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Apple Is In Talks With Hollywood For Early Access To Movies On iTunes: Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
Apple is talking with Hollywood studios to try and get iTunes rentals of movies that are still playing on the big screen. According to a report from Bloomberg, "some studio executives have been pushing to allow home rentals as early as two weeks after theatrical debuts and are considering a deal with iTunes as one option." Bloomberg reports: The most recent talks are part of longer-running efforts by Cupertino, California-based Apple to get new movies sooner, two of the people said. Such an arrangement could help iTunes stand out in a crowded online market for movies, TV shows and music. While the iTunes store helped Apple build a dominant role in music retailing, the company hasn't carved out a similar role in music and video streaming. Hollywood studios typically give theaters exclusive rights to new movies for 90 days or more before issuing them on DVD or making them available for online purchase. One of the concerns about iTunes is whether it will be a secure platform for delivering movies that are still in theaters, the people said. While Apple encrypts iTunes video files so they can't easily be duplicated, it's possible to use a camera to record a movie playing on a TV screen. A leak of picture that's still in theaters would jeopardize returns for the studios and cinema owners.
I'm not, of course, talking about an iTunes rental price that remains constant.
It would have to be a price that starts out extremely high -- high enough to more than offset the losses resulting from decreased theater attendance and piracy -- then decays exponentially, asymptotically approaching what one currently pays for an iTunes rental.
The studios would definitely be leaving money on the table by saying no to this idea.
The fun part for financial geeks would be to figure out the decay constant that would maximize revenue for a particular title. The rental price for a movie like Titanic, which played in theaters for months, should decay much more slowly than for a movie like Ishtar.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
I already severely limit the movies I go and see at the theatre because of cost. I can buy the DVD for half to 2/3 the cost of 2 adults going to see the same movie on the big screen. Nice thing about being willing to wait is that you don't get caught up in the hype and find you have spent good money on a crap film (e.g. Batman vs Superman). Too many movies are now about how many or how big the special effects are, plot, coherence, dialog all be damned. 3D is a fad, it does nothing to improve a crap movie and often ruins a good one. Equally the sound in theatres is often so loud you really wonder if permanent hearing damage has occurred. A DVD can be played multiple times, in any locations that has a DVD player. It can be paused, rewound, replayed, skipped forward all on demand. It can be loaned to friends and family, it can be on sold, it represents far more value than iTunes does. I have NEVER bought a digital download movie and have only ever bought 1 "CD" on iTunes , I prefer to buy physical media that I am in control of. Even better I buy 2nd hand media paying $2-5 for a DVD and less for a CD.
"One of the concerns about iTunes is whether it will be a secure platform for delivering movies that are still in theaters, the people said. While Apple encrypts iTunes video files so they can't easily be duplicated, it's possible to use a camera to record a movie playing on a TV screen."
Yeah, that never happens in a movie theater...
#DeleteChrome
There is a word for such behavior: Price Gouging.
"Price gouging" is just the free market at work. Movie rentals are far from a necessity, so if you don't want to pay what the market will bear, then don't rent it. Government intervention to prevent "price gouging" is only justified in emergency situations, such as the aftermath of natural disasters, and even then it often does more harm than good. Gasoline shortages after Hurricane Sandy lasted several days longer than necessary because government imposed price controls disincentivized fuel deliveries. Low prices don't help when the storage tank is empty.
Are why I stopped doing business with the company.
"GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 51230 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; Setec Astronomy)"
But it's Apple, they'll all be musicals.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
If I have to pay a different price (or have no access at all) just because I am traveling to a different country, that is pretty much the opposite of a free market.
Is that true of all goods? On an exchange rate basis, a Big Mac sandwich costs different amounts in different countries. That's why The Economist uses the ingredients and labor in a Big Mac as a product basket to illustrate which countries' currencies are undervalued.
If you make movies available for decent price on a wide selection of platforms, pirates will be those who are unlikely to be your customers anyway. Current attitude make pirates out of parents who can not justify $100 for babysitter, tickets, gas, parking and a small popcorn just to watch a two hour non-kid movie. Longer term, folks will just find something on Netflix/Amazon/HBO rather than taking legal and malware risk digging up torrents. And never go back to traditional studios that make them wait months to rent a movie everyone is talking about.
I am not even considering gazillion games and upcoming VR entertainment that is competing for the same leisure time as movies.