iTunes Movies to be sold for $9.99?

[InTheBand]

Run-on Sentence, Baby!!!

I'm kinda thinking that the "30th anniversary event" - if there is going to be one at all - won't happen on the 28th...wouldn't we have seen an announcement from Apple by now - it's less than 2 weeks away...

I'm thinking that we'll be seeing a press release or hearing an announcement by the 28th [depending on the movie studio negotiations but I'm hoping much sooner though, like any day now... or by next Tuesday ], announcing the movie service [Creative may be announcing theirs on March 30th and SJ won't let them beat Apple to the punch] and also that there will be an anniversary event starting Friday, March 31st at 10pm [YES, they have done these late night events before... stores close at 9pm, prepare and re-open at 10], running straight through April 1st at the Apple Stores and some resellers [YES, they have done this before and even all nighters at some stores as well], followed by a press conference and anniversary event wrap-up on Monday the 3rd, but probably Tuesday the 4th, where SJ and others will talk 1.5+ hours about the history of Apple, it's current state [talk about the new products released over the weekend, show the new MacBooks, more], and where Apple is going...

BAM!!! Then he'll say a token "Good-Bye" to the traditional mouse/keyboard combo which they popularized over 20 years ago and formally introduce/demo revolutionary touch sensitive interface technology on the vPod.

One more thing... MacPod/MacPad [pda/tablet hybrid] and then I "mess" myself.

 

[balamw]

I agree with all the comments that suggest that $9.99 is too high for low res. movies, but have a couple of comments.

1. Target audience is a big deal, this movie and some of the other choices already available on iTMS are things that are not (yet) available on DVD, and will be watched more than once by their target audience. The material from Disney Channel and Nick fall into this category. It's a great venue for TV movies that don't necessarily have a huge market on DVD.
   
2. In-house streaming, I firmly believe that one reason iTMS videos are kept around 650 kbps is that they can reliably be streamed over 802.11b (about the same bitrate as Apple Lossless via AirTunes). I too would prefer 640x480 or larger, but I suspect that doesn't fit in with the plan.
   
3. No commercials. One reason I gladly bought season 1 of Dora the Explorer on iTMS was that I could eliminate them from my PVR and avoid having all the commercials at the end of the show. It's worse for shows aimed at older kids where the commercials are inside the show. If they're going to watch it anyhow, they might as well do it without commercials.
   
4. iTMS is actually ideal for some of the short movies they recently added, the only other place these get aired are on IFC or Sundance, often between movies, or as a compilation. Some of these are really quite good, and are impractical to buy on DVD.

B

 

[thejadedmonkey]

What movie was that? I doubt most DVDs are going for less than $10 at Wal*Mart. Most top-selling titles are probably going for closer to $20, with the occasional title selling for a decent discount.

I got small soldiers, but there's a crap load of movies marketed as 2/$14 (or 7.50 each). I remember spaceballs, but at the time I had $8.00 to get rid of on a gift card and I remember seeing a lot of descent movies for that price point. Obviously they were all olver movies because they weren't $20...

I wonder how apple's going to work with the pricing for crappy movies. Like if I want to see The Brothers Grim but don't think it's worth $9.99...would they sell it cheeper since it got such horrible reviews?

 

[miranderm]

Pleassse ! Apple ..don't do this

This is rediculous -bad tasting and exorbitant. Even music video's for $1.99 that can't be burnt to a playing dvd/ cd is tight but admittedly I will purchase cream of the crop despite glaring limitations. I will opt in most every instance to rent/ purchase movies I can store /play at a better resolution readily available through many sources for far less $$.

 

[i_am_a_cow]

I'm pretty sure that when people buy a movie they expect it to be t leat as good as a rented VHS tape, this is not even close to half that.

I don't think YOU and the other people asking for "VHS tape" quality realize that 320x240 is actually roughly the same as NTSC 640x480 interlaced.

You are paying 9.99 for VHS quality on iTunes, now go complain about something you actually understand.

 

[i_am_a_cow]

Completely agree.

That is typical VHS tape standard which is way outdated.

Exactly, but at least it's not worse...

 

[jasonbogen]

Well, if this 9.99 price is correct them i'm gonna turn in my PSP. The cheapest I have ever gotten a PSP move was 14.99 most of them are 19.99 to 29.99 so if Apple is trying to sell these to the portable movie crowd PSP/IPOD viewers then they are are selling them at 50 to 200% less then Sony's PSP movies. So, when Highschool Musical comes out for PSP it will be at 19.99 and up!!!!!!

Secondly, Quicktime would have to be completely revamped to have a subscription based model... have you ever watched any kind of subscription program on Quicktime where the music or movie just doesn't work or dissapears after a few hours or days???? Not, gonna happen anytime soon.

