iTunes and video iPods: Where’s the fire?
NBC’s divorce from the iTunes store is official. The TV content that made up something like 40% of video sales has left the iAuditorium, as foreshadowed last fall when NBC Universal and Steve Jobs went to war over the network’s desire to test $2.99 pricing for some of its shows.
That primetime content now can be found on NBC.com, the new NBC Universal-Fox project Hulu and via a couple of other routes. For free.
Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey ponders the fate of video on iTunes in an eyebrow-raising piece posted on CNET. Interesting not only for its analysis, but also in the way it reflects big media’s linear thinking.
The distribution model that made the iPod, iTunes and related products so successful in music can’t be ported over or adapted to video, he notes. Blame it on the Hollywood studios:
“Most of them have still not agreed to sell new releases through iTunes — either from fear of building an Apple monster, or because of exclusive commitments to other partners in paid TV or elsewhere. That’s why, despite the back catalog of movies that Paramount, MGM, and Lionsgate feature there, the result is a stunning lack of movie content for purchase.”
Certainly the amount of content on iTunes is an issue. Output deals always are fluid; the stuff comes and goes. You still can’t buy the Beatles via iTunes.
But this think piece wanders off with the interesting idea that without these movies (or TV shows), “the value of an expensive video device is dramatically lessened.” Wonder how many video iPod owners would go along with that statement.
One commenter on a Silicon Alley Insider post had this to say about NBC and iTunes:
I have purchased numerous NBC television shows via iTunes and while I have thoroughly enjoyed them (especially because they are ad-free), I will not be pursuing that content via other distribution methods. … I watched NBC content because of iTunes/iPod, I didn’t buy my iPod because of NBC!
The Forrester analyst wrote, “Unfortunately for consumers, the movie industry won’t let you rip DVDs to iTunes.” OK, but not many consumers give a rat’s ass about what Hollywood wants — just as they weren’t concerned with the desires of their slower cousins in the music business.
Whatever it takes to make most studio content transferable and portable will become routine, just as MP3-related software made music-copying such a breeze. Once the distribution patterns are set, the hacking will go mainstream.
Any kid with some tech savvy can copy movies or TV shows on DVD to the various video iPods — just as the public has done for a decade with their CDs. (Let’s just say the homebound Apple TV is over.)
Just because you can’t download “Transformers” from iTunes doesn’t mean fanboys all over the world aren’t running around with a copy in their back pockets.
Illegal? Whatever. In the court of common sense, piracy is when the content is stolen via, say, BitTorrent — but not when a product that’s been paid for is made portable by the owner.
So it’s hard to buy McQuivey’s (interesting) notion that the Apple video portables are going to be expensive trash now that iTunes lost “Lost.” The real barriers to portable video proliferation are the significant storage issues, as the piece points out.
As for the iTunes store, Jobs and Co. have to make with more video content we want to buy or rent. Shouldn’t be too hard in this video-saturated world. Bet on Jobs.
There are additional obvious things Apple can do, like changing from a download-to-own model to a pay-per-view movie model, a strategy that Hollywood has embraced and that also solves long-term storage problems for consumers. However, the real innovation comes if and when Apple funnels more Web video — both professional and user-generated — into iTunes. Envision ubiquitous “download this to iTunes/iPod” links …
Sounds about right.
Suggest you check out “Perspective: Why Apple can’t do to video what it did to music.”
(BTW I own some Apple stock.)
Related content: Hulu: Working With CBS, Viacom After All
‘American Gangster’ robbed by torrent video
The latest victim of illegal pre-boxoffice video streaming is “American Gangster.”
The Ridley Scott movie, starring Denzel Washington
The copy appears to come from an Academy Award “for your consideration” DVD screener, meaning it’s of high quality.Oscar voters are swimming in advance DVDs of unreleased movies come late fall, and they’re sworn not to copy, screen or otherwise distribute. But pretty much anyone in L.A. who’s plugged knows someone who gets the discs.
The MPAA’s piracy fighters tried to shut down the use of DVDs a few years back, but the studios and filmmakers rebelled. Who has the time to go to all those movies, the Academy’s aging voters cry — even though they always get in free. They’re voting for their pals, anyway.
Inside tip: Most of the Oscar votes of the past decade were informed by VHS (aka video horse shit) tapes.”Sicko” and “Hostel II” were among the recent victims of prerelease downloads, although in “Sicko’s” case the publicity probably outweighed the losses.
Blu-ray bitch-slapped
Paramount and DreamWorks Animation’s stated reasons for going all HD DVD — as in no Blu-ray — don’t make much sense. Most of the mainstream press ate up their press release and left it at that. A couple of trade journalists nailed down the likely cause: that the HD DVD manufacturers paid the studios something like $150 million to make this stunner of a deal happen. I didn’t see the receipt and Paramount had no comment.
In any case, the demise of the high-definition format war has been called off. This can only mean several more years of format foolishness.
Paramount’s Brad Gray and DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg both talked up the affordability of the HD DVD format. True for now, but not for long. Entry-level player prices are headed straight down in both formats. If you can commit to paying $25-$35 or so a pop for titles, the price difference between lower-priced players can’t be all that important. The Blu-ray “300″ disc is cheaper than the HD DVD.
Katzenberg said the decision served “a key segment of our audience — families.” Hard to buy that one. If anything, families would be best served by making titles available in the same format that kiddie powerhouse Disney uses.
Another argument for HD DVD over Blu-ray can be found in a quick mention in the press release, which hails HD DVD’s “market-ready technology.”
Related story: Fox skeds 29 Blu-ray exclusives for ’07.
Home video blog: DVD Spin Doctor
‘Transformers’ live from the ‘Web Carpet’
CBS Radio is going Hollywood with online video coverage of today’s “Transformers” premiere.
This is the debut effort of the network’s “Live From the Web Carpet” series. All the glitz, glamour and ass-kissing will be streamed live on affiliate web sites, then archived. They’re showing highlights from the movie, interviews with Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg and the cast. 9:30 p.m. EDT. If you care, there it is.
CBS Radio affil 670 The Score just launched a chatroom with video streams from chatters who are using webcams and the DJs. So users can interact with the sports station’s jocks via text, audio and video. The provider is Paltalk, which says it offers the largest online video chat community.
Downloading movies and Hollywood
Had this conversation online today, about Hollywood and downloading movies. I believe the major studios are just poking around so far, making license deals. They don’t begin to trust downloading or know how to deal with the implications. Look at how the video business has stumbled around with high-def DVDs and that stupid format war. I covered the industry for years and can report that they’re astoundingly tech-dumb at the top. The forward-lookers have to scrape for money for things like Internet advertising.
As the NYT reported earlier this year, there remain serious consumer satisfaction issues with movie downloads. (Most people were unable to program their VCRs dept.) My feeling is movie downloads will remain geekish for another 5 years, maybe longer. This is not entirely bad because Hollywood’s usual target audience is 18-34 (or younger), a pretty savvy crowd. Too many variables with too many computers when giant files are engaged. It needs some kind of killer ap.
As usual, porn will lead the way on the tech front.
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