Online movies are making headway, and a business model that many companies refused to consider is now showing itself to be one that everybody wants. AOL is planning to add another studio into the fold of the others it has lined up to offer movies, with Paramount Pictures adding on to the existing online library. As with other downloadable movies, prices are on-par with a DVD and of course come DRM-locked:
Consumers will own the movies and can save and view them on up to three other computers or portable devices that support Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media Player. The deal with Paramount will make available for download titles ranging in prices from $9.99 to $19.99 per movie.
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Google began flexing YouTube as a medium to offer downloadable full-length movies, and other companies such as Netflix are planning to as well. The convenience can hardly be beat, and it's about time that movie studios look to the Internet as a deployment platform rather than as an enemy.