Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Amazon Slashes Prices on 4K Content in Response To Apple TV 4K's Launch (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the market-dynamics dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: One of the many announcements at Apple's keynote a couple weeks ago was that 4K movies would be added to iTunes at the same price as HD content. Previously purchased HD movies would also be upgraded to 4K for free, though for streaming only. In response, Amazon Video has drastically slashed the prices of its own 4K content to match iTunes. As Pocket Lint notes, Amazon Video's 4K selection is not only limited in comparison to Apple's, but was incredibly expensive with purchases running over $30. (This price was comparable to services like Vudu and Google, but Apple's worked out deals to offer 4K HDR movies at $19.99.) Over the weekend, it appears prices for 4K titles on Amazon Video are now starting at around $5, with newer releases in the range of $7 to $19.

25 comments

  1. Agency Model? by Luthair · · Score: 2

    One wonders whether its Amazon making the change, or whether the studios were setting the prices and are obligated to offer through Amazon the same pricing as the best elsewhere.

    1. Re: Agency Model? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The almanac says this is going to be a bad year for growing sacks.

  2. that was a plot twist by kwoff · · Score: 2

    I would've expected it to be the other way around: Amazon lowering prices to defeat Apple's expensive launch, heh.

  3. This is Free Market in action. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Now, if/when someone gets market control, that's when Free Markets become bad. When a firm controls a market, it is no longer free and worse than a government controlled market.

    Government intervention is necessary because the Free Markets will ALWAYS end up in a monopoly and hurt consumers.

    Like all religions, Free Market Capitalism needs reform.

    Free Markets are based on human irrationality. There is nothing rational about human choices - and the Chicago school are a bunch of delusional fanatics.

    1. Re: This is Free Market in action. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only govt regulation causes monpolies. Real free market system has not been tried yet outside of early america and hongkong. Both did well.

    2. Re:This is Free Market in action. by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      Government intervention is necessary because the Free Markets will ALWAYS end up in a monopoly and hurt consumers.

      Or, like cable in most locales, end up with a few large competitors owning the market, and refusing to engage in true competition. It's great because they can't be classified as a monopoly but they are able to fix prices to their hearts' content.

    3. Re: This is Free Market in action. by MemeRot · · Score: 1

      Don't forget Sudan

  4. I am not a consumer bot... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

    ...So I really don't care.

    I mean, if you have to have "IT'S NEW AND SHINY, I MUST GET OUT MY CREDIT CARD NOW!", and there's nothing wrong with that if it turns you on, than fine, pay the price and play the game.

    By the time it get's to me, it's usually $5 anyway.

    Patience, young Grasshopper...

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  5. This might matter some day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe in 10-15 years when/if(?) my 1080 TVs die, this will end up mattering. Nice to know the industry is getting ready for next decade.

    1. Re:This might matter some day by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      I think I'll just sit this one out and wait until 8K or whatever else comes out after this because you know they're going to need something new to sell everyone in another five years. Hopefully they'll reach a point where they can just quit though so we can break the cycle. I mean 64K ought to be enough for anybody.

    2. Re:This might matter some day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think I'll just sit this one out and wait until 8K or whatever else comes out after this

      And when that comes out you'll just wait for the one after that. That's why I'm still using a rotary dial telephone. I almost bought one o' them fancy smart phones, but then I read a story that next year they will be better.

    3. Re: This might matter some day by MemeRot · · Score: 1

      Subtle... love it

  6. Yoda: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Begun, the 4K war, has...

  7. Buy The Disc by nick_davison · · Score: 3, Informative

    Amazon and Vudu have both been selling $30 4K copies.

    Alternatively virtually every disc now comes with an Ultraviolet (Vudu/bunch of other branded services) code.

    Buy a 4K movie on disc for the same price as the Vudu digital copy and you get the 4K Vudu version plus discs that never degrade quality due to bandwidth and, best of all, still play when your digital merchant of choice decides to retire their service.

    Plus Vuduâ(TM)s disc to digital generally lets you stick Blu-ray copies in your drive and convert to Vudu for $1 each as soon as youâ(TM)re doing ten or more ($2 each for less than ten).

    Getting the discs as well as the digital copies, for the same price as the digital copies... it amazes me anyoneâ(TM)s been buying digital only for just as high a price.

    Oh... and a lot of discs come with both Vudu and iTunes codes. So you commonly get discs and two digital services for the cost of a single digital service buy.

    1. Re:Buy The Disc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Okay, so maybe this is genuinely "Informative". We'll see.

