Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 19 May 2008 09:29
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
“Australia”, the upcoming blockbuster-to-be from director Baz Luhrmann,
starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, is having its trailer released
on the Internet first by Australia’s largest ISP, BigPond – but when
will the same happen for movies themselves?
At least a couple of years ago I remember seeing an Intel video clip, played at a PR launch for Intel’s ViiV initiative (which doesn’t seem to be heavily promoted anymore), about movies one day being available to watch online, through your big screen TV, at the same time as it becomes available in the cinemas.
While we most definitely aren’t there yet in any legal sense, we’re certainly there today in an illegal sense, with some movies being available in dodgy pirate fashion even before their theatrical releases, and with almost any movie you can name being seemingly available shortly thereafter.
This all happens much to the chagrin of Hollywood and ISPs carrying endless amounts of illegal video traffic, although legal traffic is growing exponentially, too, thanks to YouTube, Joost, Hulu, and Adobe’s Media Player.
It’s also happening here in Australia with services such as BigPond’s legal movie and TV show download site – with both straining the existing Internet’s capacity to carry traffic, prompting telecommunications companies to upgrade their infrastructure at much expense.
The threat of piracy is still the major reason why companies haven’t yet figured out how to allow consumers to legally download and watch movies – in a hassle free manner – on the day of their theatrical release. Currently legal online movie lovers need to wait at least until the DVD is released – and often after.
Yet, movie companies are distributing highly cut-down versions of their movies for free, legally, today – to anyone that wants it: of course, I am talking about the aforementioned theatrical trailer.
So… one day, we WILL get legal online movie distribution. We’re just not there yet. But we are here on a day where the movie “Australia”, by well known Australian director Baz Luhrmann, will have its trailer first aired on the web, at BigPond’s
Movie site, with an exclusive introduction by Nicole Kidman.
Having just watched the trailer, the movie certainly does look like a major epic, and I can only hope the movie itself lives up to the potential and hype that trailers are meant to generate!
The trailer was released this morning at 9am, with all other ways to show movie trailer previews getting access tomorrow, the 20th of May.
Please read onto page 2 for BigPond’s thoughts on being able to show the trailer first.