So, guaranteed these movies will be priced between 4.99 -7.99 for some older movies and 9.99 - 14.99 for most newer movies... plain and simple nothing else is gonna happen, no subscription service until Apple has a subscription model in Quicktime... which probably won't occur till 10.5 and 8.0

First of all, it has been reported that they already have subcription service built into iTunes, so that isn't the issue. Secondly try to understand, this isn't about selling movies. The iTunes store is not about selling music. That's not the point for Apple, it is about being entrenched in a market to build a stronghold for their entire line of products. That is why Apples marketing has been so brilliant since the Jobs II era. If you bought your PSP to watch $30 videos on that little screen...I don't know what to tell you, other than to assure you that it is not the market Apple is going to count on to entrench them in the home entertainment space. By the way PSP is not doing well. Apple has had the vision to see where the market is going and the industry is looking for a way to eat into Apples huge market share lead in MP3 players. This is that opportunity. If Apple blows it, they open the doors to their goldmine.

 

[milo]

Lets face it, people are attending the cinema far less now then any point in history, why? Since you now have the option of SD and HD, VHS, DVD, VCD, etc...

The MPAA already knows they are losing money from all sides

True, movie attendance is going down. But DVD sales are making up most of that, many movies make more on DVD than in the theatre.

Overall, the movie industry is still making big profits, it's just coming from different sources.

Agreed. I already don't like that I have a few TV episodes still on my hard drive taking up space, let alone any movies I would purchase. I know, I know, I could erase them, but I own them and would feel bad about throwing them in the trash.

So burn them to a data DVD or CD. I know, you can't play them in a DVD player, but you can at least get them off your hard drive.

 

[InTheBand]

You can bet Netflix officials just cheered when they heard this. Apple has a chance to destroy Netflix, but choose this ridiculous model and even more ridiculous price point.

I would be sweatin' bullets right now if I were a NetFlix exec. Not because Apple "screwed up" by offering a 320 x 240 resolution version of a Disney special movie, but because my market has just been "test" penetrated by a serious player that "owns" everyone else combined 10 times over in a parallel market with market dominating crossover [into NetFlix's market] hardware [iPod, Macs] and has a better distribution model than the one "I" [NetFlix] have [iTunes].

Do you really think that they think that Apple can't tweak these options in every way over the next couple of weeks to see what works best and then formally introduce the refined Apple iMovie Video Store?

- iPod resolution vs. DVD resolution vs. HD resolution?
- How much?
- Buy vs. Rent vs. Subscribe?
- How much?
- Buy options for rentals and subscriptions?
- How much?
- Physical delivery options like NetFlix?
- Same price or less since we have more options?
- Any combination thereof?

Apple can choose just one of these combinations if they want, but more importantly, they can choose all of them as well.

It's the service and hardware/software combination [as well as the seamless integration between all of them] that has made both iTunes and iPod the leaders in their own markets and have Macs marketshare on the rise.

Ya think NetFlix is gonna start making computers anytime soon?

 

[DPazdanISU]

10 bones for a movie isn't bad. It cost close to $7 (Canadian) to rent a new release from BlockBuster and I have to drive into town and waste fuel and time. AND I CAN'T EVEN KEEP IT WHEN I'M DONE.

I'd do it if the resolution was good and my ISP didn't limit my downloading.

This would be closer to 12 Canadian Dollars. So you would be paying almost 40 percent more for low quality video that you can't burn. Might be worth it just to put a few movies on a 6g ipod, other than that its not. I'd rather watch dvd quality movies on my HD 42in plasma. Either way Apple is moving to new things and always expanding which only means one thing. Watch out Sony and Dell!

 

[MarcelV]

9.99 for a Disney movie...

If the 9.99 will be a 'standard' price, I agree with most people that the quality will need to be up'ed by Apple and the studio's. While the quality is decent, most people are now used to DVD quality for their movies and this should be matched.
But for all those pople stating they pay 7.50 for movies etc at Walmart, that's true only for some movies. Picked up some Viacom VHS tapes for my kids last week, cost 5.99 per tape. The same on DVD was 11.99. And for Disney DVD's, they are not 7.50, not even close. DVD-only releases are start at 12.99 and DVD's of theatre releases are starting at 18.99. So, 9.99 is not expensive compared with those.

 

[yg17]

No, it's not like that at all. Taping with a VCR or Tivoing are legitimate recording for personal use. You recorded it, you already paid for the initial showing with you cable bill or the ads shown in the program. When you download something with BitTorrent, you copying the file from another location. Multiple people in the public are ending up with a recording taken by one user, and many times these recording are DVD rips. That's copyright infringement.

