Rent digital movies with option to buy [TILTS]
I love to rent digital movies from the comfort of my own home. I mean, it’s so ridiculously easy. Using my Amazon Fire TV Stick, I browse for a movie I want, I click the option to rent the movie and bam, within a few seconds I’m watching the movie.
I don’t even care that the movie costs between $3.99 – $5.99 depending on how current the movie is and whether or not I want the high definition (HD) version. Yes, I could run out to Redbox to get a movie but that doesn’t have nearly the instant gratification that digitally renting a movie does and the selection is limited to whatever is in the Redbox kiosks closest to me.
Rent or buy?
The problem I do have with digitally renting movies is that the price to outright purchase the digital movie isn’t that much more than the price to rent. In many cases, I can purchase a digital movie for $14.99 so I’m often tempted to purchase a movie instead of renting it. That way, I can watch it as many times as I want for the rest of my life (or at least until the technology becomes obsolete).
But then I think, what if I don’t like the movie? Then I wasted ten extra dollars purchasing it. Which brings me to my Technology I’d Like to See (TILTS). Why can’t I digitally rent a movie and then, if I like the movie, purchase the movie by paying the net difference between the purchase price and the rental price?
As far as I’m concerned I should be able to do this anytime after the rental period. So if I rent a movie today, I can still upgrade to the full purchase three months later.
More of me than them
I suppose someone is going to tell me that doing this would sabotage full purchase sales because some people who normally jump straight to the full purchase will now rent and, after seeing the movie, decide not to purchase the movie. I say, there are more people like me who would be willing to upgrade to the purchase than there are people who will skip the purchase after renting the movie.
Amazon, Vudu, Google, are you listening? Are there others like me who would like this option. Let me know in the comments below.
Disclaimer: Technologies presented in the Technology I’d Like To See (TILTS) series are based on my original (and sometimes delirious) thoughts. I present them here to the public only because I can not afford to implement any of them myself. If you steal borrow one of my ideas and end up filthy rich because of it, please remember where you got the idea and throw a little love my way. Something like a BMW or a big fat check would do just fine.
