Australia-based ReelTime.tv (not to be confused with Seattle-based ReelTime.com) will be launching a new movie download service this week called “RealTime DTO” (for download-to-own). The service, which is available to Australians only, is being called the first legal download service that allows DVD burning (which isn’t accurate – see below).
James Bannan published an interview with a ReelTime exec, John Karantzis, earlier today. The service, which will work only on Windows machines for now, will offer movies from at least one major studio – Universal. Purchased movies will be deliverd as three separate files. One for PC viewing, one for portable device viewing (using Plays4Sure DRM), and one for burning to DVD. The last file may be burned three times to DVD within a thirty day period. After that it’s useless. New releases are being priced at AUD$33.99 (about US$26.50).
In the U.S., both MovieLink and CinemaNow are experimenting with DVD burning features, and both have deals with Universal. See our coverage here and here for more information on those and other movie download services.
ReelTime’s pricing is prohibitively high. Putting that aside, however, there are still problems with the service. Users want to be able to consume content on multiple devices, including mobile devices and a normal television via DVD. ReelTime is addressing this by delivering three different files, each with a different DRM scheme (the files will not play on an iPod, however). The fact that ReelTime is trying to address this demand is commendable. But delivering three files, all with different restrictions, is not the right solution. It’s too much to download, and managing the files is a real cost to users.
It’s clear that studios are trying to avoid the fate of the music labels by doing deals with just about every startup (see chart in this post) with a dream of getting a piece of the multi-billion dollar DVD and movie rental markets – just as long as the pricing is high enough to keep major offline DVD retailers happy and the files are completely locked down with DRM.
But there are too many services chasing the very small market for price-insensitive consumers who are willing to live with DRM and restrictions on portability of content. Margins are razor thin. Apple and one or two others may get enough market share to survive. The rest are chasing a pipe dream, and so are their investors. As long as BitTorrent is widely available to users, clunky alternatives just don’t have a chance.
Thanks for the tip, TalkUSB.
This is a perfect example of Functions vs. Features. Seems like Reeltime.tv is trying to promote the fact that they can deliver 3 types of file downloads.
This “Feature” might be great for consumers, however, the “Function” will cost to high. People don’t have the time or patience to eat up there bandwidth (virtually & physically). What Reeltme.tv should focus on is at least one Feature really well & to provide the other Features as second offs, where they can capitalize on those other features with paid services.
Why this can work is the fact that there are competitors who’s strategy is the price-sensitive. But that’s all they are going after is the price-sensitive. You can’t win if everyones strategy is to be the lowest-costing strategy. Function vs. Features.
>”In the U.S., both MovieLink and CinemaNow are experimenting with DVD burning features,”
Don’t forget about EZTakes. http://www.eztakes.com . We’ve been selling our videos through them on a download and burn to DVD basis for over a year now http://www.ezta...ie-Download.jsp. We still make more from iTunes for downloads of music from the videos than we do from downloads of the video itself (not to mention physical product), but they definitely have it working. And while they don’t have Universal as a partner, they do a have a nice selection from smaller publishers who are allowed to set their own price, with a nice set of example downloads in Classics for $1.99.
The price looks high as a US consumer, but DVD prices in Australia are much higher than in the states. See http://www.sanity.com.au and you will find that the DVD pricing at $34 is approximately the same as retail.
All that aside, I personally wouldn’t pay the same price as retail — is downloading and burning my own DVD really more convenient than buying a nicely printed copy at the store or online?
Honestly, the best thing that could happen to legal video downloads is a couple years of rampant illegal movie downloads. Here’s why:
* Encourages ISPs to increase home broadband bandwidth
* Quickly makes movie downloads the ‘next big thing’ for kids
* Helps to push computer hardware specs so that multi-TB hard drives, fast DVD writers, and easy connectivity with TV or cable box would become standard
* Encourages parents to give kids money for movie downloads so that they wouldn’t be ‘breaking the law’ with illegal downloads
I doubt iTunes would have ever been popular if Napster, Kazaa, etc were not so popular first.