I paid my cable bill and sat down and watched Family Guy Sunday night....well....at least the parts that weren't cut out by the Fox affiliate bringing us a special report on a tornado watch in Bum**** Missouri. If they're going to interrupt what is possibly Fox's most watched show, then I feel I have every right to use alternate means to watch it. Anyways, thats an entirely different thread.

 

[mi5moav]

I think PSP has sold something like 15 milllion movies at 19.99 and up. I have no idea what the cut between studios is but if you do the math and Apple only gets between 1 or 2 bucks per movie that is like selling 100 million songs at 99 cents if they only make 20 cents off each song. Yearly song/movie download predictions

750,000,000 x .2 = $150,000,000 profit

estimate of movies at 9.99 -12.99

50,000,000 x 1.29 = 64,500,000 profit (just to play on the ipod)

 

[milo]

I guess my point (if I have a point ) is that we can all recycle the same complaints about pricing and products, but none of it really matters. If I'm Apple, and I've sold 1 billion songs with my current pricing model, there's really no reason to change just because the content changed. The same arguments of video quality, pricing, etc; were already debated with music. Those arguments lost when consumers opened their wallets.

This is a different product at a far different price. Music sells, TV shows sell. With netflix, buying DVD's and other cheaper options available, I'm very doubtful that movies will sell as well. You can't make assumptions just because music and TV were a success.

Most movie sales will be kid/teen content like this. Don't expect many sales to adults.

That said, comparing the price to the cost of a rental is pointless. This is a copy you get to own, so you should be comparing to other sales prices.

 

[mi5moav]

The subscription model has nothing to do with itunes it has to do with QT!! I subscribe to the John Stewart show, but the shows stays on my ipod and imac as long as I want never to dissapear. itunes subscription is not like napster subscriptions.

Lastly, the most movies I have ever recieved from netflix was 12 during one month. Most of the time they only are able to send me 8 or 9(because of mailing and other wonderful things netflix does with my movies) With the itunes plan you are all glowing at, it would be possible to download 5 to 10 movies a day with a fast connection, uptp say 100 movies a month!!!!!! NOT gonna happen if they do a subscription service they will cap it at max 15 movies a month for 24.99. Apple would never go for this neither would any of the studios.

I can see apple bumping up resolution a bit.

Apple has sold 1 Billion songs that no one wanted to buy 4 years ago because they didn't have the disc and the quality wasn't the best out there... same thing goes here they may not sell a billion movies but they sure as hell will sell 50 million plus within there first 12 months(if they infact ever bring this to fruition)

 

[MrTchMan]

Kinda cool. But I think I will have a hard time finding time to watch them. 9.99 is not to bad

 

[InTheBand]

With the itunes plan you are all glowing at, it would be possible to download 5 to 10 movies a day with a fast connection, uptp say 100 movies a month!!!!!! NOT gonna happen if they do a subscription service they will cap it at max 15 movies a month for 24.99. Apple would never go for this neither would any of the studios.

Hmmm... good point.

Yeah, I'd have to retract my previous posts about "unlimited" subscription services [DVD quality @ $19.99, HD quality @ $29.99] and cap it. 15 a month is cool, but I would hope they would allow 31 max, or 1 a day for marketing purposes [and don't give me the "but some months don't have 31 days" junk ]. That's a huge advantage over NetFlix.

Not meaning that the user can only download 1 movie a day [maybe Apple will allow 2-3 max daily], but however they want to do it, they would only be able to download 31 max in a month.

Pretty much Apple could implement a reasonable daily and monthly bandwidth limit.

 

[Twenty1]

This is a different product at a far different price. Music sells, TV shows sell. With netflix, buying DVD's and other cheaper options available, I'm very doubtful that movies will sell as well. You can't make assumptions just because music and TV were a success.

Most movie sales will be kid/teen content like this. Don't expect many sales to adults.

That said, comparing the price to the cost of a rental is pointless. This is a copy you get to own, so you should be comparing to other sales prices.

Obviously you missed my next sentence that said, "Obviously there are differences between audio and video in regards to consumer habits, choices, etc;... so I'm sure it's easy to point wholes in what I've said" I'm just saying, if you're going to quote someone, at least quote the entire context what they said.

I do agree with most what you mentioned. My point is why try to reinvent the wheel

 

[milo]

My point is why try to reinvent the wheel

They don't need to reinvent the wheel, they just need to set prices appropriately. And upping the resolution wouldn't hurt either.

The difference between failure and success for this may be the difference between $9.99 and $5.99. I suspect that's why they're trying a stealth launch with one title instead of making a big deal of it and risking egg on their face.

