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Warner, Paramount, Disney, Fox, Lions Gate to Join iTunes Rentals

MarlboroLite said:
24 hours is ridiculous and I can't think people would be stupid enough to pay 4 bucks for a movie rental that is probably gonna take 3 hours alone to download and only last 1 day! It takes less time and less money to go to the Blockbuster in my town and I can keep the movie for a few days and watch it on a big TV.
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Right now it would take 15-20 min to download a 2 hour movie for me in iTunes. I have purchased one for $10 as a test (Kinky Boots). I already have several 1 hr TV shows for $2. I don't know if I would rent for $4. I may test one or two but I don't think it would become a regular thing but I'm sure Apple would be happy if people do it only once a week and that doesn't seem too bad when you think about the cost of theater or even buying used for something that you will not watch often.
 
The real question here is who will make an app to record the movie while it plays. When that happens, i'll bite.


Joking.. say no to pirating
 
In my small town, there's only two majors places to rent movies:
- Videotron (4$ for 24 hours for new movies)
- I-can't-remember-the-name-of-the-place (3.50$ for 24 hours for new movies)

I don't have cable or satellite, so VOD services are out, no matter how lousy/good, expensive/cheap they are.

Yesterday I went to rent "Sunshine" at that 3.50$ place. They were all out, of course. Driving to Videotron was too much of a hassle given the weather (streets are covered with melting ice patches, i.e. very dangerous).

If the movies are 4$ CAD, count me in. There's no such thing as "out of stock" for digital downloads, and I don't have to go out two times to rent and return a plastic disc.

In fact, my cable modem could probably been done downloading the whole thing by the time I get to the rental store and back (pre-heat the car, de-ice the windows, get dressed with the boots and the winter coat, get there, try to find the last DVD that's not scratched to hell, hoping there's still a widescreen version left, etc).
 
It's a step in the right direction, however for me, I would rather pay my 14 bucks a month at Netflix, and get unlimited DVDs, two at a time, and rip them all to my harddrive as they come. It ends up being about 12-15 movies a month, which would be 60 bucks doing the same thing through iTunes.

They need to create an online version of netflix. 19.99 a month, you have 3 slots, and can fill them in with whatever you want, and keep them as long as you want. If you only watch 3 movies, its still 19.99, and if you want 20 movies, it still 19.99. The logic works, Netflix makes good money, AND they have to pay for postage.
 
Jetson said:
I agree with the feelings of most in here.

$4 is expensive, especially with no physical media costs.
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Physical Media (ie disk and packaging) adds about 37¢ to the cost of a title.

I am sure of this: I broker a lot of printing and packaging of CD and DVD titles.

It costs this much to serve the data up in terms of 1) Hardware, 2) Staff to Maintain, 3) Electricity.

$4 is a good deal.
 
chicagostars said:
If the scheme isn't attractive, the choice is yours to not rent movies via iTunes. I agree that the price seems high compared to other sources, especially without any extras, etc. I do wonder though: how many people who rent NEW movies via a physical Blockbuster or similar source have/take the time to view the DVD extras within their alloted rental period? Even with Netflix, I often don't take time for the extra material, opting to return films to receive more. If I like the movie enough and am really interested in immersing myself in the extras, I purchase the DVD. (I don't own a lot of DVDs.)

What are the viewing habits of other people out there? What's most important to you in a movie rental service? Selection? (both number of movies and studios) DVD extras? SD vs HD? Rental period length? Price point?
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As for viewing the "extras" ... it depends on which. I never, ever, even in films I own on DVD, listen to the commentary tracks. That just seems pointless to me (of course, others get a big kick from them, which is why they are a sales draw). Alternate endings, deleted scenes, etc: I almost always watch these if the movie was good. It's kinda like a "cool down" from the movie. Out-of-band documentaries, making-ofs, etc: rarely I will watch these, but not very often. Movie trailers: I always watch these on new releases; on old releases and especially DVDs which make viewing trailers mandatory, they are an annoyance.