Maybe its me, but I just don’t see the point in owning DVD’s much anymore. Why? Owning them is way too expensive ($20 and up) and netflix has become my source for entertainment (low cost). I’m on the seven plans and I watch about 30 DVD’s per month. I have no real need to own when I can just order it, watch it and most likely never want to see it again, because there are always 100 more movies in my queue. Hollywood is producing too much content for me to catch up on, let alone want to own. I suspect that everything will go to a subscription service.
Still prefer free movies though =)
peekvid is cool.
Oops, the link i gave didn’t go through…
http://www.myth....com/wudi/?p=40 (my review on free video site – peekvid)
Sometimes I don’t understand why TC chooses to write about companies that they think are horrible and/or their product sucks. I’m sure there are hundreds of companies who would kill to be featured on TC, but instead you choose to write about companies such as reeltime.tv. Even though the article is negative, you have hundreds of thousands of readers and are just giving them free promotion. Any publicity is good publicity right?
Sean – do you know a DVD-quality movie download site that doesn’t suck? I don’t think there is one yet. I think the point of the article was to show this, and to also show that while the company has some neat innovations, the technology and movie industry have a long way to go before it becomes mainstream.
I think Michael’s articles are really starting to show how arrogant he is.
I dont understand why people want or need to burn to dvd. Presumably, if downloading a movie, you’re most likely to view it your PC or laptop(which can easily connected to flat panel tvs).
Furthermore,I think very few have the time, patience nor wherewithal to then transfer that movie to their ipod or mobile device.
As the original story mentioned, Bittorrent is, and will continue to be, the most popular form of movie consumption until the studios get their collective heads out…
“..most popular form of movie consumption ..”
clarification…the most popular form of downloaded movie consumption.
Why can they not make a cost-effective way to get 1 file? Look, I watch a movie once … thats idea of buy-to-rent, I don’t need 3 damn formats. Maybe pay less for Portable Media as the resolution sucks, more for PC and a premium for DVD-burning (although, I’d rather just buy a full DVD).
Michael,
Please offer us some details on what you would find to be a successful movie download business. What price would you pay for a legal copy of a movie? Do you want to own it or just rent it? Must the service work on both a PC and a MAC? How about Linux? Do you accept the use of any form of DRM? Which? Why? Do you really want a DVD or are you happy with the very simple A/V playout from a Portable Media Device? Do you like Bittorrent because the stuff is free or do you also p2p’s increased download speeds? Lots of folks are trying to create a business model and pick the right set of features to meet the demands of those who are seeking legal movie downloads. Help us out with some details about what you would endorse.
Steve,
Michael is not being arrogant, he’s in fact politely trying to point out some painful truth.
If you bother to click over to the reeltime.tv site, you’ll notice that “adult content” will be made available soon. They even prepare you for it by stating in the “FAQ” section that they’ll provide some “lock-out” functions for parents to prevent their children from accessing it.
I’m just dumbfounded that the legal department at Universal did not spot the potential liabilities as a result of this partnership. Imagine the following scenario:
Mom: “Why are you hogging the broadband?”
Teenager: “I’m downloading a movie from reeltime.tv. They’re a legitimate site. They have a partnership with Universal, you know, the big movie studio.”
Mom: “What movie are you downloading?”
Teenager: “‘King Dong’, I mean, uh, ‘King Kong’.”
Who knows? reeltime.tv could prove Michael wrong by becoming a successful provider of “adult content” (an euphemistic term for “porn”, unless you were born yesterday).
With regards to pricing sensitivities: I wonder if Guba.com’s “subsidized” pricing on video downloads has gotten any real traction with end-users. They take a loss on every purchase to drum up demand, so I’d be curious to hear whether they have been able to get more people to actually download paid content.
Barring the flawed business model – the User Interface is flawed.
I was intrigued, so I thought I would give it a go.
