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Tech198

Cancelled
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
15,915
2,151
Hi all..

I know Apple has zero control over this, and its up to the movie companies to stick their content on iTunes (..and take them off), in addition to saying how long their license will be valid for, but apart from that, I still can't get why (a Apple is pushing for 'first run' titles to be available (even before it hits DVD, and just after it appears at the theaters), and (b why arn't very old movies on the Store yet.

I can see why movies don't get released on streaming for a few years, or so, but i DON'T get why very old movies (pre-2000) have never been on iTunes.

Its probably all related to the same thing. but we're talking 10+ years here..

Its been on DVD (been and gone), what have the movie studio got to think about for the other 7+ years or so ?

The movie in question i'm talking about is "Armargeddon" (1998 movie with Bruce Willis).. Good film, And not is it only available on iTunes, its only available for "Pre-order" which Apple says will hit by 2014.

Can someone explain to me, content creators are willing to push better, popular, latest 2013 movies to iTunes with no second to think, which a 14+ year old movie doesn't even get on there.

eg. At lease i can't remember it being on iTunes.. Maybe i'm wrong, but still its a long time.
 

pdjudd

macrumors 601
Jun 19, 2007
4,037
65
Plymouth, MN
Current movies sell much better and are far more in demand than older movies are. Plus the rights are much easier to determine and obtain versus older movies - of which there are a ton of. Just doing a search for Westerns brought up a ton of movies released in the 60’s, 70’s and of course more current titles. I don’t understand where "but i DON'T get why very old movies (pre-2000) have never been on iTunes.” There are. Apple just doesn’t promote them very much since the money is in current titles.

You also have to remember that not only is Apple interested in selling current product (which is the most profitable and most in demand), Apple (and to be fair almost everybody else) gets pushed by content owners as to what promote. The content owners are who pushes current content and if Apple wants to keep them happy, they aren’t going to rock the boat too much. They determine how stuff gets sold.

I don’t know what’s going on with a pre-order for a 1998 movie (my guess is that it’s the first time on digital, but i may be wrong), but Apple doesn’t set those up - the content owners do.

However to say that there aren’t older movies on iTunes is demonstrably wrong. There is a ton of content beyond the front pages. It may not be as highly promoted, but that is the nature of how things work. People have more demand for current content.
 
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