Battelle riffs on an article in the WSJ about Comcast's upcoming VOD offering:

"I've long fantasized about having a web-like search interface to video (who wouldn't want to type "The Office" Season 2 into a Google video search, and get all the episodes listed, ready for download or drizzle?). But a Comcast version sounds, well, like a Comcast version. If they decide that those 7 million plus broadband users must play by Comcast's rules when it comes to video, well, implosion ho!"

My reply for John:

Why do you say "implosion, ho"?

Sure, I'd love to have all the necessary gear to do VOD via the Internet... but all the typical consumer is going to ask for near term is the ability to go to Comcast.com, pick what they want to see, and have it play on their TV within ~5 minutes.

Sure, ideally, they could do that from /anyone's/ video library, be it the big media houses or their cousin in Europe... but it's 2004, and most American consumers are still figuring out that they can get DVDs in the mail next day, and think that's aces compared to running out in the cold to BlockBuster...

Like you, I'm frustrated by not having immediate access to a realistic and easily foreseeable future... but the masses move much more slowly...