Sony Delays Movie Download Service

[BJ_M]

Sony, which has already announced delays in the delivery date for its PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray players, has now delayed the launch of downloads from its movie studio, Daily Variety reported today (Thursday). Sony had announced in January that it would begin providing movies via its online Connect Music Store in March. Variety described the delay as an embarrassment for Sony, inasmuch as most of the major studios announced earlier this week that they would begin selling movies via the Movielink and CinemaNow sites. But some analysts speculated that Sony may be waiting to see how consumers respond to their competitors' online sales strategy, which is being widely criticized in the press and on movie-related blogs, especially for the $18-28 price for new movies. FCNow.com, the blog for Fast Company magazine, asked, "At those prices, can downloads be successful? With DVDs often costing much less than $20 ... those downloads are bound to be perceived as less of a value (since they are not tangible objects and have limited portability) than an actual DVD." The Los Angeles Times also noted that the downloads don't offer the usual DVD "extras" and can't be copied onto DVD blank disks so that they can be played on a TV set. Presumably the Sony online movie offerings can be copied onto the PlayStation 3's Blu-ray discs and played via any TV set.

disks another 25$ on top of the download price !!

[smearbrick1]

I don't think movies via download are supposed to be perceived as huge value when compared to DVD. I think the movie studios price the downloads that high in attempt to do two things:

1. Appease the masses who insist on being able to download movie content.

2. Make the content of a DVD appear like more of value than the download. This is so they can keep releasing 4 versions of the same movie and people will continue to buy it thinking they are getting an outstanding value.

Just look at the price of the downloads. You can't tell me that they believe there is going to be a massive exodus from DVD to download. The reason it worked for Itunes is because of the perceived low cost (we all know this low cost is not really low when you compare it to the price of regular cd with liner notes and such.).

[ROF]

Nobody believes that downloading content will bring a mass exodus from tangible media. the gaming industry has offered downloadable games, the software applications industry has offered downloadable software packages, the news industry has offered downloadable news reels, the music industry has offered downloadable music. In none of those cases has there been a mass exodus from the tangible media sources. If you expect movies to be any different you are not thinking.

These downloads offer niche clients something currently not offered to them. Nothing more. Cost is irrelevant.

[smearbrick1]

Nobody believes that downloading content will bring a mass exodus from tangible media. the gaming industry has offered downloadable games, the software applications industry has offered downloadable software packages, the news industry has offered downloadable news reels, the music industry has offered downloadable music. In none of those cases has there been a mass exodus from the tangible media sources. If you expect movies to be any different you are not thinking.

These downloads offer niche clients something currently not offered to them. Nothing more. Cost is irrelevant.

Fulcilives is right... you can be annoying.

If you bothered to read my post, you would notice that your post (a few words aside) is a complete copy of my post. We are saying the same thing.

Please do not accuse me of not thinking. Especially when you can't seem to even bother to read a post you are trying to rebut.

[ROF]

But you aren't thinking. How much are song downloads? How much are CD's? How much are game downloads? How much are they on CD? How much are movie DVDs? What's the price listed for these downloads? Do some shopping, do the math and you will see that your post and mine differ completely. You argue price and non mass exodus is going to work against these downloadable movies when in fact this is a proven model for downloadable media. If you price your product similiar to a physical product those looking for downloadable media will pay the same or even in some cases a higher cost to have it downloadable. The only thing we seem to agree upon is your #1 point that these downloadables are setup to appease those who want to download their media. The rest of your post is contrary to the current download models of other businesses. As if you expect the movie industry to offer deep discounts on the downloads simply because their is no tangible asset. None of the other industries do this so why should the movie industry? Think.

BTW, Fucilives didn't post in this topic so I have no idea what or where you get your info from unless you are cross posting subject material to make yourself relevant.

[smearbrick1]

What I was saying is that it appears that this is only to appease the downloaders. THAT'S IT! They are obviously not trying to add value to the movie downloads... I can see that... everyone can see that. I was saying that downloads make DVDs appear to be the better value. Besides, the proposed price of downloads is not really on par with current DVD prices. When was the last time you paid $28.00 for a newly released DVD? If you did, you should've shopped around. And I realize that the bottom of the scale was $18.00, but for what releases? Are these the bottom of the barrel, direct to video releases?

I also know that the price of music downloads is comparable to physical media costs. That is what is insane about the pricing of Itunes. You pay $.99 (sounds cheap enough) for a lossy, compressed version of a song/cd. If the CD has 15 tracks, you just laid out damn near 15 bucks for this lossy, compressed, CD when you could've laid out 15 bucks for the uncompressed, fully packaged CD minus the copy protection. All of this aside, the convenience of being able to pick and choose what songs you want from that CD, or multiple CDs is the big difference. Notice how Itunes doesn't market itself as "Over 5 billion songs (whatever the number) at only $16.00 per CD". I believe it's because of perception. The consumer's belief is that they are getting a deal at $.99 per song, but the reality is if you were to add it up, they really aren't getting a deal at all. In fact, they are getting screwed.

I don't think you can even compare music downloads to movie downloads.

[ROF]

I don't think you can even compare music downloads to movie downloads.

Of course you can't. Movie downloads are just now starting to appear. You can't compare something to something else if the something else barely exists.