I searched for a movie that I would like to watch and clicked the “Watch!” button, it took me to a page that didn’t do anything. Then I realised I needed to load it in IE, not Firefox (Strike 1)
I load IE7 which was capturing the flash detection popup (Are you kidding!?) and stopping it from loading. So I turned off popups temporarily. (Strike 2)
Finally I get in to the flash interface, which has forgotten my movie selection. (Strike 3 – not out yet, let’s see how far it will go). I search for it, and then hit “Rent me”
Not logged in. Right, I register, then login, and it takes me back to the blank screen sans my movie selection! (Strike 4)
Search and find it again, hit “Rent me”, enter my CC details. Get informed that I have to install a number of pieces of software to manage the download. (This is getting ridiculous – Strike 5)
Install them (I’ve gotten this far) – and finally, successfully enter my CC details and then – nothing. Apparently the movie I wanted “Isn’t available”. (Strike 6)
I’m a web developer by trade, how is a ma and pa suppose to do this?!?
ReelTime says it has also teamed up with more than a hundred ISPs including Netspace, People Telecom and Westnet to offer unmetered downloads of its movies. It has also peered with PIPE Networks and WAIX.
ReelTime hopes to have around 100 titles in its catalogue by early 2007 from $14.98 and new releases debuting at the not so appealing price of $33.99.
above post from: http://www.whirlpool.net.au/ – by the way
I think movie download services need to send the DVD in the mail. We want instant gratification, but we also want long-term items which we can keep or share.
They should offer a free trial period first.
Erik – The problem isn’t with the business models or the companies – it’s with the studios who demand the high prices and DRM. I give the studios some credit for at least experimenting with online distribution – something the music guys failed to do until too late. But it’s clear from their pricing strategies that they are just experimenting to see what consumers may be able to stomach. That’s ok for consumers because they can continue to rip their own DVDs and use bittorent. but companies that are willing to spend their time and venture dollars screwing around while the studios figure out what they are doing aren’t going to be successful.
Steve – anonymous – trust me, it isn’t arrogance. there are way too many people who tell me how much of a dick I am every single day for me to even begin to get arrogant.
Michael – You hit the nail on the head…
The problem with all these ‘me-too’ download services is that they are hitching onto an entertainment ecosystem that isn’t ready to go through the pain and overhaul needed to engage with digital-age video/film.
There needs to be more people innovating with the content and process, further up the content creation chain. The project I’m developing with a subscriber community to do this is http://www.aswarmofangels.com/ — a more participative film model creating the missing link between ‘top-down’ Hollywood, and ‘bottom up’ user-generated content.
The studios are lucky download rates are still relatively slow in the U.S. They put $100m in Movielink just to, in the end, make a painful site almost no one uses. Perhaps not so nutty when you look at the billions in profits they’ve made off DVDs since Movielink launched. When fast broadband is ubiqitous enough that anyone can download a 640×480 movie in a few or 20 minutes, it will be game over, but until then the studios have every incentive to protect the DVD gravy train as long as possible.
I agree. This service will fail. Why can’t think up a model where the user retains all the rights – to do whatever he thinks with his buy. A service which is profitable?
Welcome to the rest of the world. How many times have I heard about a cool new site in the movie space only to find that it is US only with no way to even contact the company to ask for an Australian version. The iTunes Music Store was well over a year late in coming to Australia.
Because of the smaller market size those of us down under have to be used to dealing with lower tech higher priced options when there really should be no barriers to delivering content worldwide. Blame the studios for trying to artificially restrict content based on geography
I’ve been using EZTakes (www.eztakes.com) for a few months now. While they don’t have the most recent blockbusters and the site is a bit plain looking, but they do have some good indies and other hard-to-find titles. That’s good for me since I can get the latest blockbusters anywhere.
EZTakes lets me burn DVDs and even backup DVDs — And why the heck shouldn’t I be able to burn backup DVDs of stuff I PAID FOR? Google/Amazon and the rest can learn a lot from these guys.
Finding a good movie downloading site is like stapling Bologna to your face and sticking it in a bowl of PIRANHAS! Movielink is a winner… Techology will catch up in 1000 years… hopefully sooner!!!
I have a HUGE list of video and movie sites at the Matrix. Many of which some may be unfamiliar with… or maybe not… Rock on!
DeWayne(FilmFreak)
http://www.Movi...nloadMatrix.com
Watch Movies Now!
nice thx