While these
services have gained in popularity among indies, a new group of content owners
has also begun taking advantage of this option: networks and studios.
The
advent of inventory-free, manufacture-on-demand services, coupled with the
massive buying power of online shoppers, has made on-demand distribution
attractive to networks and studios. In the past, network content was often not
made available for sale after broadcast due to the economics and long time
frames of traditional inventory-based distribution.
Now,
networks and studios are starting to sell current programming and archived
catalogues via manufacture on demand.
For example, individual games of the 2007 World Series were made
available via manufacture on demand, as was CNN's acclaimed Planet in Peril program. The recent approval of
CSS copy protection for on-demand services further supports delivery of high
value network and studio content through this new avenue.
Because
it bypasses the slow process of manufacturing and inventory shipping of
traditional approaches, manufacture on demand is inherently a faster way to get
products to customers - only a few days after the World Series aired, DVDs
arrived in the mailboxes of baseball fans. And since units are produced when
customers order, titles never go out of print, helping to provide a long term
revenue stream for content owners such as Charlie Rose, who offers thousands of
past programs on-demand.
Manufacture
on demand is a rapidly-growing opportunity and continued developments should
further expand the range of content for which is it applicable. But one thing
is sure; manufacture on demand is not just for indies anymore.