Apple in talks to add streaming Hollywood movies to iCloud

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Apple is said to be involved in negotiations with Hollywood movie studios in an effort to give customers the ability to stream movies they own to devices like an iPhone, iPad or Apple TV.



Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Apple wants to give its customers the ability to stream movies they have purchased through iTunes without the need to manually transfer the files. The talks come as Apple has launched its iCloud product, and movie studios have rolled out their own cloud-based movie streaming service, dubbed UltraViolet.



UltraViolet movies can be streamed to an iPhone or iPad using the Flixster application available on the iOS App Store, however an UltraViolet account does not include any movies that may have been purchased through iTunes. The new UltraViolet format lets people stream a film they have purchased on DVD or Blu-ray, and is seen as a way to help boost slumping sales of movies.



Rumors that Apple wants to give users the ability to stream and re-download movies they have purchased are not new. Apple has already secured deals for iTunes customers, allowing them to re-download songs and TV shows they own, but Hollywood movies cannot be re-downloaded.



Previous reports have claimed that the so-called "HBO window" has been a sticking point in negotiations. The window is a deal in which three of the top six film studios have distribution deals with premium network HBO, and under the terms of that deal, outlets must halt sales or distribution of a film when it premieres on HBO.



As recently as August, Apple was still said to be pursuing a cloud-based streaming and re-downloading service, though such a deal with Hollywood studios was said to not be imminent.







The studios' UltraViolet service launched this week, giving customers access to "digital lockers" that let customers stream or download a digital copy of physical purchases on a wide variety of devices. The service requires customers to create an account that serves as a hub for all of their purchased media, and passcodes that ship with physical discs allow users to access those movies online from remote servers.



All of the major movie studios except for Walt Disney Co. are backing UltraViolet, while it is planning its own proprietary service called KeyChest. Neither Disney nor Apple were part of the consortium that formed UltraViolet.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 17
    ikolikol Posts: 369member
    I was able to put my own movies to the iDisk cloud previously- is that ability now gone using iCloud?
  • Reply 2 of 17
    This would be great, especially if it's available along w/the iTunes Match release. We'll see how committed Hollywood is to encouraging ownership of movies. If Apple can pull this off and also add a Music tab to the Apple TV to allow iTunes Match music streaming, I'll be overjoyed.
  • Reply 3 of 17
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hamilton77fan View Post


    This would be great, especially if it's available along w/the iTunes Match release. We'll see how committed Hollywood is to encouraging ownership of movies. If Apple can pull this off and also add a Music tab to the Apple TV to allow iTunes Match music streaming, I'll be overjoyed.



    Monkey heaven.



    also, when are studio going to understand we don't want disks at all? Buy a disk and stream the movie? SO the disk is essentially destined to be garbage or the stream is. I'm sure they won't stream at 1080. Anyone look into it yet?
  • Reply 4 of 17
    ikolikol Posts: 369member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by spliff monkey View Post




    also, when are studio going to understand we don't want disks at all? Buy a disk and stream the movie? SO the disk is essentially destined to be garbage or the stream is. I'm sure they won't stream at 1080. Anyone look into it yet?



    You're speaking for yourself - I and many others apparently want pure 1080P,7.1sound, and Extras. We want it all- not some facsimile thereof.
  • Reply 5 of 17
    christophbchristophb Posts: 1,482member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by spliff monkey View Post


    Monkey heaven.



    also, when are studio going to understand we don't want disks at all? Buy a disk and stream the movie? SO the disk is essentially destined to be garbage or the stream is. I'm sure they won't stream at 1080. Anyone look into it yet?



    I like discs and I like the media to be available in a smaller, more mobile digital form suitable for an iPhone, iPad or (OMG) iPod Classic - which is why, when available, I buy the Blu-ray/Digital Copy combos. I wouldn't mind those being available as a mobile stream but I plan on keeping those on an iTunes library.
  • Reply 6 of 17
    Video out on iPad...



    We don't have a TV, and therefore have no need for an Apple TV to play rented movies on the TV screen.



    Instead, on occasion I bring my second monitor (22in LCD) into the living room or bedroom. I have the iPad VGA widget. I can hook my iPad up to the monitor, and I can watch a trailer in iTunes on the monitor and choose a movie to rent. I start the movie, only to find that it won't play out to the monitor! It's quite surprising and has caught me out a couple of times. What's with that? What's the studios thinking there?



    You can play the exact same movie through your Mac to any attached monitor, and you can play the same movie from an Apple TV to any attached TV. What's so special about the iPad?
  • Reply 7 of 17
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Please... what people want are movies to rent cheaply (preferably). Give me a huge catalogue (like EVERYTHING) to be rented and streamed per use. A Big Blockbuster in the sky. Let me rent it from iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, Blockbuster... whoever... and let me rent it directly on any device I choose.



