It just doesn't add up. Hulu and Netflix streaming aren't even the same kind of service, the business model is very different. I doubt those services are paying as much as Apple does for the most equivalent offering. I also doubt that Apple is preventing them from dealing with other services, which I'm pretty sure would be illegal. One of the lines even implies that Apple isn't doing enough for them, which contradicts the suggestion that Apple has too much control. If you want someone to nanny your product at their expense, then you're implicitly giving up control.
Perhaps that is the issue. The studios get one big check from Netflix to stream all of their movies. Good movies subsidize the bad. Apple on the other hand, rents/sells individual movies - and probably pays the studios for each rental or sale. There's no hiding how a bad movie might not be profitable. Some movies may not be generating any revenue. That might irk producers of those bad films.
You cannot blame free enterprise for naturally selecting a winner.
Apple succeeded because they built the proverbial better mousetrap. Now that that's done the Execs want to employ some good ole socialism and make everything "even"
Sorry...that's not making much sense and nor does it show vision. Pundits said iTunes Store wouldn't work because people wouldn't pay for something they could get for free.
A decade later its been proven largely because of Apple's efforts and now the Execs want to renegotiate?
I personally feel like the biggest threat to the movie industry is lack of quality content worth paying for. People are simply spending their money elsewhere.
What he really wants is for more platforms to become viable so that Apple will have less leverage during negotiations of licensing deals.
Bingo. And the reference to piracy is that the more legit channels there are, the lesser a problem it becomes. He learned lessons from the music industry.
True, many of his comments support your statement. If there's one thing that every Hollywood exec knows about Apple, it's that "They killed the music industry.... but they won't kill us".
The issue is usually conceptualized as limited distribution being a major problem, and Apple, WRT the music industry, is dominant. Apple didn't kill the industry, but limited distribution choices are seen as bad for the industry. The limited distribution did little to counter piracy, and still does little.
There's a grain of truth there, but the issues are, of course, much more complex.
i stopped purchasing music when it started getting crappy. since having iTunes, i've purchased only a few albums/songs.
haven't even touched movies on iTunes.
maybe the movie industry should start making a quality product instead of the shit they're serving up.
oh yeah, i have a monthly streaming membership to neflix. it was fine for about a month. everything i'm interested in seeing is via dvd-through-the-mail. quite frankly, netflix's streaming service isn't really all that.
Add in Apple's refusal to add Blu-ray or HDMI I can see why.
Apple TV has an HDMI port so does the Mac mini. The Macbook range and iMacs have mini DP/thunderbolt which support adaptors to connect to HDMI displays and pass audio.
As for Blu Ray, it makes no difference to me. 95% of media I consume is digital and I have a PS3 for Blu Ray playback if I need it. It doesn't hurt Apples sales and as far as I can see they are actively phasing out optical drives across the Mac range. I honestly can't remember the last time I put an optical disc into my iMac.
There was/is lots of competition... the problem with most of them was they based their business model on 'free' music. Somehow, this didn't work as a business model. What Apple did was break the world into the concept of micro-transcations... .99 cents for a song, a few bucks for a movie... when the world was screaming for Napster, Limewire and the like to remain free.
Now, they make billions on apps, songs, and music - and ya, they take their cut, but everyone else is making money too.
You'd think the 'industry' would be happy that someone is getting users to pay for content...
I don't believe Apple has any exclusivity with iTunes movies- I see the same movies available at Amazon, etc...
The only thing "hindering movie companies from distributing their catalogs" is their own ineptitude.
EXACTLY.
Apple isn't dominating because they're doing backhanded deals the way Microsoft did with Windows. Apple simply created a really simple platform to pair up with their really simple media players. Apple was doing "A buck for a song that'll play anywhere" while the rest of the industry was doing things like "$10 for a certain number of downloads that'll only play on our media player but maybe not on your computer and you lose them all the day you stop subscribing, not to mention that you lose any unused downloads at the end of the month, and..."
The movie studios need to make sure they think of the consumer first. If they make consumers happy, they'll make money. If they act greedy, consumers will get their content elsewhere. Until recently, if consumers wanted music, they either had to buy from Apple or steal. Remember when record labels didn't even want us importing our CDs? They acted like greedy pigs. They deserve to fail.
Sadly, it looks like the movie studios are learning the wrong lessons from the failures of record labels. And I'm not surprised.
With all the integration coming with OS5, the handwriting is on the wall for the movie industry and what this MIRAMAX executive sees portends great growth for Apple.
There just isn't a credible competitor who can keep pace with the constant innovation coming out of Cupertino. Just when phones seem near competitive... Siri comes along and moves the bar higher.
iPads... no competition.... with an update in the works on top of it.
