It was mentioned on August 30 in the story Community Check up, that this business was closing up and indeed it cleared out its stock last weekend and the property is now up for sale.

It was in September 2004 that construction began on this site and at the time many shock their heads in wonder at a major company building an outlet like this in the Tisdale Market. Certainly there was a market for video rentals in the Tisdale area but there were also viable businesses that were handling the trade and unless a newcomer had something else to offer the viability of the business was be in question.

As an interesting side light to this story, when the business opened I did what I always do. I went in took some pictures and explained to the staff that I would post a story on the new business to introduce it to the community. As you all know Ensign does not accept advertising and I do this without any cost to the business. However, the lady in charge told me that she would have to check with the owners and I never heard from them again.

In actual fact the entertainment business is now undergoing so much radical change it is hard to predict just what to expect next. Already the music recording industry has taken a major hit as it had a very difficult time adjusting to the concept that tape cassettes would be replaced with CDs but it was a shocker when they had to come to terms with CDs being outmoded as people began to download their music, originally they did it illegally but Apple iTunes and the iPod have made legitimate forsale downloads a common thing even though the recording industry is still reeling from the shock of change.

The same is happening in the video industry. VHS tape was the means for video rentals and that has had its day as people have bought inexpensive DVD players and these disks are now the medium of choice. But yesterday I was talking to my son and he casually mentiioned that his wife wanted to see a specific movie. He did not go to the local video rental outlet to rent that video he instead simply downloaded the video.

Movies on demand from the telephone company, video cable and other means like the Internet and its many download capabilities are coming into play and shortly that DVD player will be going the way of the VHS tape machine. Compression and the advancement of computer technology into video has seen remarkable developments and the way to see movies will be from a hard drive that you will neither know or care about, it will just be part of the everyday means of seeing a movie.

The machines to handle video are already on the market in in some cases in people's pockets. The iPod is fully capable of handling movies and many people people have up to eight movies in that little whie box in their pocket. Apple came out with a remarkable device Apple TV which joins the computer with your living room television so that downloading and handling is automated.

Even broadcast television is moving very quickly to having their programming online for download distribution. Some US networks already have made their programming downloadable free as the demand for programming has changed the whole concept of television as technology fills in the gap. NBC and Apple Computers got into quite a disagreement over sale of NBC programmes on iTunes because they wanted more than 99¢ a piece and Apple maintained that to make it a viable market that was the price limit. More than that theft would replace purchases. CBS and ABC are both moving toward free downloads. It will be interesting to see how CBC handles this issue because it already is a problem they are dealing with.

So good bye to Movie Gallery, times are changing.