In any case, I don't ever sit down a second time to watch DVD extras. They are viewed immediately following the movie, or not at all. They do offer value to me, though.

As for important factors for me:

  1. Price. I want to view movies cheaply. I'm a cheapskate. :) This includes any pre-requisite equipment.
  2. Resolution. Higher resolution lives in a completely different world from lower resolution, and this trumps all else aside from price. Granted, this doesn't matter on all movies, and I generally know if it will matter on a particular movie well in advance of watching that movie.
  3. Convenience. This includes how easy it is to rent (which is already really easy with all the options discussed here), how easy it is to view on my screen (and, yes, having to click three menu items with delays between them just to start the damned movie is an inconvenience which nearly all physical DVD force on us), and how easy it is to schedule it into my life (where I strongly prefer a full 2-hour time block to enjoy a movie and relax afterwards, but on occasion have to make due with a couple 1-hour windows spread throughout the week instead).
  4. Selection Guidance. This is one area where, for instance, Blockbuster's online service sucks. There is no guidance (as in, these are the recent releases, and these are the movies people like you have enjoyed). I expect Apple will do well here, although perhaps not stellar (their ITMS reviews and popularity ratings are unmatched by Amazon, for instance).
  5. Selection. I want to be able to view the movie a co-worker mentioned. This goes hand-in-hand with time to release; you have very poor selection if you get every movie ever made, but six months after it came out on DVD.
 
HyperZboy said:
RedBox at McDonalds is $1 a day. RedBox is even at many grocery stores and Walmart locations.

I seriously doubt I'll consider spending $3 MORE for 24 hours considering the McDonald's is walking distance from my house!

Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, geez, what a rip-off.
This idea is gonna sink like a rock.
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I live in a major metro area. The closest Redbox is a 1.7 miles roundtrip from my house. The cost of starting the car on a cold night and driving in city traffic in a Jeep Grand Cherokee or similar mid-size vehicle is at LEAST a dollar in terms of wear and tear, gas and time.

I would gladly pay $4 for the convenience and lessoned environmental / vehicle impact.
 
othersongs said:
RE: COMING TO CANADA?

YES! In 2-3 years time.. we will get Johnny 5, Road to Avenlee, Due South - the Movie, The Trudeau Story, Anne of Green Gables.

damn it.
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Hey, don't be lumping 'Anne of Green Gables' in with that other trash. 'Anne' is a classic. - 'He called me carrots!!!.
 
dante@sisna.com said:
Physical Media (ie disk and packaging) adds about 37¢ to the cost of a title.

I am sure of this: I broker a lot of printing and packaging of CD and DVD titles.

It costs this much to serve the data up in terms of 1) Hardware, 2) Staff to Maintain, 3) Electricity.

$4 is a good deal.
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Add in warehousing and logistics required to keep physical media and that $0.37 quickly gets dwarfed by operating costs.

Still, looking at it from a cost-of-production perspective is silly. If it's a good deal, that good deal should be apparent to the consumer. Otherwise, by definition, it is not a good deal.
 
levitynyc said:
I would love to see someone throw a tomato or something on stage after the 3.99 announcement.
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I will cheerfully throw any object (animal, vegetable, mineral, or artificial) at Steve Jobs if someone buys me an MWSF or WWDC ticket.

Seriously: let's make an Official MacRumors Project™ out of this. What we'll do is get me a ticket and inform me in advance of what announcements are worthy of bombardment (ie: "We are switching to the MIPS processor family", "iTunes now rents Xbox 360 games for download: only $129.99", "We are here to announce the next Mac operating system: Amiga OS 4", etc), and I'll go in armed.

I will sit at the keynote, biding my time, until the conditions are matched.

