Selling DVD's For Download

[Duchess]

They've got the right idea but the price is still high :

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/04/technology/04studio.html?th&emc=th

Bet they sell at $1=£1 in the UK which makes them even more expensive (£1=$1.90)

[lordsmurf]

How can $1 per movie be "high" ?

[Duchess]

How can $1 per movie be "high" ?

Methinks thou hast misunderstood sir !

What I imply is that whenever anybody sells a product in the UK they use an exchange rate of $1=£1 rather than the true rate (about $1.90 = £1) and thus make even bigger profits. I.e if a DVD sells in the USA at $20 then in the UK it sells at £20 (approx $38 )


You think your lot are greedy, in the UK they rip us off big time. The big problem is that the phlegmatic Brits just grumble and groan and do nothing about it. Me, I'm getting out of this damn country in 3 years time when I retire.

[somebodeez]

Without the cost of distribution and the traditional retail markup, said Jeffrey L. Bewkes, the chairman of Time Warner's entertainment and networks group, a downloaded copy of the fourth Harry Potter movie, for example, could be sold "for the same price as wholesale."The wholesale price of a DVD is around $12.

...Still, Movielink's initial business, which was an online video rental service, has had a tepid response, with only 100,000 rentals a month. And, the five studios that own Movielink have had a hard time agreeing on its business plan, and its offering has not been attractive to consumers: major movies cost $5, more than the cost at rental stores, and can only be watched for a 24-hour period.

...The download-to-own market does not face the tangle of rights issues as the rental market because selling an online copy is seen as the same as selling a VHS tape or DVD.

Still, there are some pesky technical issues that may limit the appeal of buying movie downloads. At first, the movies will be restricted to playing on a single computer with a television hookup. Some studio executives think this is far too narrow and consumers will want the ability to transfer movies to several computers, to portable devices and possibly to burn them to their own DVD's.

"The consumer experience is not good enough yet," said Yair Landau, vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is trying to work with other studios and electronics companies to define new legal structures for downloaded movies.

"If I sell you something that doesn't allow you to do what you want, it's not worth it," he said.

Other studios worry that more permissive schemes would invite piracy because the technology hasn't been commercially deployed that would allow people to make a limited number of copies of films without duplicating them for millions of their closest friends.

Kevin Tsujihara, an executive vice president of Warner Brothers Entertainment, argues that Hollywood must overcome those fears if it is to give consumers what they want. After all, the record labels were so cautious about not cannibalizing their existing business that they allowed piracy to flourish.

"If we are protecting a business, while at the same time not giving consumers what they ultimately want, it's not a sustainable model," Mr. Tsujihara said. "The music industry did a great job of not harming their ecosystem, but by doing that they killed their ecosystem."

""If I sell you something that doesn't allow you to do what you want, it's not worth it," he said."

Amen.
I want to watch my movies on my TV using my set top players when I want to watch them and as often as I want to and upstairs or downstairs depending on how the mood strikes.

[lordsmurf]

Methinks thou hast misunderstood sir !

Methinks you is right.

[waheed]

Without the cost of distribution and the traditional retail markup, said Jeffrey L. Bewkes, the chairman of Time Warner's entertainment and networks group, a downloaded copy of the fourth Harry Potter movie, for example, could be sold "for the same price as wholesale."The wholesale price of a DVD is around $12.

...Still, Movielink's initial business, which was an online video rental service, has had a tepid response, with only 100,000 rentals a month. And, the five studios that own Movielink have had a hard time agreeing on its business plan, and its offering has not been attractive to consumers: major movies cost $5, more than the cost at rental stores, and can only be watched for a 24-hour period.

...The download-to-own market does not face the tangle of rights issues as the rental market because selling an online copy is seen as the same as selling a VHS tape or DVD.

Still, there are some pesky technical issues that may limit the appeal of buying movie downloads. At first, the movies will be restricted to playing on a single computer with a television hookup. Some studio executives think this is far too narrow and consumers will want the ability to transfer movies to several computers, to portable devices and possibly to burn them to their own DVD's.

"The consumer experience is not good enough yet," said Yair Landau, vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is trying to work with other studios and electronics companies to define new legal structures for downloaded movies.

"If I sell you something that doesn't allow you to do what you want, it's not worth it," he said.

Other studios worry that more permissive schemes would invite piracy because the technology hasn't been commercially deployed that would allow people to make a limited number of copies of films without duplicating them for millions of their closest friends.

Kevin Tsujihara, an executive vice president of Warner Brothers Entertainment, argues that Hollywood must overcome those fears if it is to give consumers what they want. After all, the record labels were so cautious about not cannibalizing their existing business that they allowed piracy to flourish.

"If we are protecting a business, while at the same time not giving consumers what they ultimately want, it's not a sustainable model," Mr. Tsujihara said. "The music industry did a great job of not harming their ecosystem, but by doing that they killed their ecosystem."

""If I sell you something that doesn't allow you to do what you want, it's not worth it," he said."

Amen.
I want to watch my movies on my TV using my set top players when I want to watch them and as often as I want to and upstairs or downstairs depending on how the mood strikes.

With those restrictions, its doomed to fail

[Fandim]

Well, here's the good news for you.

[Duchess]

Well, here's the good news for you.

Be interesting to see if it gets back to $1.50 = £1 which it's been for a long time (+/- a few cents).

BTW like your icon, and the answer is NO!

[AlecWest]

This sounds like what's already happening at CinemaNow.com ... just an extention of a rental agreement. Right now, you can download a DRM-filled ASF/WMV file of a movie and watch it for 24 hours. And every time you watch it, your computer "phones home." After the 24 hour period passes, phoning home ceases to unlock the key allowing you to watch it. If they really ever allowed people to "buy" the download, I'll bet the same restrictions would apply ... namely, it could only be watched on a computer ... and every time you watched it, the movie would "phone home."

P.S. And on "buying" downloads, I'd be careful to read the teensy tiny fine print. A lot of studios, after a while, decide to slap moratoriums on films. Make sure to read the fine print because you may only be buying a "right" to watch it until the studio changes its mind.

[hudsonf]

It would be a good idea if the movies where cheap and you could burn the download to a dvd. If you can only watch them on the computer you downloaded them to I don't see it making it.