![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Apple, Fox, Netflix, and Online Movies
Dec. 27th, 2007 08:44 amThe first major film studio since Disney is now in partnership with Apple, signifying that the computer maker's dominance in the media delivery business is official. Not only will iTunes begin delivering content from 20th Century Fox; new Fox DVDs will have FairPlay (Apple's DRM) embedded in them (for "easy ripping" to iTunes). Apple is also rumored to be in talks with Time-Warner, Paramount, and SONY(!) though I have a hard time believing that last one.
What does this mean to the average movie-downloading consumer? Here's a comparison:
Rumors are pegging iTunes rentals to be at the bottom of this list, probably on par with cable on demand prices and Unbox/Netflix time to download. Content-wise, cable companies have a huge advantage, as their long standing deals to deliver new movies just after they're out of the theaters gives them the freshest stuff. Unbox has a lot more to choose from than Netflix, but nearly anything can be found on the Internet if a user is persistent enough searching for torrents. Content is king though, and Apple understands that better than anyone, I would think.
Apple is playing catchup, but has a huge advantage in the mobile market with iPhones and iPods everywhere. SONY is left in the dust with the failure of Universal Media Disc (UMD) and their never-was Connect service, and the PSP is an also-ran compared to the iPod. Amazon is partnered with TiVo and thus has a good delivery mechanism for the Unbox service, which apparently works well enough for many big studios (including SONY), but it is limited to TiVos and PCs that run the proprietary Unbox player.
Where does high-definition come in? HD downloads will probably take three to five times longer than the above estimates. People with HD cable boxes, satellite recievers, HD TiVos, and Apple TVs hooked up to their giant HD sets will have the easiest time getting HD content, though will likely be paying premium costs in time and money until probably the end of 2010. It will still be possible to download HD torrents, unless the cable companies get a technical innovation to eliminate P2P traffic or manage to lobby net neutrality out of existence - but this is only an option for tech and net savvy users who hook their computers up to their HDTVs, successfully search for what they want, and are willing to wait days for the downloads.
Microsoft is nowhere to be seen. They aren't leveraging Media Player or any special DRM in any way. Their Zune player isn't a contender. No deals with studios have been announced or even rumored. This is highly unusual, and you can bet they're working on something, but they're so far out of the field they might not even be able to play no matter what they spend to get back in.
More details to come in a couple of weeks when the full details come from the Macworld expo.
EDIT: Added Movielink, a studio backed online movie venture recently bought by Blockbuster, to the charts. Impact is similar to, though of less magnitude than, Netflix.
What does this mean to the average movie-downloading consumer? Here's a comparison:
| Method | Rental cost per movie | Time per download |
| "Pirate" torrents | $0.00 | 24-48 hours |
| Movielink | $0.99-$3.99 | 5-10 minutes |
| Amazon unbox | $0.99-$3.99 | 5-10 minutes |
| Netflix instant watching | $1.25-$2.00 | 5-10 minutes |
| Cable on demand | $2.99-$5.99 | 1-2 minutes |
Rumors are pegging iTunes rentals to be at the bottom of this list, probably on par with cable on demand prices and Unbox/Netflix time to download. Content-wise, cable companies have a huge advantage, as their long standing deals to deliver new movies just after they're out of the theaters gives them the freshest stuff. Unbox has a lot more to choose from than Netflix, but nearly anything can be found on the Internet if a user is persistent enough searching for torrents. Content is king though, and Apple understands that better than anyone, I would think.
Apple is playing catchup, but has a huge advantage in the mobile market with iPhones and iPods everywhere. SONY is left in the dust with the failure of Universal Media Disc (UMD) and their never-was Connect service, and the PSP is an also-ran compared to the iPod. Amazon is partnered with TiVo and thus has a good delivery mechanism for the Unbox service, which apparently works well enough for many big studios (including SONY), but it is limited to TiVos and PCs that run the proprietary Unbox player.
Where does high-definition come in? HD downloads will probably take three to five times longer than the above estimates. People with HD cable boxes, satellite recievers, HD TiVos, and Apple TVs hooked up to their giant HD sets will have the easiest time getting HD content, though will likely be paying premium costs in time and money until probably the end of 2010. It will still be possible to download HD torrents, unless the cable companies get a technical innovation to eliminate P2P traffic or manage to lobby net neutrality out of existence - but this is only an option for tech and net savvy users who hook their computers up to their HDTVs, successfully search for what they want, and are willing to wait days for the downloads.
Microsoft is nowhere to be seen. They aren't leveraging Media Player or any special DRM in any way. Their Zune player isn't a contender. No deals with studios have been announced or even rumored. This is highly unusual, and you can bet they're working on something, but they're so far out of the field they might not even be able to play no matter what they spend to get back in.
More details to come in a couple of weeks when the full details come from the Macworld expo.
EDIT: Added Movielink, a studio backed online movie venture recently bought by Blockbuster, to the charts. Impact is similar to, though of less magnitude than, Netflix.