There will, of course, be a recall protocol. I will check the Forum Spy and if a lot of posts are in a thread called "DON'T DO IT, STHRNCMFRTR!" then I will assume that the keynote was acceptable overall and abort my bombardment. If that thread does not receive a sufficient post count, though, or (on the other hand, a "OMG KILL THE BASTARD NOW" thread appears) I will immediately leave my seat quietly and discretely, make my way to the aisle, and then charge up toward the stage, lobbing excrement/rotten fruit/beanie babies/etc as rapidly and accurately as I can.

Disclaimer: I don't particularly care if I get arrested. Just once, I'd like to make a dent in the RDF. Without, you know, ending up like Burrell Smith.

Because Burrell probably paid his own way.
 
bonforte said:
The reason redbox is cheaper is because the selection is so bad. You can rent movies for $0.99 (like older releases at Hollywood Video), but the selection is limited. The newest releases accont for 80-90% of rentals at a Blockbuster). At NetFlix, it is more like 40%. So for Apple, they will have a great selection (not as good as NetFlix, but better than VoD by an order of magnitude).

And you can put it on your iPhone, etc. And you can have 10 ready to go, on your mac. No problem, just need to watch it within 30 days of renting...and 24 hours from "playing".
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Amen, I tried renting at the REDBOX closest to my house for the last 3 nights -- not a title I was interested in or had not seen. Redbox sucks for the long haul -- many a night I spent half hour on a computer finding a title at various redbox locations, or worse, spent time driving from Redbox to redbox, wasting gas and arguing with my girlfriend.

No thanks. $4 is a bargain.
 
I haven't seen anybody "whining" or overracting in here - except for a few who don't like to read anything that seems to criticize Apple.

People are simply stating their opinions about a proposed service in an online forum.

Why is it that people get so hyped up if everything isn't rah! rah! Apple?

Is it fanboyism?

When you send out a survey you expect to hear constructive criticism - it helps you improve your product or service. Losers only want to hear "good news" and Apple is not a loser.
 
jettredmont said:
Hmm. Not having a car sucks. I can see that being a compelling argument in major downtown areas (NYC, downtown Boston or Chicago, etc), and in college dorms. And I suppose the impulsive-viewing insomniac crowd isn't left with many options.

Is that the sole market here? Because, I can tell you, there's the whole rest of the US which has access to vehicles and corner video stores (which at least in my area pretty much never run out of videos). There, the competition is cheap, convenient access to physical media, and $4 for a very short-term rental just does not compete.
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I am in no way stating that I am an advocate of the enviromentalist/sustainability movement, but:

Many studies now conclude (whether the people are educated or not) that consumers do identify environmentally friendly decisions when purchasing products. The current trend at least is for people to think about what impact they or their products are having on the enviroment.
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/01/08/50-of-consumers-consider-sustainability-when-shopping/
Downloading data instead of creating a disk, packaging, shipping, waste, fuel usage, etc, can be weighed in many of those decisions. Count a large percentage of people to think about that as well when making decisions.
"Environmentally Conscious Consumers"

Besides this is not competition were talking about. This is Steve Jobs' war on piracy. Billions of $ are lost to pirate films. Apple's direction is to boost their media dominance by reshaping the media field to their advantage. They did it with music and had wild success. Perhaps they will repeat the reversal on piracy with new movie rental and purchasing options.
"Online Movie Pirates"

Want me to keep going with other markets? Or have you gotten the point now?
 
Luis said:
The real question here is who will make an app to record the movie while it plays. When that happens, i'll bite.


Joking.. say no to pirating
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Interesting question, actually. I think the only way to do it cheap and relatively efficiently would be a DVI/HDMI input on a TV card/device ... I don't figure we're likely to see those on Elgato offerings any time soon.

Anyone else have ideas? Purely theoretical, of course, since I haven't bought anything from iTunes and wouldn't even if I thought that this would be the cheapest way to steal a movie.
 
If this is true then there is also a very good chance we will see a second generation Apple TV device too. I would likely never rent a movei with this service but I really do want a better 1080p ATV device. I expect Apple will have worked out the whole thing end to end, that is "modem to living room".
 
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