This piece from GigaOm is the most idiotic bit of writing from the tech sector about entertainment that I've seen in some time, and that's saying something.

The Digital Entertainment Group, a trade association that tracks revenue in this space, doesn’t differentiate between movie and TV shows when talking about digital sales, but an industry insider told me that between 80 and 90 percent of all digital movie revenue comes from rentals, not sales.

None of his cited data comparisons are compared equitably. He puts gross subscription service (Netflix) revenue, which did not exist a few years ago, against physical media sales. His analysis is anything but objective, and that he doesn't qualify the insight of his "industry insider" source makes them as authoritative as an intern in a mailroom discussing an entire studio's performance.

iTunes sales data has actually shown the opposite, as has physical media purchase data. This one guy's preferences, behavior, and experiences no more dictate the market than I do as an individual. The data contradicts him regarding media ownership, and that he plays so much into what many have said studios want us to do (prefer rental to "ownership") is further evidence of how weak and utterly facile his "analysis" is here.

What would interest me is a look at the conversion of rental revenue since the late 90's from retail into SVOD rentals and RedBox (which GigaOm never mentions…too bourgeois for them?).