Japanese ISP offers download of DVD-quality films

September 29, 2015

In Japan, standard internet connections are fast enough to deliver more than most people use. Average ADSL download speeds are in the region of 50Mbit/s, and fibre connections are often twice that speed.

To take advantage of this bandwidth advantage, KDDI, a Japanese internet service provider, is offering DVD-quality films to download for the equivalent cost of £2.15. The offer is available to subscribers to any of its broadband services through its DVD Burning service.

The films are copy protected using the same CPRM DRM found on SD cards, and have to be written to DVD-R discs. They can then be watched on a standard DVD player.

The copy protection means that the disks cannot be recopied and passed on, although this would be easy to ignore. KDDI has a distribution deal with Warner Bros, which is the driving force behind the inclusion of digital rights management.

The service has just become available, and there are currently approximately 1,000 titles available. The list is expected to rise to 5,000 early in 2016.

DVD rental in Japan is very cheap – half the cost of KDDI’s offering – and there are many outlets. The industry will be watching this development with interest.