We've seen on-demand downloads hit over 300m in the last three months alone," he said.
But as more and more "small," serious films fight for screen time, a few distributors are starting to see on-demand television as a first option — which means that the quality of on-demand offerings is beginning to rise.
Serious moviegoers may still see on-demand channels as a dumping ground for films that were in theaters six months ago or weren't good enough to be in theaters at all.
I don't think audiences go, 'Wow, that show was brought to me innovatively!' I think they say, 'That was a good show!'" Nicola Schindler, founder of Red, the British makers of shows including Queer as Folk and Last Tango in Halifax, also sees on-demand viewing and production as a subplot, rather than the main storyline: "I think there will always be a strong demand for linear, scheduled TV drama.
We're used to seeing on-demand taxi app companies raise money on a frequent basis, but Grab hasn't pulled in new funding since last September — some eight months ago.
But the NHL has relinquished fewer digital rights to its U.S. TV partners than the NBA, NFL and MLB; it's the first league to have interactive features like a space where fans can chat and see on-demand highlights while watching games on its new GameCenter Live.
On the one hand, the Internet could pose stiff competition for the movies, eventually enabling users to dial up whatever film they might like to see on demand, or, even more frightening to the studios, enabling young filmmakers to produce movies specifically for the Internet on the cheap.
Combing that trend with the wider economic swing we've seen to on-demand services, you can see how the concept of an efficient, price-competitive leasing model might persuade people to give that a try.
Should further increases in demand be seen, additional on-demand resources could be started and integrated with the already operational option resource.
The past year has seen the on-demand delivery service Rappi raise $200 million at valuation north of $1 billion from investors including the Hong Kong-based firm DST Global.
