The other night I noticed a few TV ads pitching movies — not to see them in the theatre, but to buy them on BluRay. That’s when it hit me. Although I was never all that into buying movies in the first place, I realized that even if I had been I would be so over it now. Why? Have you heard of Netflix? Hulu? Heck, even YouTube? Why would I want to buy a movie when I basically get it for free with my monthly subscription to Netflix and Hulu?
Add to this a growing consumer awareness that formats are fleeting, and you have the makings of a real crash in consumer demand. How many people do you know who collected movies on VHS only to watch them become virtually worthless as they were replaced by DVDs? Then, once they switched to collecting DVDs, how did they feel when BluRay came along? Like a chump, maybe? The very idea of having a collection of DVDs is so last century (see picture).
That’s why ads like the ones I saw the other night have an air of desperation to them. I can’t be the only one thinking this way, and it likely is dawning on the movie studios as well. The “after market” revenue stream that they have relied on, in many cases, to put their profits over the top on high-cost movie projects may be going away, or at least changing.
So what are the potential ramifications for libraries? I can think of several potential effects. One is that demand for our movie collections may decrease, as low cost monthly subscriptions take the place of borrowing DVDs (e.g., a monthly Netflix streaming subscription costs less than buying your typical movie DVD). Of course there will still be demand by those who don’t care to pay a monthly fee, but I’m suggesting the number may decline. If overall demand for DVDs/BluRay tanks, we may also see the cost of the physical item going up. Donations to library book sales of these items will decrease as consumers buy fewer physical formats.
What do you think the ramifications for libraries of a post-DVD world might be? Comment below.
Image courtesy of Peter Taylor, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
About Roy Tennant
Decreased demand for DVDs – already happening at our library.
“Resistance is futile”
On top of that, DVD makers can not keep up with their firmware and the novelties in HD BluRay formats. For example, Samsung latest firmware on certain models is June 2011 and it is still not able to play releases from August.
So the experience goes form OK to zero.
Who wants that?
I have been using Netflix and AppleTV.
I will not go back;-)
Maybe we can learn from an other development in a similar digital product:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/369913/uk-firm-reveals-ebook-subscription-library
I don’t want to leave my entertainment options up to the mercy of streaming contracts, but even if I did, high-speed internet needs to get a lot better and a lot cheaper before I consider going to “the cloud” exclusively. Heck, my parents still have their monster VHS collection in heavy rotation, and they even bought an HDTV last year.
In academic libraries, of course, there are many DVD and even VHS resources that can’t be replicated with streaming. We are forced to have a number of pieces of hardware to view these. A tough situation, but true for many university libraries.
Our DVDS in southern Arizona are still in high demand. Netflix is not in the reach of many economically and fewer still since Netflix shot itself in the foot and raised its prices. Of course DVDs (and eventually BluRays) will move over for new delivery methods. That is IT reality.
As usual The Onion says it best:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/stack-of-unused-cdrs-turns-five,21286/
The ramification for libraries is that E-delivery will be the better delivery option for those of our members who can afford it. That will cause our circulation statistics to decline. Then we start to scramble for others ways to justify our continued existence in the community by attempting to re-define the purpose of the library as primarily a community gathering place– one still staffed by professional librarians.
We’ve always had community members who purchased their own materials. Often, they would donate those items to the library when they were finished using them. That doesn’t seem to be an option with many e-materials being sold. So those works don’t get passed along to anyone and libraries lose a source of donated materials/revenue. What “saves” libraries is an increasing population which maintains a demand for services. But the population is increasing faster at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum at the same time demands for all public services rise and property taxpayers are having trouble paying their bills. Where do libraries fit in the hierarchy of needs? Probably not anywhere near the top of the lists.
I think that’s the sad, painful truth.
A post-DVD world is great news for people with computers to stream Netflix and the disposable income to purchase subscriptions. But there are plenty of areas in the country where people can’t afford a computer, or even that “low cost” subscription, so those of us in rural Ohio aren’t planning to phase out our DVDs any time soon.
Roy, I could not agree more with what you stated above. My only concern is that the Netflix type vendors/providers usually only deal with consumer programs. The type that our allied health departments, technology departments, social science departments, etc. ask us to purchase, will not be found from a consumer provider. Who or what will step up and be the depositor of these materials and offer streaming services to academics? Maybe a new start-up company?
The Netflix selection might be better in the US but in Canada the selection is terrible. Lots of really old stuff from the 70’s and 80’s. It also does not provide the enjoyment of HD and there are no subtitles (something that you’ll find increasingly helpful as your aging!). I agree that streaming is the future, but we are not there yet.
Once again the folks on the other side of the digital divide are being left out. Hard for some people to believe, but there are still many areas in which the only access to the Internet is via dial-up. Streaming doesn’t work on dial-up. And there are, as another person mentioned, older folks with VHS players who, for whatever reasons, haven’t even moved up to a DVD player. In rural coastal Oregon our libraries circulate a lot of DVDs and still quite a few VHS.
Linda,
Thank you for reminding those of us on fast connections (as I have been for the last 11 years) that are still many without. For those without a fast Internet connection the physical formats will continue to be important. Here’s hoping that it continues to be an option.