      But why is it that you're mentioning a service I've never heard of in a post that's full of unicode conversionÃ(TM) errors, when you don't usually have unicode conversion errors according to your post history? Normally I wouldn't give people shit over stupid crap like that, but I get suspicious when someone suddenly mentions a service I've never heard of on Slashdot, and something seems "off" -- like it was copied from a prepared release.

      At least you don't have Amazon affiliate links in your post. Take five points for Ravenclaw.

    2. Re:Buy The Disc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here's another way to look at it: I make $45 an hour. It's a movie. For the most part, I care about watching it RIGHT NOW in 4k, and I didn't already buy this disk. So, really I'm paying the $10 to see it RIGHT NOW and for the remaining $20 I also get a digital copy to watch later. Or, maybe I'm paying $15 to watch it RIGHT NOW, and for the other $15, I get a copy to watch at my leisure (with, of course, the real chance the service will be sunset in the next 5 years). My time is worth something; I don't want to wait for the disc. For many people, this is the logic that prevails. If you collect movies, this logic isn't for you. But, if you don't and you mostly only watch movies a few times, then many people will still buy the digital copy because they are buying to watch RIGHT NOW.

    3. Re:Buy The Disc by madbrain · · Score: 2

      I don't collect movies, but I do care about having the best quality in my home theater. All 4K streaming services, including Amazon and Vudu, both have much lower bit rates for streaming than what's available on a 4K UHD Blu-ray disc

      This is true for HD streaming vs Blu-ray discs, too.

      I don't care one bit about the "right now" argument. Most streaming movies sound like crap in my 11.4 speaker setup in my home theater.
      About the same as DVDs. HD streaming picture is quite noticeably worse on the 106" projection screen, too.
      We are talking about typical bit rates of 5 Mbps for HD vs 20 Mbps for Blu-ray. Even with better compression algorithms for streaming, it doesn't come close to Blu-ray.

      I haven't watched any 4K content yet as 4K projectors have been too expensive until now. That may finally change this season, though, after 9 years of waiting for an affordable 4K projector.

      --
      -- Julien Pierre http://www.madbrain.com/blog
    4. Re:Buy The Disc by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      Totally agree.
      Streaming 4k looks crap compared to a just a 1080 blu-ray disc upscaled to 4k by my 60" 4k oled tv..

    5. Re:Buy The Disc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It depends on what disc you get what sound quality you get. For most of what I use blu-ray for (dubbed Disney movies for the kids), it is regular AC3 which is worse audio quality than the DVDs that had DTS and much worse than some English-only audio tracks (DTS-HD / DTA-MA). Most streaming options are AC3, which means the audio when streaming is usually identical to what I would get on an UHD disc of older content (most newer kids movies are DTS also for dubbed tracks).

  8. 4K? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At what bitrate 4K? As far as I know, Amazon and Netflix stream 4K at 15 Mbit/s whereas most blu-ray content is around 50 Mbit/s when stripping out encryption overhead, menus, etc (although some of it is duplicated language streams which would not be replicated, it's still around 40 Mbit/s and even if x265 is twice as good as x264 at lower bitrates, these are not low enough bitrates considering it's 4x the number of pixels at 1/3 of the bitrate). Pirate some UHD Blu-ray copies instead.

  9. And you can still get content for $0 without DRM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    From anybody who doesn't hate their customers, ie that isn't Apple, Google, Amazon, Netflix, or Vudu. Sorry, but you continue to f'c with me I will continue to not be your customer.

  10. 3D and 4K content has always been overpriced. by Mrakodrap · · Score: 1

    Even on Blu-Ray discs. Paying for a two-hour-long mild entertainment with the equivalent of multi-tens-of-hours of fun with some video game is pretty insane concept to me. This is the main reason why bittorrents proliferated so much. And they will. They will once again rise just like a Phoenix out of ashes.

  11. Yeah no thanks by JustNiz · · Score: 1

    Given $3 or $4 gets you an actual DVD that you can hold in your hand and own for ever, $20 just to stream something still seems like an insanely blatant rip-off, especialyl considering with streaming they also have zero media manufacture and distribution costs. 4k is nice but I can't see how they can justify that kind of cost difference over 720 or 1080, other than absolute greed and what they think they can get away with.

    1. Re:Yeah no thanks by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      I guess they're selling to a small niche with a lot of spending power, and a need to justify the initial expenditure. Honestly, I'm surprised 4k was pushed so soon. 1080p still feels pretty new.