Steve Jobs: "You'll Be Able To Watch A First Run Movie Before It Hits Theaters"

Yesterday Apple co-founder / chief executive officer and Walt Disney Company board member Steve Jobs was interviewed on stage at the D8 Conference where he talked about a variety of topics, including the future of movies. According to Jobs, the movie industry needs to change to preserve the value of the content.

During the question and answer period, one of the owners of Village Roadshow pictures asked "as a producer of films, we've made a great business of forcing the consumer to come to us, with commercials, making them pay for movies... how do we preserve the value of the content, and make it easier for people to get it?" Here was Jobs response (quoted from engadget):

The opportunities are huge for content creators... as an example, the way that we market movies is changing. Now we can reach that audience much more effectively. When we went to music companies, we said who is your customer... they said Target, and Best Buy — they thought the retailer was the customer. What changed in that industry was the front end, the distribution and marketing was able to be done in a much more effective way, going right to the end user. I think that is changing a lot. I even think you'll be able to watch a first run movie before it hits theaters... if you want to spend a bunch of money. We want to let people watch whatever they want, when they want. That's what needs to change.

Walt Mossberg questioned when this would be happening. Steve responded, "It's happening now."