digital world

U ntil recently no Hollywood studio had ever released two movies with the same name at the same time. At most studios, such a strategy would be unthinkable. Audiences might accidentally buy tickets to the wrong film, and the PR fallout would be disastrous: snipes from trade-magazine writers; angry calls from investors questioning the studios’... See more

But the studios overlooked that streaming was more convenient than cable, as Netflix beamed images directly onto viewers’ laptops—and, soon enough, televisions and smartphones—with no annual contracts, cancelable at any time. Above all, there were no ads

Blockbuster punished customers for being forgetful; Netflix rewarded them for being mindless.