In the past we regularly went into DC for the DC Shorts (@dcshorts) film festival. This involved at least a 30 minute drive in traffic, parking, probably getting dinner and then sitting through a few of the films and then the return trip. This year they decided to support online viewing (http://festival.dcshorts.com/film/online-festival/) and we had our first experience with it tonight.

We watched a number of short films using my iPad mirrored to my AppleTV and had no issues or any complaints at all. This saves money, time, the aggravation of traffic and listening to people talk in the theater. We regularly stream iTunes and Netflix to our AppleTV and almost always have a great experience so DC Shorts is just another use of that device.

An interesting point on the side effects though. One is that as there is an uptake in streaming it causes a reduced demand for hospitality services such as restaurants and parking facilities. This means fewer jobs in general. The streaming service jobs (data center for example) are likely to be somewhere else in the world.

However, the other side of that equation is an increased demand for content so there will be more jobs and opportunities (and innovation) in content production. These may again occur anywhere but at least it gives the opportunity for anyone that wants to enter that business to try it out.