and me as a consumer.
I recently stopped my subscription to Starz on Cable as I realized that as a Netflix customer I had access to Starz as part of Netflix instant streaming (through Xbox). For several weeks, however, I was paying for Starz content twice. The same goes for the major broadcast networks, why would I ever pay for an episode of Lost for my Zune when I know that I can have it on DVR forever, or simply catch up on an episode on the ABC site itself. More importantly my avid TV watching has paid for the distribution of this program via advertising. Heck you can double dip in advertising on the other distribution formats (streaming or downloads) I really do not mind ;)
Either way I believe we need to start an honest discussion about video subscriptions and the end users ability and right to watch video content in any format on any device they desire.
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