• dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Ironically the “viewable for 48 hours” is now the model for renting streamed movies using a special device. They were ahead of their time.

    • argh_another_username@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      I remember DirecTV in the late 90s used this model. When you wanted to watch a pay-per-view, you had access to a channel that was streaming it for 24 or 48 hours.

      • ramble81@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Oh o remember that. And it wasn’t on demand either, it was just that movie over and over again so you had to line up your viewing with their timeframe, right?

      • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        And I had a dude down the road always ready with a card to slap in my box so I could watch every channel for free.

        I watched Bigger, Longer, and Uncut first, then Cruel Intentions. I don’t remember the movie, but I was way into the actresses. Good god Sarah Michelle Gellar and Reese Witherspoon really made my 14 year old brain short out bad. I can’t remember a single thing, seriously, but I watched it like 30 times.

    • Sesudesu@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It’s not that ironic.

      Renting used to exist, and it required you to have a dvd or vhs player. Renting on streaming doesn’t require a ‘special device.’ In fact it is the least special device needed by comparison, as you can watch on so many different devices.

      48 hours was pretty common on new release rentals too, if not even less time.

      Imagine if instead you needed to buy another tablet that only functioned as a video rental device. And nothing else could watch the rentals. That would be closer to reality.