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Interesting article from NewTeeVee today on what is effectively amounting to the death of the Korean DVD market. Sales are at a third this year of what they were in 2002. With broadband penetration at 90% and roughly 50% of the households admitting to downloading movies, it isn’t surprising that sales of DVDs are in a free fall.

Interestingly enough, P2P networks aren’t at the center of the Korean downloading craze. Users are flocking to web-based storage solutions instead. The market for these so-called “webhard” services was originally popularized by LG, but now there are dozens of vendors, with some offering up to 1 Terabyte of storage space for free. The services are monetized through priority access points that guarantee higher speeds. There are supposed to be filters in place, but it’s obvious they don’t work.

I have no doubt that physical media will disappear in the US as well over time. Initial feedback from friends who use the Netflix Roku or the Vudu box is positive – other than needing to attach another box to the TV set. I’ve also been impressed with the Sony Playstation online service which, in my opinion, continues to put the game console in a great position in the home for combined services.

-E