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Starz, RealNetworks Offer Movie Download Service
Mz6 writes "The
New York Times and
others are reporting that RealNetworks and the Starz Encore Group will introduce an online service today that will let high-speed Internet users download and watch many of the movies shown on the Starz cable channel. This report is just on the heels of
TiVo's announcement to stream from the Web. This move is another early attempt by Hollywood to build a business out of downloadable movies and head off the sort of piracy that has hurt the music industry. The new service, called Starz Ticket on Real Movies, will cost $12.95 a month, and subscribers will be able to download and watch 100 or more movies each month, using Real's media player software, but only if you have a 600Kbps connection or higher."
From Real.com (a web page which doesn't load in Mozilla, because it checks my connection rate (without asking)! Rrrrrrr...)
.
Access over 100 movies for one low monthly fee -- 25 new titles added weekly
Download movies on up to three computers -- take them on the go with your laptop
That's about all the info Real has made available, other than movie titles.
I'm intrigued - now if only it weren't for the "possibility" of DRM sys-crap coming down the pipe, along with the movie . .
<grrr>
Going from $8 per view to $13 per month certainly looks like a step in the right direction. Maybe market forces will drive things toward a workable model after all. This is almost something I'd consider subscribing to.
This move is another early attempt by Hollywood to build a business out of downloadable movies and head off the sort of piracy that has hurt the music industry.
Yep. The music business is doing so poorly. Those record label executives are going to be on welfare pretty soon. Actors, directors, and those prop guys are going to be on there next.
Wait.. didn't Harry Potter just make $90M in the US alone in its first weekend?
Yea... but you broadcast your IP all over the place to others on the tracker and basically advertise yourself as a no good pirate to the {MP|RI}AA and their enforcers who are out to keep their content from being pirated.
Even the inventor of BT thinks it's dumb to use it for piracy because it is so non anonymous.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
I cant wait for the letter I will be getting from my ISP about how I am abusing my internet connection and using more than I should be.
30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
Score:5, Troll
subscribers will be able to download and watch 100 or more movies each month.
A movie in compressed divx form is what, 600MB, x100 = 60000MB, or ~60GB in one month. Perhaps they can compress it more, but even so that's a hell of a lot of data. It'll be interesting to see how the broadband ISPs react to this, since multimedia is one of the big pros of broadband, but the providers nonetheless tend to rely on folks not actually using their full bandwidth much of the time (that's why they hate big P2P sharers).
the downside to this program is that you have to use the all-intrusive real player.
Is it 5:30 yet?
I believe that piracy hurts bad movies (and albums). There have been plenty of movies that I haven't gone to see in the theater because I've watched a copy I downloaded and hated it. Not so much recently, but Hulk and MiB 2 both come to mind. If i hadn't downloaded them, I probably would have wasted $7 in a theater to go see them. Other movies, however, that I've seen first on my computer, I have gone to see multiple times in the theater.
Same thing goes for music. If a band I normally like releases a followup album, I'd likely go buy it -- except now I'm being smart and checking online first. If it sucks, then I don't buy it.
When will companies learn that people want choices? The only reason iTunes is working out for Apple is because they put it on windows too.
I love STARZ and watch for the saturday night movies all the time. I might have subscribed had they supported the mac, I mean we have real player, why not just support it? Stupid move Real.
5-10 bucks and:
1) It is lower quality than a DVD
2) You have to burn it on your own media
3) No case, no cover-art so it looks like ass on your shelf
That needs to be priced no more than $3. By the time movies are available as pay-per-view, they are also available used at most video rental stores and often have even made it to Columbia House. That means good quality DVDs with case and cover-art are often available for around $8 new and even less than that used -- I've bought a ton of barely used foreign and indie flicks at Hollywood Video for $5.66 after tax, the big-name titles have been about $7.10 after tax.
That comparison is a little facetious as it involves the combination of Hollywood Video's 3/$20 and 3/$25 sales and %20 discount on gift cards, and the Columbia House pricing requires more orgainzation-work than some are willing to do. But the point is that DVD pricing is in a long-term downward trend and that the market is so saturated with titles that a download service needs to provide significant improvement over competing offerings. Then there is competition with bit-torrents and the other latest P2P flavors - ignoring the fact that they are "free," the diversity of titles available via P2P is staggering, those foreign films that aren't even on DVD in the USA? Good chance they are on the net and readily available.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
How are they "breaking the law?" They own the copyright on the work. So, presumably they are the only ones not breaking the law when they participate in the bittorrent network.
It isn't wire-tapping. They are not government employees. They didn't need any special privledges to the internet or hack bittorrent to figure this out. It is more like just finding a list of phone numbers for crack houses. Calling them up and ordering crack, and having the crack house send it to you, reciept and all.
They are private citizens that discover and have proof that their constitutionally guaranteed right to control distrubiution of their copyrighted work is being actively violated.
Hell, what can be simplier for the MPAA/RIAA? They can get the file once. Demonstrate they have a copyright on it. The tracker tells them everyone that is sharing the file. All they need is to hand it over to law enforcement agencies. The case itself open-and-shut.
Look, copyright is messed up in America. Copyright should only last for about 30 years. But, even so, you can't justify downloading the newest Harry Potter flick. Even under a more reasonable copyright system, that would still be illegal.
Legal worries aside, it is wrong. Content creators that express that they don't want you distributing something they created are legally guaranteed to do so for a limited time. People should respect that. Even if the MPAA/RIAA is a bunch of money grubbing asshats, it doesn't make it right.
Don't try to play with the legal technicalities. Rest assured, the law will eventually catch up to illegal distributors.
But, I appluad Real and Starz will be trying to do something that sounds like it might be really cool. Although, only time will tell if they can overcome the problems they will face (from technical to social). But, I think it is pretty sweet that they are trying.
Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true! -Homer Simpson