December, 2002
Follow-up to Last Month's Review of Movielink:
by Ken Pyle
Last month’s review of the new Internet movie on demand service, Movielink, prompted several comments from readers. As a result, I attempted to dig deep through my seldom accessed wallet to find another $1.99 to watch a movie. Learn of the new and subtle things I learned about this new and potentially disruptive entertainment service……..
So, just as I was about to write the follow-up to last month’s
review, I received Movielink's email newsletter indicating the new titles
for the month. I recognized the names of most of the titles which include
recent movies, like “Spiderman”, “Enough”, “The
Sum of All Fears”, as well as older titles, such as “Mr. Deeds”,
“Platoon” and “American Pie”. This approach of
sending a newsletter about once a month to remind the
Movielink subscriber of the new offerings could end up being a pretty
effective marketing tool.
Unfortunately, when I clicked on either one of the categories (their home
page) or a specific title, I received an error message indicating that
the Movielink service “is presently unavailable to users outside
of the United States.” I guess the People’s Republic
of San Jose is now considered a different country. This must
have been a service error, as it occurred on several different computers
(admittedly, these computers were on the same network). A colleague joked
that it must be the non-American brand computers I use.
The reason for my curiosity is that I was told by a few people after my last review, that one must be connected to the Internet the first time a movie is viewed. My understanding from reading the terms and conditions was the only time one had to be connected to the Internet was during download process and the first time one used the service. Of course, now I can’t even get to the terms and conditions, because the web site thinks I am some hacker beyond the border. So, the answer to this question will have to wait until next month.
Copyright 2002 Viodi, LLC. All Rights Reserved