Apple TV, it's a coming... so if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen..... HP sure got the message, along with many others
This guy is an idiot. iTunes does not dominate the movie distribution business by any stretch of the imagination. It sounds like he is saying "apple dominates the music business so therefore they dominate the movie business". There is no comparison. (And although there was no competition in the early days of online music, there are plenty today, but they don't offer what the public wants)
The true threat to online movies is Netflix, because they bundle so many movies for a low monthly price. It makes each individual movie seem very low cost. Apple on the other hand is forced to charge $5/movie rental, which makes the movies seem very valuable/costly.
And who did they make a deal with? Netflix, making their movie catalog less valuable... This guy is stupid.
If they want to bump up movie rentals, allow more than 24 hours to finish watching a movie for God's sake. With those ridiculous rental terms, you pretty much have to watch the entire movie all in one sitting.
Apple's domination of the digital media marketplace is more of a threat to movie companies than piracy, according to Miramax CEO Mike Lang.
Apple's domination is a threat to movie distributors, but not to the industry. Apple gets rid of the middle men, who are unnecessary in Internet distribution. In music, this has meant that artists can distribute their works directly on iTunes, without signing with a record company. They only need to pay middle men who actually add value. For other media, such as books and magazines, Apple has insisted that they get a cut if it's distributed through iOS. This is very bad for companies that exist only to distribute these media, since they are unnecessary in this picture.
Exactly the same thing is true in the movie industry. Obviously Apple has to make sure the movie producers stay healthy so it has content to sell, and it wants to keep its customers happy, so they buy devices: it must balance the interests on both sides. Apple has no interest in putting anyone out of business other than the middlemen. Miramax, which distributes independent and foreign films, is a middle man.
He don't mind we go to the piracy route. Cheaper for us, less threat to them. Work both ways.
Had iTunes not exist, there will be multiple shops people need to go to and they all will be incompatible with each others and to multiple devices. Not to mention multiple standards and file formats. Greed is what they are. Otherwise all movies and albums will be available everywhere at the same price range and at the same time. Why do we need multiple licences, agreements and availability discrepancies all over the world?
So they can squeeze out every penny they can get? Piracy it is then.
Most of the best movies I have seen are made with the same amount of money they budget for food services on a blockbuster. Throwing money at a movie may make it profitable, but it won't make it good. I'd be happy to see more cheaply made films with great ideas and creativity and fewer formulaic and franchise sequels. Screw the studios.
Comments
It just doesn't add up. Hulu and Netflix streaming aren't even the same kind of service, the business model is very different. I doubt those services are paying as much as Apple does for the most equivalent offering. I also doubt that Apple is preventing them from dealing with other services, which I'm pretty sure would be illegal. One of the lines even implies that Apple isn't doing enough for them, which contradicts the suggestion that Apple has too much control. If you want someone to nanny your product at their expense, then you're implicitly giving up control.
Perhaps that is the issue. The studios get one big check from Netflix to stream all of their movies. Good movies subsidize the bad. Apple on the other hand, rents/sells individual movies - and probably pays the studios for each rental or sale. There's no hiding how a bad movie might not be profitable. Some movies may not be generating any revenue. That might irk producers of those bad films.
Apple succeeded because they built the proverbial better mousetrap. Now that that's done the Execs want to employ some good ole socialism and make everything "even"
Sorry...that's not making much sense and nor does it show vision. Pundits said iTunes Store wouldn't work because people wouldn't pay for something they could get for free.
A decade later its been proven largely because of Apple's efforts and now the Execs want to renegotiate?
I personally feel like the biggest threat to the movie industry is lack of quality content worth paying for. People are simply spending their money elsewhere.
What he really wants is for more platforms to become viable so that Apple will have less leverage during negotiations of licensing deals.
Bingo. And the reference to piracy is that the more legit channels there are, the lesser a problem it becomes. He learned lessons from the music industry.
True, many of his comments support your statement. If there's one thing that every Hollywood exec knows about Apple, it's that "They killed the music industry.... but they won't kill us".
The issue is usually conceptualized as limited distribution being a major problem, and Apple, WRT the music industry, is dominant. Apple didn't kill the industry, but limited distribution choices are seen as bad for the industry. The limited distribution did little to counter piracy, and still does little.
There's a grain of truth there, but the issues are, of course, much more complex.
i stopped purchasing music when it started getting crappy. since having iTunes, i've purchased only a few albums/songs.
haven't even touched movies on iTunes.
maybe the movie industry should start making a quality product instead of the shit they're serving up.
oh yeah, i have a monthly streaming membership to neflix. it was fine for about a month. everything i'm interested in seeing is via dvd-through-the-mail. quite frankly, netflix's streaming service isn't really all that.
Ironically, until last December the largest shareholder of Miramax was Steve Jobs.
Did he sell his position or did someone else acquire more?
Add in Apple's refusal to add Blu-ray or HDMI I can see why.
Apple TV has an HDMI port so does the Mac mini. The Macbook range and iMacs have mini DP/thunderbolt which support adaptors to connect to HDMI displays and pass audio.
