Amazon's roll out of digital copy is likely to increase awareness of its streaming online movie service among the company's physical video customers. By bundling a digital version of a title with the disc users can access the movie immediately after purchase, while waiting for the disc to be delivered.

Amazon is not the first retailer to launch a digital copy service. In early December 2009 Tesco began offering 'Virtual DVDs', providing online access to Warner titles to UK customers who have purchased physical copies in-store. These retailer-led initiatives will widen the availability of digital copy. Although the Studios themselves have been developing disc-plus-digital bundles since late 2007 this strategy is not common practice for all titles and availability outside the US is limited.

Digital copy provision is a fragmented space, with different delivery mechanisms and varying restrictions on playback. For example, Studios sometimes include a digital copy on a second disc bundled with the DVD or BD while others feature a code for redemption in Apple's iTunes store. Amazon's Disc+ on Demand could create further confusion with the digital copy for some titles issued on a permanent basis while others expire after 30 days. Without a full-fledged, unified approach from the Studios it is likely that more retailers will actively engage in developing their own digital copy bundles, causing market fragmentation to continue at an increasingly rapid rate.