1) Content creators create movie 2) Content creator uploads movie to website, and perhaps pays a small fixed fee (to prevent spam and crap) 3) Consumers go to website and can stream movie, get disc pressed, or perhaps even an image for use in a theater for a fee 4) Content is delivered to the consumer 5) Consumer fee is paid over to content creator minus a fee for the distribution The question becomes then, is can you get enough content that is worth paying for in order to cover the bandwidth costs and the storage costs?
The question becomes then, is can you get enough content that is worth paying for in order to cover the bandwidth costs and the storage costs? It's a good question. That's probably where someone like YC comes in. They provide the seed money to find out. I'd be eager to pay to watch some independent films if I knew that the creator got a good share of the profit. Of course, there could be a whole rating system, and you could find people with similar taste that made recommendations, etc.