VOD Everywhere, DVD's Nowhere

Video On Demand (VOD) – being able to access video content when you feel like it – has successfully moved from lean forward devices (think YouTube on a desktop PC) to lean back devices, like the living room TV.  And the increasing success of On Demand, DVD’s and Blu-ray discs are becoming increasingly irrelevant.

While watching TV, you can use a media-streaming box like the Apple TV, Roku or Boxee to access content.  Or, you may have a smart TV with built in apps for Hulu, Netflix or Amazon.  Or, you may have a cable service provider that has the service built into the cable box.

While watching TV, you may be able to pay for only the video you watch when you watch.  Maybe you pay a subscription to access the library and watch what you want, when you want.  You may even get content free.

While watching TV, you can search for what you want to watch, and watch it!  Using nothing more than your remote.  This all happens within moments.  Hello true Couch Potato.

Seriously, you can’t call yourself a couch potato if you are leaving your house, going to the store, hoping they have the movie you want in stock, taking the disc home and physically placing it in the drive before you can watch a movie!  And then, you've got to get up, remove the disc and the return or store it.  Jeez.  Talk about labour intensive.

VOD is never out of stock.  VOD is never physically exhausting.  VOD is never going to take up much physical storage.

These days, DVD’s and Blu-ray’s simply don’t offer an advantage over Video On Demand, especially with HD video downloads happening in less time than it takes to microwave popcorn.  The option to play, pause, stop, fast-forward, rewind and freeze frame is now standard on the most basic VOD player.

Higher internet speeds and mobile internet also make streaming videos on demand practical on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.  This takes VOD on the road in a device you already carry; that means you can ditch the portable DVD player - it used to skip anyway.