Anyone who doesn’t live under a rock these days will fast admit that the landscape of media delivery is rapidly changing. Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and others offer an alternative to sitting down in front of the T.V. or heading to the theater at a pre-arranged time, which often leaves the viewer’s schedule at the mercy of said networks or theaters. While all of us consume media in one way or another, Sony and Disney are the first studios to undertake a venture that points to the continuing shift in how that media is received: the two giants have begun streaming new movies, making them available to consumers at home while they are still playing in traditional theaters.

After the break, read more details about about Sony’s project, what it could mean for those at home, and hear what Kevin Spacey had to say recently about television’s role in all of this, the emergence of new media and the responsibility companies have to their viewers.

Along with releasing movies in the traditional theater, Sony and Disney now allow consumers in South Korea to rent those same movies in the comfort of their homes. While this project is being tested in part to combat piracy, don’t expect the new service to be available in the U.S. soon: According to The Verge, there are of course more profound financial ramifications for the larger U.S. market:

 As the world’s eighth-largest film market, South Korea is a good place for Disney and Sony to start. Should they test the model outside of Asia, both companies will likely be met with greater opposition in countries like the US and UK. With movies like Iron Man 3 performing fantastically at the US box office with an $175 million opening weekend (second only to The Avengers), theaters play a major part in building buzz for a title. 

While Americans and Britons may not be seeing the service from any studio in the near future, this move further signals the shift from traditional media consumption to receiving media in new ways. Sony, Disney, and other companies such as Netflix, are putting into action the words of Kevin Spacey’s recent comments at the Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival. In addition to showing just how dynamic of a speaker he is, Spacey demonstrates the direction media is heading:

Spacey should know what he is talking about, too: love it or hate it, his Netflix-only House of Cards is enjoying decent success, and has garnered nine Emmy nominations. I’m sure that new media and new ways of presenting traditional formats are nothing foreign to the tech-savvy readers of SonyRumors, and Sony seems to be on the forefront of helping to transform the movie and T.V. industry in new, and perhaps yet unseen, ways for our digitally-dominated-everything-on-demand society. Exciting times are ahead not only for the movie and television studios, but for their entire audience as well.

Discuss:

How do you prefer to consume media? Do you still wait for prime-time T.V. and new movie releases, or do you prefer streaming on demand? Is there a happy medium?