According to this Gizmodo article, they are:
- The pricing — still too close to a DVD, for which you get tangible stuff, and still more expensive than the Blockbuster or Netflix options.
- A meager sleection of movies. It reminds me of the early days of pay TV here in Canada, when it was “All Beastmaster, all the time!”
- No computer in the TV room. Hence the XBox strategy, which actually does put a computer — albeit a slightly disguised one — in your TV room.
- Downloads are still mostly standard-definition, while more and more people are making the move to high-def.
- Force of habit. It’s just going to take a while for this sort of thing to catch on. Even some gadgetophiles I know haven’t made the leap to high-def capable TV. I only made that leap this past Christmas.
- Not enough differentiation. “If you can record, say, Mission Impossible 3 via HBO onto your Series 3 TiVo in full quality HDTV, what’s the difference between that and downloading the same movie from the iTunes store?”
- Download speed. Even with good broadband, it takes considerably more time to download a movie than the typical user is willing to endure. Now quadruple that time if you want to download a high-def movie.
- Broadband flakiness. Between throttling and capping, many providers are trying to choke bandwidth to keep it as profitable as possible.
- DRM bullshit. ‘Nuff said.
- Too complicated. “Finally, all of that knowledge and computer know-how needed for downloading movies is simply nonexistent in the skill sets of the average movie viewer.” Many people get their downloaded movies by sticking the downloading task to their nerd friends.