    I fail to see what the problem is here - we have been ranting movies on VHS and then DVD's for years. With the ability to do so over the internet surely the model could continue?



    Very few people want to own movies but by all means, make movies available for sale at higher quality and higher price.
  • Reply 8 of 17
    Previous purchased TV shows must still be US only. I haven't heard when it's coming to Canada. Does anyone know for sure when it will be coming here? Will be nice when it does as I have over 300 GBs worth in my iTunes library.
  • Reply 9 of 17
    Why don't they worry about getting the iCloud e-mail working properly first.
  • Reply 10 of 17
    shaun, ukshaun, uk Posts: 1,050member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by VisualZone View Post


    Previous purchased TV shows must still be US only. I haven't heard when it's coming to Canada. Does anyone know for sure when it will be coming here? Will be nice when it does as I have over 300 GBs worth in my iTunes library.



    I checked that with my local AppleStore today as I have the same problem. Apparently if you have an iCloud account you can re-download any music and tv shows that you've previosuly purchased through iTunes. When iTunes Match comes along you will be able to do the same for ripped music (for a fee).



    The AppleStore Rep said that you can re-download everything you've previosuly purchased through iTunes including movies using iCloud, but I can't find any mention of that in the iCloud info on Apple's website.



    I've got over 300GB of mostly TV shows which I have stored on an external hard drive because my internal hard drive is full. I was worried in case the external drive failed what the heck I would do. I even looked at RAID drives but they are quite expensive.
  • Reply 11 of 17
    christophbchristophb Posts: 1,482member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by titomcgee View Post


    Why don't they worry about getting the iCloud e-mail working properly first.



    Yeah - mine's been crap all day.
  • Reply 12 of 17
    christophbchristophb Posts: 1,482member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Shaun, UK View Post


    I checked that with my local AppleStore today as I have the same problem. Apparently if you have an iCloud account you can re-download any music and tv shows that you've previosuly purchased through iTunes. When iTunes Match comes along you will be able to do the same for ripped music (for a fee).



    The AppleStore Rep said that you can re-download everything you've previosuly purchased through iTunes including movies using iCloud, but I can't find any mention of that in the iCloud info on Apple's website.



    You don't need an iCloud Apple ID to do this. iTunes music, movies, TV series redownload is based on the iTunes Apple ID you used to purchase. I did this yesterday with a few TV series episodes that got corrupted at some point and this was before I configured any iCloud ID on my machine.



    Edit: think of your iTunes Apple ID and your iCloud Apple ID as for completely different purposes. You can't redeem a gift card on your iCloud account. Billing happens separately just like it did for iTunes account and MobileMe. Your Mac, iPod, iPad, iPhone has different places to configure knowing that they will always be two worlds.
  • Reply 13 of 17
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ChristophB View Post


    You don't need an iCloud Apple ID to do this. iTunes music, movies, TV series redownload is based on the iTunes Apple ID you used to purchase. I did this yesterday with a few TV series episodes that got corrupted at some point and this was before I configured any iCloud ID on my machine.



    Edit: think of your iTunes Apple ID and your iCloud Apple ID as for completely different purposes. You can't redeem a gift card on your iCloud account. Billing happens separately just like it did for iTunes account and MobileMe. Your Mac, iPod, iPad, iPhone has different places to configure knowing that they will always be two worlds.



    In Canada all I see is Apps, Books and Music. Waiting to see when we'll get TV Shows listed in Purchased in iTunes. You can see in this link no mention of TV shows:



    http://www.apple.com/ca/icloud/features/



    Btw, I happen to have a 1TB HDD in my iMac with about 450 GBs left and it's backed up on a 1TB external HDD. Also, have a 2TB external drive that's at 1.8 TBs full with movies, TV shows and music ripped from my personal collection. Should I get into my Macbook Pro and its backup?
  • Reply 14 of 17
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by spliff monkey View Post


    Also, when are studio going to understand we don't want disks at all? Buy a disk and stream the movie? SO the disk is essentially destined to be garbage or the stream is. I'm sure they won't stream at 1080. Anyone look into it yet?



    What the hell do you think Ultraviolet is all about?
  • Reply 15 of 17
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Firefly7475 View Post


    What the hell do you think Ultraviolet is all about?



    More money for absolutely no reason using draconian DRM.



    That's what it's about. And I don't buy it. And won't buy it.
  • Reply 16 of 17
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    More money for absolutely no reason using draconian DRM.



    Of course the best solution would be the ability to purchase DRM free content based on an industry standard licensing system which allowed me perpetual access to stream or re-download content that I owned.



    I just can't see that happening though. At least, not until the studios are able to watermark individual user downloads.



    Your only other option is to keep purchasing physical disks (which, as a small bonus will at least let you try out Ultraviolet)
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