EDUC 8848 Module 5

In the past, I enjoyed browsing the shelves of the rental store as much as I loved walking into the bookstore when I wanted to buy a new book. Today, my approaches to finding movies and books have changed and these changes were brought by emerging technologies. Its principle based on the unicast, one-to-one delivery, video-on-demand emerged in the early 2000s, as a pay-per-view evolution of broadcast technology (Hildebrand, 2010). Television is an integral part of the majority of the households throughout the world. We find ourselves turning to it daily to be entertained, educated, or simply kept informed of current events. More flexible for customers who can now free themselves from the broadcast schedules, this technology in return requires a more resource-intensive network.  This explains why its development is closely linked to the increased network bandwidth. Our desire to watch has fueled an industry eager to deliver a variety of video-on-demand services.  Thus, when I needed to obtain a movie for my science fiction assignment, my immediate choice was Netflix. Netflix allows its customers to instantly watch movies or TV episodes streaming over the Internet to various devices or from their computers. Although not the only company in the video-on-demand and DVD rental market, with more than 25 million members worldwide Netflix is one of the major one, offering more than 12,000 selections.

When Netflix decided to raise its prices and to make distinction between the DVD mail rental and video-on-demand memberships, I was among its many customers who decided to keep both subscriptions. There was a time when renting a movie from a video store was our only option. While not exactly a delivery infrastructure, digital video disks (DVD) that are purchased or rented still represent a common way of watching audio/video programming. So, what force driving technologies does the competition between DVD's and video-on-demand exemplify: Red Queens or Increasing Returns? The increasing returns force is illustrative of a new technology, even a suboptimal one, obsoleting another through intense competition in the market place (Arthur, 1996; Laureate Education, 2009a). As innovations coming up on the market at the same time, it is possible that by chance one of them locks in and drives the other one to extinction (Laureate Education, 2009a). Thornburg suggested that the Red Queen is another of the six forces and that it explains how, when two technologies are in fierce competition with each other, they gain an advantage over their competition by becoming more effective and meeting new needs (Laureate Education, 2009b). Thus, due to the still relative prevalence of the DVD in the market and the increased popularity of the video-on-demand, the Red Queen is the apparent force driving their competition. This driving force is also visible in Blockbuster’s decision (after filing for bankruptcy and being bought out) to offer the video downloading option for immediate viewing, after having monopolized the video rental market previously.

Applying McLuhan’s (Thornburg, 2008) laws to the DVD and vide0-on-demand, the tetrad’s four elements may be the following: 

References

Arthur, W. B. (1996). Increasing returns and the new world of business. Harvard Business Review, 74(4), 100−109.

Hilderbrand, L. (2010, Winter). The art of distribution: Video on demand. Film Quarterly. 64(2). 25-28. doi: 10.1525/FQ.2010.64.2.24

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009a). Increasing returns. Emerging and future technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009b). Red queens. Emerging and future technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Thornburg, D. D. (2008). Emerging technologies and McLuhan's Laws of Media. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration