Coming Soon To A Couch Near You

Comcast COO Steve Burke said last week that his cable company is planning to offer new-release movies via pay-per-view as soon as those movies are theatrically released. Here's the story from Advertising Age.

NPH thinks that anyone surprised by this has their head in the sand. Yet we don't like it. We see it as one more step away from a public life and toward a private one. Not that movie theaters are venues of great public discourse, but they are one of the few remaining places (along with the ballpark and the concert hall) where citizens have to negotiate their fellow citizens as part of the leisure experience. There's value in that, even if the people talking behind you and the cellphone ringing next to you are annoyances.

NPH worries that allowing people to bring the summer blockbuster into their home and skip the crowd at the theater will further erode what little public sensibilities remain.