As for Blu Ray, it makes no difference to me. 95% of media I consume is digital and I have a PS3 for Blu Ray playback if I need it. It doesn't hurt Apples sales and as far as I can see they are actively phasing out optical drives across the Mac range. I honestly can't remember the last time I put an optical disc into my iMac.
Now, they make billions on apps, songs, and music - and ya, they take their cut, but everyone else is making money too.
You'd think the 'industry' would be happy that someone is getting users to pay for content...
I don't believe Apple has any exclusivity with iTunes movies- I see the same movies available at Amazon, etc...
The only thing "hindering movie companies from distributing their catalogs" is their own ineptitude.
EXACTLY.
Apple isn't dominating because they're doing backhanded deals the way Microsoft did with Windows. Apple simply created a really simple platform to pair up with their really simple media players. Apple was doing "A buck for a song that'll play anywhere" while the rest of the industry was doing things like "$10 for a certain number of downloads that'll only play on our media player but maybe not on your computer and you lose them all the day you stop subscribing, not to mention that you lose any unused downloads at the end of the month, and..."
The movie studios need to make sure they think of the consumer first. If they make consumers happy, they'll make money. If they act greedy, consumers will get their content elsewhere. Until recently, if consumers wanted music, they either had to buy from Apple or steal. Remember when record labels didn't even want us importing our CDs? They acted like greedy pigs. They deserve to fail.
Sadly, it looks like the movie studios are learning the wrong lessons from the failures of record labels. And I'm not surprised.
There just isn't a credible competitor who can keep pace with the constant innovation coming out of Cupertino. Just when phones seem near competitive... Siri comes along and moves the bar higher.
iPads... no competition.... with an update in the works on top of it.
Apple TV, it's a coming... so if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen..... HP sure got the message, along with many others
The true threat to online movies is Netflix, because they bundle so many movies for a low monthly price. It makes each individual movie seem very low cost. Apple on the other hand is forced to charge $5/movie rental, which makes the movies seem very valuable/costly.
And who did they make a deal with? Netflix, making their movie catalog less valuable... This guy is stupid.
If they want to bump up movie rentals, allow more than 24 hours to finish watching a movie for God's sake. With those ridiculous rental terms, you pretty much have to watch the entire movie all in one sitting.
Add in Apple's refusal to add Blu-ray or HDMI I can see why.
???
BlueRay is a disc and HDMI is a device connection.
Perhaps you mean 1080p vs 720p?
1080 is gonna be about +4 times the file size of 720 and definitely not a 4x improvement in quality.
And it depends on the source. If the original is not recorded in 1080/HD, then there will be no quality gain, just a larger download.
Apple's domination of the digital media marketplace is more of a threat to movie companies than piracy, according to Miramax CEO Mike Lang.
Apple's domination is a threat to movie distributors, but not to the industry. Apple gets rid of the middle men, who are unnecessary in Internet distribution. In music, this has meant that artists can distribute their works directly on iTunes, without signing with a record company. They only need to pay middle men who actually add value. For other media, such as books and magazines, Apple has insisted that they get a cut if it's distributed through iOS. This is very bad for companies that exist only to distribute these media, since they are unnecessary in this picture.
Exactly the same thing is true in the movie industry. Obviously Apple has to make sure the movie producers stay healthy so it has content to sell, and it wants to keep its customers happy, so they buy devices: it must balance the interests on both sides. Apple has no interest in putting anyone out of business other than the middlemen. Miramax, which distributes independent and foreign films, is a middle man.
He means: "In order for profits to survive there must be parity within the digital distribution markets"
Bang on.
What a prick. Are HMV and Tower threats as well?
http://www.mafiaa.org/
If there's one thing that every Hollywood exec knows about Apple, it's that "They killed the music industry.... but they won't kill us".
You'd think the 'industry' would be happy that someone is getting users to pay for content...
What a moroon.
And it depends on the source. If the original is not recorded in 1080/HD, then there will be no quality gain, just a larger download.
Since we are talking about movies, the majority of them would have been on film, so will be recording in excess of 1080
He don't mind we go to the piracy route. Cheaper for us, less threat to them. Work both ways.
Had iTunes not exist, there will be multiple shops people need to go to and they all will be incompatible with each others and to multiple devices. Not to mention multiple standards and file formats. Greed is what they are. Otherwise all movies and albums will be available everywhere at the same price range and at the same time. Why do we need multiple licences, agreements and availability discrepancies all over the world?
So they can squeeze out every penny they can get? Piracy it is then.
Did he sell his position or did someone else acquire more?
Neither. Steve Jobs was an indirect shareholder through his Disney shares, Disney owned Miramax and they sold it last year.
Most of the best movies I have seen are made with the same amount of money they budget for food services on a blockbuster. Throwing money at a movie may make it profitable, but it won't make it good. I'd be happy to see more cheaply made films with great ideas and creativity and fewer formulaic and franchise sequels. Screw the studios.
Hey, we got us enough here for a posse!
And those kind of comments tempt me to prove it...