Amazon Opens On-Demand Video Store

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Amazon Opens On-Demand Video Store

Posted by kdawson on Friday September 5, 2008 @05:08AM from the bandwidth-caps-could-be-a-problem dept.

g0dsp33d writes "Amazon opened the doors on its new video on demand service. Some promotional videos are free and the quality seems to be good. You can preview the first 2 minutes of any of the offerings. Episodes of TV shows cost $1.99 and movies are $14.99. Movies can also be 'rented' for 24 hours for $3.99. Purchasing allows download to two machines and unlimited viewing online. The service claims 14.5K movies and 1,200 TV shows including pre-purchasing the rights to upcoming seasons. Considering alternative, ad-based, free online video sites such as Hulu, is Amazon's service too pricey?"

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Wrong question! by bigtallmofo · 2008-09-05 05:10 · Score: 4, Interesting

Considering alternative, ad-based, free online video sites such as Hulu, is Amazon's service too pricey?

This should read:

Considering open access to ad-free shows and movies via BitTorrent, is Amazon's service too pricey?

I firmly believe that if content owners and distributors charged a reasonable rate to download a TV show (maybe 10 cents), piracy would be a thing of the past. For 10 cents, very few people would choose black or gray market distribution channels. Of course, that would have the negative effect of MTV's Cribs not being quite as exciting. Instead of 5 Bentleys and 2 Cadillac Escalades they'd have maybe a Ford Taurus and a Honda Accord.

Or we can just continue with this charade. Personally, I'd like to start charging people for looking in my direction. If you look at me without paying me, it's stealing. Because I say so.

--
I'm a big tall mofo.
1. Re:Wrong question! by mweather · 2008-09-05 05:21 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Torrents take time. On-demand video does not. You can't really compare the two anymore than you can compare TV with a DVR with on-demand TV.
2. Re:Wrong question! by maxume · 2008-09-05 05:33 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  If the tv shows and movies were ~$0.25-1.00, it wouldn't give me a real big belly ache to buy Amazon bucks $10 or $20 at a time, mitigating the credit card transaction costs.
  
  --
  Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
3. Re:Wrong question! by SanityInAnarchy · 2008-09-05 06:06 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  If you think that the asking price to view/read/listen to copyrighted content is too high, then don't pay it and don't view/read/listen to it. But don't try to justify your illegal activities because you're trying to help the industry revise their business model.
  It's not about what I think, or what GP thinks. It's about the fundamental reality.
  So long as the industry treats piracy as an evil to be fought, they will lose. As soon as they start to treat it as a competitor, they might have a chance -- because believe it or not, it is possible to compete with free. You just have to provide better value.
  
  Pirates are not Robin Hood - They're just people too cheap to pay for what they want and too weak to just go without it.
  Apple cites an 80 gig iPod as holding 20,000 songs. At $1/song, that's $20k to fill. That's more than a year's salary, at minimum wage. And they make 160 gig iPods.
  So no, it's not that they're cheap. It's that there's more available, more readily, and we have broader musical tastes -- and as a result, the perception of any one song has changed.
  
  --
  Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
4. Re:Wrong question! by Peeet · 2008-09-05 06:22 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  I live on the west coast and I can download via torrent and start watching a TV episode 15 minutes before it starts airing on cable / broadcast out here. All of the "on-demand" services I've seen don't even put the show up until the next day.
5. Re:Wrong question! by roc97007 · 2008-09-05 06:42 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  >> Considering open access to ad-free shows and
  >> movies via BitTorrent, is Amazon's service too
  >> pricey?
  > When compared to that, anything is too pricy, if you ignore the potential legal hassles.
  Not at all. For example, $19 for a CD is too much. I will not purchase any CD for that price. I'm more likely to pay $6.99 for a CD, (used) and even more likely to pay 89 cents per song for the songs I want.
  With a few minutes research, I can almost always find the title I want for a price I'm willing to pay. For the stuff that's not available for a reasonable price, wait a month or so and it pops up on the used market. (This assumes you can resist the temptation to be first on your block to own a new title.)
  Under those circumstances, piracy is unnecessary and unappealing because the price is in line with the customer's perception of value. When price is forced to be substantially above perceived value, piracy becomes more attractive. I firmly believe it's not about balancing the potential of legal hassle against getting something for free, it's about paying a fair price. And $19 for 9 songs, 7 of which are filler, is not a fair price.
  There's always going to be a hardcore group that pirates music for the challenge or excitement or just because they can. That yields good stories for the press but (going out on a limb here,) doesn't have a measurable effect on the bottom line. When the rank and file think they're being skinned, (...and perception is everything...) that's when piracy is more likely to happen in monetarily significant numbers. Especially since the hardcores have developed all those nice tools in the meantime. :-)
  
  --
  Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
6. Re:Wrong question! by Anonymous Coward · 2008-09-05 07:39 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Oh, really? I already paid for their (MPAA) stupid content. See, I used to use CD's. Mostly for data backup, these days mostly just for new Linux installs and n-Lited Windows builds.
  A few years ago I found out that I was actually paying the fucking MAFFIAA for every single CD - even though I don't ever listen to their crappy music they were charging me for it.
  Fuck that. If they're going to charge me for content I don't use, I'm going to help deprive them of revenue streams.
  I don't even listen to/watch the crap I download, but I'm sure as hell going to help people that want it get it.
The quality is awful. by Silverlancer · 2008-09-05 05:13 · Score: 5, Interesting

