Comcast + Universal = Click and Watch Movies

I haven't gone to the movie theater much for years...for all the regular reasons. What I want is movies delivered via the internet. At home. Where I'm comfortable. Where popcorn doesn't cost five bucks and there isn't a stranger sitting behind me kicking my chair. Cable TV is okay but I don't want to pay for cable movie channels. You just can't get everything you want even if you have all the networks and a lot of movies are still shown pan and scan, which drives me nuts. And, of course, you have to watch the movie when the network plays it, not when it's convenient, and you still can't pause it.

Day and Date is the prize. Why drive to the theater, wait in lines, buy a ridiculously expensive ticket, sit through the commercials, pick a strategic time to pee, etc., when you can enjoy the movie in your home?

Right now the pending Comcast Universal marriage may offer the best potential for quality streaming, Day and Date, and VOD movie delivery via the internet.

At The Wall Street Journal's D8 conference, Comcast chief operating officer Steve Burke said, "Content and distribution are better together." From PC Mag:

...and that is behind Comcast's pending purchase of NBC Universal. He said the company currently has the ability to deliver more than 70,000 hours of video on demand to its customers, but said he would like to offer movies on the "day and date" that they are released on DVD, as well as all primetime programming. What slows this down, he said, are the negotiation with content holders. Becoming a content company helps that.

Comcast will also be able to make Universal's library of 4000 movies available on demand, which is extremely useful for both the average fan and people who write about movies.

I'd much rather pay a small fee to download or stream a movie that's long been out of circulation than shell out twenty bucks for a DVD (or heaven forbid, a videotape) that will gather dust after I've watched it once.

As far as Day and Date. How can you compare a trip to the store with downloading or streaming the movie online? Going to the movies is a romantic notion, but not practical for me. I'm looking forward to 'Click and Watch'.