People have been paying to download and watch movies from Web sites for years now. Those films weren't exactly Citizen Kane - more like Citizen Candy does Dallas. They were pornography, and porn was one of the first profitable online ventures to appear. So while there's been plenty of hype lately about independent film makers offering their works online, we must remember that the Web is no stranger to film. Miramax films is one of the first major studios to play around with the notion of offering its films online.
College students illustrate both aspects.
College students in dorm rooms are also severely restricted in terms of audio-visual gear, and for many of them their computer is the highest quality multimedia device around. Hence, college kids love using their computers as both substitutes for, and adjuncts to, their stereos and televisions. But college students don't usually have vast amounts of disposable income, and gravitate towards free content. That group is the enormous class of workers who have computers at work, and little else to entertain themselves with. People do watch full-length movies on their computers, but they generally do so using DVD drives in locations where they have no access to other entertainment, like dorm rooms, or airplanes.