How video on demand may change online DVD rentals and sales.

[mandy]

Seven years ago Netflix Inc. shook up the movie-rental industry by enabling movie lovers to go online and rent DVDs, which are shipped and returned via regular mail. Today video on demand services may very well be ushering in a new era in how movie buffs rent, purchase and watch films after their initial ­theatrical run. This year Amazon.com Inc., Apple Computer Inc. and Instant Media, a company launched in May by Buy.com founder Scott Blum, have joined pioneers Guba.com, CinemaNow and MovieLink to leverage technology and market developments that are making a new business case for video on demand.

“We’ve seen more changes in the industry this year than we’ve seen in the past decade,” says Darren Giles, co-founder and chief technologist at CustomFlix Labs Inc., a company acquired by Amazon.com earlier this year that specializes in ­digitizing limited-run and old movies and manufacturing on-demand discs, which it mails to customers...

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=20359