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Apple Pushes Studios to Offer 4K Content for Upcoming Apple TV at Lower Prices, Report Says (bit.ly)
Apple appears to have ambitious plans to attract people's interest in its streaming device Apple TV, according to a new report. An anonymous reader shares a report: The company, which is widely expected to refresh the Apple TV next month to bring support for videos in 4K, is in talks with Hollywood studios to bring Ultra HD content at lower prices, WSJ reported on Tuesday. Apple is widely expected to unveil new iPhone models - including one called the iPhone 8 - next month. The publication reports that the iPhone-maker is pushing Hollywood studios to agree to sell Ultra HD editions of movies at $19.99, the usual price the company charges for full-HD of new movies. But Hollywood studios, which have seen a significant portion of their business go to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, are pushing for higher prices. Hollywood studios, according to the report, are asking Apple to increase the asking price from proposed $19.99 per movie by $5 to $10.
"Hollywood studios, according to the report, are asking Apple to increase the asking price from proposed $19.99 per movie by $5 to $10." Pushing even more people to Netflix...
I hope Apple stands firm on this because the average person is not going to pay more for UHD content to be streamed.
Streams are not as good as buying the Disc, and doubly so for 4K and beyond, this is due to the compression. Every time we get an increase in resolution it has come at a cost of the color fidelity because we're still doing 4:2:0, so all increasing the resolution does is make the slices smaller so we don't see the compression artifacts as readily. But what Cable and Streaming sources (eg Netflix) have done is scaled back the compression from what is supposed to be a 25Mbit stream to a 6Mbit stream. 4K at 6Mbit is gross. Unless we're going to be permitted to download UHD Blueray quality, paying BD prices for non-BD content is just not going to happen. Instead of buying 10 movies per year, it will just be cut back to 5, and the rest will be "watch on netflix"
I got news for Hollywood... I usually pay $5 to $10 for a HD movie on iTunes. Since none of my PC monitors are 4K, and I don't have an Apple box for my 4K TV, I'm not interested in paying extra 4K video. Apple will eventually discount the 4K movie to $5 to $10 anyway.
we will set the price for content we didnt create. They had the music industry over a barrel; the movie industry isnt that desperate.
the usual price for me is $3-5 bargain bin at target or walmart. fuck $20. not gonna happen. good thing i'm not apple's target demographic, i guess.
ur ghey
How is this different to when the book publishers demanded Amazon, Apple, etc sell digital copies of books at a certain price?
The publishers lost a lawsuit and were required to pay consumers back after that for price fixing. I can't see Hollywood faring much better if they force streaming companies to sell digital copies of films for a certain price.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Given Apple is responsible for high ebook prices.
When I was a kid, there was still some black and white content, and it wasn't uncommon to see a black and white TV set from time to time. Then things went to all color and standard definition. HD came out and there was a big WOW moment that created a compelling reason to switch over, helped by the broadcast changeover from analog to digital. Blu-Ray won the format war and it's only a little better than DVD, but it's not so much better that if I can only find a movie in DVD format I would skip it. From what I see, 4K is a little better than Blu-Ray but not the same as going from SD to HD. And a lot of the content I'm getting is streamed, anyway, so it can buffer and have compression artifacts. I guess if I was planning on getting some ginormous screen soon it might matter, but honestly the 42" size screens are "good enough" and we have better ways to spend money than to upgrade for only an incremental benefit.
big dick in my ass
Holywood just never learns. You cannot price digital content even higher than physical media. People will and do vote with their wallets. This d-move will be followed by much wailing about how "piracy is killing the movie industry". Yes, if you spell piracy G R E E D, then there's a case to answer.
I'm a very long time user of iTunes and I don't think the 4K quality of video will justify the additional costs.
Over the past 10 years, I have purchased nearly $10K worth of entertainment including shows/movies/music... but only chose SD videos, not even HD. SD video may seem a little bit old, but still high quality enough for my family to enjoy. The additional cost of 25% on HD wasn't necessary. Now they wanted to add another 20% for 4K. I don't think so.
The difference between SD/HD is very visible, but can anybody honestly tell me that they can use their own eyes to distinguish the difference between HD and 4K? So why pay for the extra cost?
"Apple is widely expected to unveil new iPhone models - including one called the iPhone 8..."
Wow, so it's gonna be called iPhone 8?
And here I thought the company whose marketing hasn't changed in a fucking decade was gonna call the new iPhone "Banana Fandango"...
Can Apple push Comcast to remove their totally unnecessary data caps so we can stream 4k video without worrying about the meter running in the background?
If the story isn't worth $20, more pixels sure isn't going to sell it... Neither will a 3rd dimension.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
There are clearly some conflicting agendas, here. Apple wants the $20 price point, because that's already the target price for most new movies; thus, they would be able to justify contract language which allows them to upgrade recent movie purchases which were made in that price bracket to the new 4K versions, making it a very attractive bullet point during their pitch for the new AppleTV. I'd even wager that the stage script has already been crafted; perhaps something along the lines of, "So you might ask, how much am I going to pay for all this new 4K content? I have good news! If you've purchased new movies from us recently, you probably already have some 4K movies, just waiting for you to download!"
In contrast, the movie studios all want to sell you brand spanking new 4K copies of all of the movies you already bought... at $25 to $30 a pop. "Upgrade? What on earth are you talking about? Who cares if you already bought the 1080p version? That was yesterday -- this is today! Either buy the 4K movie or don't, and that's my final offer. Geez -- what do these people think... that us movie studios are just made of money?"
Ummmmm... well, actually...
Apple should go along with the higher price for 4k, with the proviso that Apple gets the entire premium over standard HD until it's demonstrated that the higher price point doesn't reduce total revenue (sales * price). If the studios are correct, that condition won't hurt them. If they're wrong, Apple doesn't get hurt while the studios figure out that price matters.
1080 is okay, but I wouldn't pay more for it over 720. 4k? Every demo I've seen of it it looks like someone has put a video through an extreme sharpening filter. It doesn't look natural.
Caution: Contents under pressure
Why are good and bad movies same price ? Let studios decide. Often good movies at HD are more expensive initially but later when no longer popular since early viewers watched then prices drop. Likewise bad movies should be cheap sooner though they do come down faster than the popular movies. $20 for a stream approaching a DVD/ BD price another challenge but streaming on demand so convenience offers some differential value.
if the sales are decreasing, you don't increase the price...
why dont they just steal the content, do whatever they want with it and wait for the studios to take them to court. Now that sounds like apple!
How many people are actually using full 1080p over the air HDTV broadcasts? Most are getting 1080i or 720p, and most cell carriers downgrade you to 720p nowadays.
Fix that first.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Because apple. I thought all apple worshipper spent so much money and where richer than Android users yet they are bitching and a few bucks on a movie. Hypocrites.
Currently, even most of the large-budget block busters are still either shot on cameras with less than 4k resolution, or post-produced in 2k. And talking about streaming, movies are streamed at bandwidths so ricidculously low that every complex scenery turns into mush.
So why pay extra for a 4k upscaling that your player or TV can do just as well?
I for one am willing to pay for actual, high-bandwidth 4k content - of which very, very little is on offer.
Nobody wants to pay that much for a 4k movie.
Maybe $2-$5 tops.
So now they invent this war so you won't feel bad paying like $20 for crap.
Thanks Timmy Cook, keep cashing those checks.