At the price they're charging, they should be offering something on the order of 1 megabit H.264 or the equivalent. Yet I opened one of the free episodes they had up and the quality was almost as bad as Youtube. One could argue that the prices were reasonable if the video was nearly as good as DVD, or at least as good as broadcast, but this is ridiculous.
Accessibility... by JustinOpinion · 2008-09-05 05:27 · Score: 4, Interesting

Considering alternative, ad-based, free online video sites such as Hulu, is Amazon's service too pricey?
It's not just price that matters. This new service is for "Mac or PC", and the expiration means that it will be DRMed. This means it won't run on my Linux system. Hulu is far from perfect, but it runs just fine on Linux, so it's what I use to catch up on the occasional show.

Of course, most of the population doesn't care about Linux per se. However I've learned over time that "will it work on Linux?" is a good proxy-question for "will it be easy to get it working?" If it doesn't run on Linux, then it invariably means that on Windows it's going to require a custom download, non-generic codecs, DRM, etc. So basically it's going to be a pain for just about everyone.

At the end of the day, something like Hulu (where a friend can just send you a link for a show; where you can just open it up in a browser; etc.) is more easily accessible and thus preferable (in my opinion).

(Note: I fully agree that the video quality of something like Hulu isn't that great... but that's orthogonal to the accessibility question. A direct download of a generic video file is by far easier for everyone than a DRMed file and a custom playing app.)
Ultimately, Price May Not Matter by moore.dustin · 2008-09-05 05:32 · Score: 2, Interesting

I believe the most important element in this may be how the actual service itself performs. Is the service easy to use and understand? Is the established Amazon user base going to be willing to give it a shot? Will the previewing, along with their peer-rated review system add value to the service? Will the quality, sound and technical requirements hinder the service in any way?

Amazon can absorb some losses if their initial price point turns out to be too high. They will still gain the valuable data they need to improve the system for an update, which could include their price reductions for the service. These sorts of offerings are nearly impossible to get right the first time out. Amazon has the position and resources to take a risk now and still come out ahead in the long run if they are able to adapt to the consumers wants and needs.

--
Invexi - a Phoenix, AZ based web design and web development company.
Re:Too Expensive by SlashdotOgre · 2008-09-05 05:35 · Score: 5, Interesting

It's too high for just a download service, but if they sent me the actual DVD in the mail and provided me this download immediately, I'd definitely consider it. Heck, I'd probably even put up with the download's DRM as long as a physical DVD comes in the mail.
As an American, I like immediate gratification and I'm lazy, so getting immediate access to the material I bought and not having to rip the DVD myself (even if my rip won't have DRM) would definitely motivate me to buy the DVD for Amazon over "Best" Buy, etc.
Even if there's a slight premium, eg. Best Buy charges $12 for just the DVD that I'd need to drive to the store for and Amazon charges $16 for the DVD in the mail plus an immediate download, I'd consider going with Amazon. Of course by that logic, their download would be worth about $4 to me which actually sounds about right. Basically I think what they're charging for rentals should be what they charge to permanent downloads.

--
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
Re:Too Steamed. by the+eric+conspiracy · 2008-09-05 05:36 · Score: 2, Interesting

DVD vs. some low quality streamed video loaded with DRM?
Not even close to being interested. Many DVDs are available used for what Amazon is charging for a rental.
Re:Mandatory short answer: by dpf44 · 2008-09-05 06:34 · Score: 2, Interesting

$2 for a TV show? I'd pay that if the quality is as good as you'd be able to download from TPB (ie. hidef - ~1GB for 45 minutes of video).
However, like most of these useful ideas, I can't get it in the UK. I can see no mention of this service on Amazon.co.uk. and the .com site blocks access outside of the 48 contiguous states.
Ah well, free wins!
$3.99 is Too Expensive. Should be $1.00 by gtwreck · 2008-09-05 06:39 · Score: 2, Interesting

Why is there not an On-Demand (DirecTV, Cable, etc.), Download Service (Amazon), etc. that will offer movies for the same price that Redbox does at my local Walmart or Grocery Store?
I can go rent one from the Redbox vending machine for $1.00/day, yet download prices are still artificially inflated to match the old fashioned video store price of $3.99? This is ridiculous.
If Redbox or anyone else offered a download service for $1.00 or even $2.00 the total volume of rentals would go way up.
I don't mind grabbing 3 movies at $1.00/day on the hope that 2 of them might be watchable. At $3.99 it's just too expensive so I rent far fewer movies.
Something is gonnaâ(TM) give.. by guzzirider · 2008-09-05 08:13 · Score: 2, Interesting

Currently, there is not a large percentage of internet scribers sucking major monthly downloads.. for those of us who are (use net) might be an example. But when the masses try to come to downloadable decent resolution video (whether it's Apple TV, Net Flix or now Amazon (resolution TBD)) the internet will need to support serious end to end bandwidth. The ISP-s are in a speed contest that started with all you can eat, but now that there is a threat that Homer Simpson might show up at the Shrimp Buffet counter the ISP-s are having second thoughts. Exactly just what would happen if 50% of the DSL, Fiber and Cable Modem subscribers in the USA all decided to download a movie at about 6 PM local time ? My intention is not to defend download CAPS, but something is gonna give..