The Death of DVDs

In spring 2009 I was producing a DVD on the use of Web 2.0 technologies in schools when one of the presenters (Sheryl Nussbaum Beach) approached me and said DVDs were dead. I argued with her but she made me think about it. Shortly after that Blockbuster closed 1,000 stores. I purchased an "Apple TV" box and later a "Roku" box for download movies from Netflix instantly and I have experimented with hooking a Mac Mini up to my HDTV. I now believe that not only was Sheryl right but that it is happening much faster than I had anticipated. Online delivery services such as Hulo, Boxee and Vudu allow you to watch many broadcast and cable shows online so if you have a computer hooked up to your tv you have access to many shows on-demand instead of waiting for them to air or to record them on your DVR. People are watching televisions on their smartphones and this transition is happening very fast as well. Soon with 4G technology you will probably be able to watch HDTV in real time on your phone or even a portable television with a larger screen.

The other thing that is changing is that whatever you are interested in is increasingly available on a podcast. Many people are already comfortable with audio podcasting of NPR or other shows or topics. I have found many shows on topics that interest me such as geology and astronomy. For example I can see super high resolution shows on the Hubble Telescope produced by NASA. My sons watch their favorite college basketball team off the internet on their televisions because they can't afford to pay for the service on cable or satellite. The quality and availability of programs will be rapidly increasing in the next few years so a podcast produced today will have a continually increasing potential audience from the day of its release as more people become comfotable with podcast.