Does UltraViolet compete with or replace DVDs and BDs?
In spite of what you may hear from pundits, discs are not going away any time soon. Jim’s prediction in 2005 was that it would take at least 20 years for typical American consumers to switch from DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD) to digital downloads and streaming. As of 2011 that still seems about right. That said, physical media will be inexorably and inevitably replaced by electronic media. More and more people are turning to the Internet for television, movies, news, and other video. UltraViolet and other online video systems provide alternatives to DVD and BD, but ironically UltraViolet may extend the lifecycle of physical media by easing the transition, since it provides the ability to get physical copies of UltraViolet movies or to get UltraViolet rights when you buy a disc (see 6.2.3).
