Five Hollywood studios have launched an online movie rental service called Movielink. It's a bid by the studios to avoid becoming the next major victims -- after record companies -- of Internet piracy, NPR's Andy Bowers reports. Analysts say the business prospects are questionable, in part because most people want to watch movies on a TV screen, not a computer. But it could catch on in places such as college campuses, where many dorm rooms have computers rather than TVs.
"There are about 15 million broadband homes in the (United States) today, and then another 10 million dorm rooms," says Movielink CEO Jim Ramo. "So there are about 25 million residences that we think are our target market." And as the Internet becomes more integrated into home media systems, some analysts think Movielink will eventually compete with cable TV channels.
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