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Movie Rental on a USB Stick!
11th December 2010
Reading this piece gave me flashbacks to the mid 1980s when I would trek in excited fashion to my local petrol station who did a brisk trade in renting out VCR tapes to customers wanting to watch a move over the weekend.
A generation later and the movie rental industry has gone through several transformations. Content has migrated online and high street movie rental businesses are thin on the ground for good reason! Here is a new kid on the block attempting to challenge movie streaming businesses and the likes of Love Film. A US business Flix on Stix Kiosks allow you to download movies onto a USB 3.0 stick loaded with proprietary anti-piracy software. You choose how many movies or games to download and the rental period - the files are self deleting. It is an interesting business model that cuts out the cost of returning DVDs through the mail or in person. And rented movies can presumably be played on any device you choose within the rental period. Dynamic efficiency in action? More information here How long before this business model arrives in the UK?
Geoff Riley
Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.