Comcast wants to shatter the so called exclusive window — which runs between 30-60 days — for DVDs to Pay Per View (PPV) with an idea they’ve pitched to the movie studios, via videobusiness.com:

For a fee of about $17, the subscriber could call up the movie for one immediate video-on-demand showing. Two days later, the DVD of Virgin shows up in the mailbox for the subscriber’s permanent collection.

As a cable subscriber who currently pays in excess of $100/month (internet included), I’d like to see that window removed. The window is an obstacle for consumers and only of value to the movie studios and retailers. Yeah, $3.95 for a PPV is spendy when you can rent it for half that — if you are willing to go to the store or wait for Netflix to ship the DVD. Most people have seen the movies they want to see either at the theater or on DVD before the exclusive window expires, so I can see where Comcast is going. If they sent you the DVD after watching it a couple days later for your DVD collection for an additional $17?

That makes the price of the DVD over $20, which IMO is still too high for a single movie (about the price of two movie tickets, no popcorn or snacks), although some new movies cost that much and you don’t have the gas to go to the store. For a few more dollars one can buy an entire season of a classic TV show like Mork and Mindy or The Brady Bunch. 20-30 hours worth of entertainment vs. 2 hours?

What do you think? Do you buy/collect DVDs? Or do you just rent them and move onto the next?

• Theater-style popcorn vs. microwave popcorn
• Hostage (2005) starring Bruce Willis
• Record 100,000 Transformers HD DVD sold on first day
• Not just another flix? Peerflix
• Xbox 360 HD-DVD player unboxing and first HD-DVD thoughts
• Ad overdose before movies start