Apple is negotiating with movie studios to make films available as downloads through iTunes. The company is attempting to convince the studios to allow it to sell films at $9.99 each. Studios are pushing back, according to a report in Variety: they want to be able to charge a series of tiered prices, just like they do in the offline world.
Apple may face some resistance in forcing studios to agree a one-fixed-price deal. Former Sony Music chief technology officer Phil Wiser recalls that when Jobs was attempting to negotiate permission for the iTunes Music Store he approached labels with a "take it or leave it" proposition. Movie industry moguls are also wary of giving to much control to iTunes, which has already managed to convince music label bosses to remain with the service despite offering songs at a fixed 99-cent-per-track price.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is attempting to use the huge presence he now has in Hollywood as a result of the Pixar/Disney merger to kick-start these negotiations. "He came in with a lot of bravado and said: 'We set our mind to what we were going to do in the music business and revolutionised it, and now we want to do the same thing with film," one studio person close to the talks for movie downloads told Variety.
The report suggests movie downloads are likely to debut (at least in the US) "by 2007".
News source: Macworld UK
Apple may face some resistance in forcing studios to agree a one-fixed-price deal. Former Sony Music chief technology officer Phil Wiser recalls that when Jobs was attempting to negotiate permission for the iTunes Music Store he approached labels with a "take it or leave it" proposition. Movie industry moguls are also wary of giving to much control to iTunes, which has already managed to convince music label bosses to remain with the service despite offering songs at a fixed 99-cent-per-track price.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is attempting to use the huge presence he now has in Hollywood as a result of the Pixar/Disney merger to kick-start these negotiations. "He came in with a lot of bravado and said: 'We set our mind to what we were going to do in the music business and revolutionised it, and now we want to do the same thing with film," one studio person close to the talks for movie downloads told Variety.
The report suggests movie downloads are likely to debut (at least in the US) "by 2007".
News source: Macworld UK
oh wait, who's got all the MBAs here anyway? 8P
Also, i hope for download times sake that special features are NOT available
When this **** has been around for years.
and if not.. well then all i have to say i screw em. :p
If I want to watch a movie I'll rent it on DVD.
Plus I'm a lot more comfortable with having a $1 file locked down with DRM than a $10 file.
Apple aims to get the edge in digital music/entertainment. I see no reason to complain when the competition fights back in order to win customers.
but if the quality is less than Divx and it doesn't have 5.1 speakers support, then it sucks
Of course the movies must be recent ones, not a "classic movies only".
More interesting, to me, is the gamble of the whole thing. Not everyone has high-speed internet access - though, probably, those who are more likely to buy and download a movie online are the ones who also choose dsl or broadband. But really, I don't see it being at the same level of success of the iTunes Music Store, in the beginning at least. Downloading a small music file is one thing, downloading a whole movie (if they shrink it as much as possible with H.264 they'll probably end up with a 300-400 Mb file, more or less) is another. I'm really curious to see how this will develop. It's a great move anyway - we're living in interesting times indeed...
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