 

[1984]

Well, if this 9.99 price is correct them i'm gonna turn in my PSP. The cheapest I have ever gotten a PSP move was 14.99 most of them are 19.99 to 29.99 so if Apple is trying to sell these to the portable movie crowd PSP/IPOD viewers then they are are selling them at 50 to 200% less then Sony's PSP movies. So, when Highschool Musical comes out for PSP it will be at 19.99 and up!!!!!!

UMD has proven to be a failure though. Sony has cut their offerings in half and most other studios have stopped completely, even cancelling some titles that were already scheduled. They don't seem to get it. The prices were way too high. They cost more than a DVD of the same movie. You can't expect people to pay more for less. If Apple would offer them at the same resolution and a lower price they would have a hit.

BY the way, DVDs are considered Standard Definition while the iPod Video and even the PSP are considered Low Definition.

 

[1984]

I paid my cable bill and sat down and watched Family Guy Sunday night....well....at least the parts that weren't cut out by the Fox affiliate bringing us a special report on a tornado watch in Bum**** Missouri. If they're going to interrupt what is possibly Fox's most watched show, then I feel I have every right to use alternate means to watch it. Anyways, thats an entirely different thread.

How dare they interrupt your tv watching to save lives!

 

[Timo_Existencia]

So...for a 60-minute TV show, I can buy it for $1.99. For a 99 minute TV "movie" I pay 5 times as much?

This will not fly.

 

[1984]

Okay, maybe I'm being too oblique. Let's check out some iTMS reviews for this video.

- screaming fangirl comments removed -

Is this an audience that give a rat's patootie about resolutions and aspect ratios?

You missed the point. Apple has set the price for their movie downloads. $9.99. Doesn't matter if it's Highschool Musical or Walk the Line. Is it really worth $9.99 for 320x240 or 320x174 resolution? Those comments were at best left by those who were able to buy it when it was $1.99 or more likely by those who already saw it on the Disney Channel. I have serious doubts about a widescreen iPod now. Apple has pushed the iPod craze too far. They think they can get by on the name alone now. Times are changing. People outside of the forums are starting to think of Apple as we think of Microsoft. iPod is becoming a dirty word.

 

[dashiel]

Is this an audience that give a rat's patootie about resolutions and aspect ratios?

exactly! and that's the point. apple users are what 2% of the market @ ~20 million users and mac users who frequent message boards are what 1/10th of 1% of that number. we are far from the target audience for this service. the fact is all this hand wringing over quality to price ratio is nonsense. the average american doesn't care about resolution. in fact the average american doesn't care about quality at all, if they did mcdonalds wouldn't have sold 100 billion burgers, dell wouldn't be the biggest computer manufacturer, windows wouldn't have a 95% market share and american idol wouldn't be the #1 show on television, etc...

DVDs didn't succeed because it had higher quality, it succeeded because the discs were more convenient and cheaper than VHS (recall that VHS was mired in rental pricing where new, non-mass market releases were priced in the $100+ range; batman changed all that in 1989). if consumers truly cared about quality laserdisc would have been the format of choice in the 70s/80s, or failing that beta, both of which were superior to VHS.

tivo is another prime example of content over quality. people use tivo and love it, despite the fact that it records at VHS like levels for most people (seriously look at tivo usage, the vast majority of people have their units set to record more at lower resolution). people care about content, not scan lines.

and as for DVDs being available for $9.99, sure some are available for $9.99 for a weekend special, but they represent impulse buys. no one goes to best buy looking for something specific and knowing it's $9.99. the key to itunes has been its consistent pricing if i know i want to watch X movie i can go click buy and know it's going to cost me $9.99. if i did that at blockbuster or best buy... well blockbuster almost certainly have what i'm looking for and best buy may or may not have it for $9.99, but more than likely i'm not looking for last years adam sandler flick.

the reality is that for the majority of people who just want to sit back and watch a movie on friday night, $9.99 and not getting up off the couch is an ideal solution; quality is irrelevant.

would i buy something like the lord of the rings trilogy? absolutely not a movie like that, for me, demands high quality picture and sound, but for a movie like goodnight and goodluck i don't need HD quality, and i'm an extreme videophile. bought my first laserdisc player when i was 15.

this service, if it offers enough popular content will be huge, and when the infrastructure of both HD capable and bandwidth allow for mass consumption of higher resolutions it will happen. in the meantime if you want HD quality... well apparently you're going to have to wait, but eventually go buy the HD-DVD or BluRay discs.

 

[MacMosher]

would i buy something like the lord of the rings trilogy? absolutely not a movie like that, for me, demands high quality picture and sound, but for a movie like goodnight and goodluck i don't need HD quality, and i'm an extreme videophile. bought my first laserdisc player when i was 15.

I completly agree, for movies that diserve the HD resolution I wouldnt download them however if its somthing that Im just going to watch say I dunno an episode of Family guy on I dont think it needs it .