Four More HD Titles To Add, And Guess What, One Is A Police Academy Movie!

I’m sure if Apple had any say in which movies appeared and how many movies, we would have a lot more movies, and probably some better movies. I don’t believe that Apple is handpicking these titles.

Like music on the iTunes Store, Apple is at the whim of the movie studios to decide what goes up and when. The studios aren’t asking Apple which movies they’d like to have up.

All anger and frustration should be pointed directly at the studios. The studios have made it all too clear that they saw what “control” Apple took away from the music labels, and they don’t want that to happen to them. I’m sure they don’t want Apple to be too successful too fast. They know there are other companies coming out with set top boxes, so I’m sure they are biding their time with Apple.

This is all about the movie studios protecting what they have over making consumers happy.

Agreed… If it were up to Apple, I’m quite sure they’d have every top title up as fast as they could load them onto the database. The studios clearly have their business plans for the content distribution channels. And public polling is making it clear that they need to proceed with caution on their BluRay cash cow. The majority of respondents are saying that they find downloadable HD quite acceptable, and that pristene BluRay is largely considered a discretionary expenditure. This means that BluRay, although at the very top of the quality food chain, is by no means guaranteed to succeed to the best of their models. So, the studios want very much to give the best margin channel, the greatest chance of succeeding…

…The other little gem the polling reports is that, contrary to what enthusiasts think, the general public is not jumping in with both feet for what BluRay offers. They appear to be more contented with DVD than we would like, especially with the prevalence of the upconverting DVD player. All this adds up to the studios being overly protective of the BluRay channel dollars. This is why we see the oinky behavior with the buy vs. rent on the download delivery mechanisms, at least for the time being. And inasmuch as the tv system has no current solution for being able to move HD content around as you currently can with SD, high-def rentals are all we’re gonna see for now…

To answer this question, we need to look at the Vudu box. They will have to meet the same requirements as AppleTV. Right now, the Vudu box does offer 1080 p content, whereas AppleTV is at 720 p. As far as movies libraries, I am not sure how the two compare. That would be interesting to find out. The other question I have is, is the movies you buy via AppleTV. Are they AppleTV SD or iTunes Movie SD? There is a difference….

My guess is that the studios are trying to disadvantage competitors to the Blu-Ray format which, its fair to say, isn’t getting lots of consumer love. Apple TV HD is clearly a middle road for people like me who are waiting for the players to work properly and come down in price and the studios know that. Certainly that is the case for Sony since it is positioned both as a studio and a device manufacturer.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not that much of a movie snob that I won’t watch an SD movie on my HDTV, BUT, don’t make me have to buy the movie to do so. Job’s said it himself, movies are not like music, not everyone wants to own them.

To be fair, Jobs did say 30 days after release, and they have been pretty good with that so far.

I think the problem we’re all wrestling with, is timing. We want what we want, when we want it, in the delivery mechanism that we demand. It’s not surprising, but a byproduct of progress in technology, which is already very fast, being outpaced by our expectations (it’s double-edged). And it’s becoming very difficult for industry to keep up.

The studios are in business to maximize their profit. So they’ll feed content to the channels to achieve this, consistent with the agreements they’re struck with partners. Some of these agreements we regard as artifacts, like the walk-in buy/rent channels à la Blockbuster. The consumer will need to substantially prefer download providers to foot traffic before the ‘rules of the road’ are likely to change to our benefit.

Moreoever, Eddie V.’s observations have pointed up an interesting quandary. When I look at movies in the iTunes Music Store, all I see since tv 2.0 is users complaining about movies being unavailable for sale (rent only). And they invariably write in comments, “…click here if you agree.” (drives me nuts). This has become prevalent since Apple launched rentals… But on the tv side, it’s the opposite… Go figure… But clearly what we (I) want, is both. Buy AND rent for all titles. And we want it now.

Considering how far iTunes has come in only 5 years (number 1 music seller!) it’s clear the Studios are holding Apple back - and they’re OK with that. Other systems like VuDu and Blockbuster online will all be “given a chance” to succeed this time around, instead of how their musical counterparts were allowed to be crushed by iTunes.

They’ve learned their lesson and do not want to see Apple get anywhere near the market share their iPod/iTunes combination gave them. Consumers be damned.

It’s too bad, cause I still believe that in the end Apple can figure out how to do “it” better than the rest. They just wont get the chance this time to do it alone, and on their terms.

Sigh. Thanks Hollywood.