Better Late Than Never. Apple Finally Gets Serious About Movie Downloads.
Erick Schonfeld
21 comments »
After years of negotiating with the movie studios, Steve Jobs finally got them to agree to put their movies on iTunes the same day as they release them on DVD. Now, in addition to Disney—which has been selling movies on iTunes since September, 2006—Apple is distributing 1,500 films from 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studio. New movies can now be purchased for $15, or rented for $4 (older movies are $10 for purchase or $3 for rental).
Apple watchers have been expecting this for a long time. It announced a deal to distribute rentals in January, and even that leaked out beforehand. But both Amazon and Netflix already have their own movie download and/or streaming services. And both offer more titles—Netflix has more than 6,000 and Amazon has nearly 12,000. (Although, Amazon may be rethinking its Unbox service).
It was only a matter of time before the studios relented and struck a deal with Apple. They could only stand on the sidelines and watch Disney ring in the coin for so long. The idea of distribution windows is so Twentieth Century anyway. How long before movies appear online the same day they hit the movie theaters? Come on Steve, we’re counting on you.
I know its of topic but would anybody remember the url of the site which aggregates news from other different sites and displays all headlines on one page as a hyperlinks. TechCrunch used to mention this site before and I believe it is being run by one person with no vc funding.. If anybody can help it would be great…!
MORE EVIDENCE THAT CONTENT IS KING!
aside from disney, there’s … disney.
nice one.
Great News.
Now what are the hidden details?
Is it only for US based costumers?
What video format does it use?
Do we need Itune player to view it?
I love the idea, but what is the resolution of the movie. I think i heard it is only 720p. Not good if you have a Hi-Def TV.
Yup that would be really awesome, if movies simultaneously release on iTunes and Movie Theaters. With the way things are going, it is actually possible, better iTunes than Mininova or Piratebay.
do you know if it’s possible to watch some TV shows? Like a french catchup TV website : http://www.splarte.com
[quote]I love the idea, but what is the resolution of the movie. I think i heard it is only 720p. Not good if you have a Hi-Def TV.
[/quote]
thats hi def
When will consumers have a metric for video compression? 720p 1080p tells us how many pixels but doesn’t account for artifacts and motion blur etc…
Bitrate and file format don’t do it either.
We need more standards!
True most consumers don’t care, but if I am to pay to OWN a movie, it better be a decent quality.
Does anyone with U-verse or FIOS TV download movies from iTunes?
http://tech-talk.biz/2008/04/2.....he-battle/
Disney are hardly ‘ringing in the coin’ on iTunes. They’re making v.little money and selling very few movies at present with people pushed away by the prices and the DRM and the stupid restrictions (24 hours to watch). And yeah, quality’s ok but not brilliant. They might get a boost from rentals here but I can’t see many people paying to own the movie….
I love Apple and Netflix, but I am sorry Netflix, you are losing my interest. Your long waits and other waits are causing me to to download from Apple and reduce my subscriptions. Netflix downloads don’t cut it. They are either so popular that the content is already on TV or so crappy you don’t want to watch it. Right now I am sifting between one and two star films on Netflix’s download services. Otherwise, its no problem if you want to watch the same 40 four star films over and over. The BEST thing about Netflix downloads is that I can watch my exercise video over and over since the downloads are unlimited.
$4 is simply too much, I cant believe no one has complained about this.
its should be $1.99 to rent a movie via downloads.
@Jason Jenkins, isn’t this proof that distribution is king? not content?
$4 is way too high. I agree *right now* it should be under $2. And in the next 2 years it will drop well below $1.
The cost of distribution is approaching zero and the availability of high quality downloads free (but illegal) is becoming more easily found.
Apple’s in the right direction but way behind.
I’d pay $4 to download movies at the time of their theatrical release. That’s the deal that would have impressed me. I really don’t see anything novel or market driving here.
2 things. First, does anyone else think that the look and feel of the iTunes store (for music and videos) is just awful? It seems so un-Apple. The movies are just page after page of tiny thumbnails, and, even once you find a movie, the information is absolutely minimal. Even the reviews are pathetic compared to, say, Amazon. I really think that Apple could do better. It’s a mess.
Second, although I’d like to pay less, $4 is hardly too much. My options right now are the physical Blockbuster store and Apple. Both cost at least $4, but Blockbuster requires two trips to their store and the possibility that they won’t have the movie I’m looking for. Apple is just a click away. No fuss. Yes, the other download services (including Blockbuster’s) can compete, but I’m just tickled that I never have to go to a video store again. Who needs that nonsense?
2 things. First, does anyone else think that the look and feel of the iTunes store (for music and videos) is just awful? It seems so un-Apple. The movies are just page after page of tiny thumbnails, and, even once you find a movie, the information is absolutely minimal. Even the reviews are pathetic compared to, say, Amazon. I really think that Apple could do better. It’s a mess.
Second, although I’d like to pay less, $4 is hardly too much. My options right now are the physical Blockbuster store and Apple. Both cost at least $4, but Blockbuster requires two trips to their store and the possibility that they won’t have the movie I’m looking for. Apple is just a click away. No fuss. Yes, the other download services (including Blockbuster’s) can compete, but I’m just tickled that I never have to go to a video store again. Who needs that nonsense?
Does this mean anything for TV shows? I’m not as concerned about when movies come out as when my favorite shows come out each week.
When will Apple allow rentals to last more than 24 hours? If they could get their rentals to be more like Netflix subscription model they would sell a ton of AppleTV’s. I would order it immediately when that happens. Why continue with the same business model that all the failed video rental stores have used?