Amazon has just launched a limited-time offer called Disc+ On Demand. Basically, when you purchase a selected DVD or Blu-ray movie from Amazon, they’ll ship it out right away, but in the meantime, you can use Amazon UnBox’s service to stream or download a digital copy of the movie, so you can watch it before the physical copy arrives. This is brilliant on so many levels.
For starters, this is a big first step to converting DVD and Blu-ray purchasers into digital media users, and entices them to download Amazon’s UnBox PC/Mac client. Once that’s installed on their system, they’re much more likely to use it than they were before it was installed. Awesome.
Second, this will likely increase the sales of DVDs and Blu-rays, as folks who might otherwise only have purchased or rented the digital copy are now more likely to go ahead and spring for the hardcopy knowing they don’t have to wait to enjoy it.
Last, this is going to be a direct hit to other movie retailers such as Red Box, Netflix, and others who have yet to really hit the computer market in full force. Of course, Netflix has made some inroads with their streaming services and Windows Media Center plugin, but I think this will be really good for Amazon. I know I’ll be recommending it to my friends and family.
You can see which movies are included in this limited-time offer by checking out Amazon’s Disc+ On Demand page.
Ricky Cadden 