Cablevision offers Day and Date On Demand — for DVD’s With Physical Fulfillment

Update – Movies are 21.95 on average and the selection is limited.  As I noted in the original post, my choice would be to just pre-order the movie from Amazon and you can have the full quality DVD at your door on the same day it’s released — for less money.

I woke up to an email from Cablevision this morning offering a new on-demand service called Popcorn DVDs OnDemand.

As you can see from the email ad, you can do an on demand showing of a new DVD release the day it’s out which is nice, though I can’t tell whether this is an HD (I doubt it) option or just a standard viewing. I’m not expecting an HD Disc like option here, but we do actually have HD ONDemand service with some movies and the quality is considerably better as well as actually widescreen.

I’ve signed up – had to add a credit card to my profile which seems silly when they already have my billing and shipping info from the monthly bill…. I guess that as a 3rd party, Popcorn either chose or could not access the billing backend.

You are now ready to experience the ease and convenience of Popcorn DVDs On Demand, available through the Movies On Demand menu on iO® Channel 500. Just select a movie from Popcorn DVDs On Demand and watch the movie immediately on demand. Then, Popcorn will deliver the DVD to your home within 5-9 business days. So, you get to watch it now, and own it forever.

I like the idea of physical fulfillment from an online order and would love to actually see this with other types of services like Music so I can get immediate gratification and then still have an archival copy for more critical listening. With movies though, I’m actually a tad skeptical on this particular idea as it seems to be coming a bit late to the party. This is for DVD releases rather than in-cinema and thanks to Amazon, I’ve been able to get physical fulfillment on the day of release for over a decade.

I’ll check out the system tonight when I get home and see if I’ve missed anything critical here. I’m hoping there’s a minimal charge for the on-demand and perhaps even a discount on the disc, though somehow I doubt that the convenience equals any financial break, but rather an opportunity for the various parties (including the MPAA) to make more money from the same thing)

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