“By all accounts, Steve Jobs gave a socko performance, delivered with his usual charm and controversial style, Jan. 9 at Apple’s annual Macworld gathering. Apple TV, which Jobs says has licked the problem of linking your TV to content downloaded from the Internet, was introduced as thousands cheered in San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Among the faithful were some tech companies, Walt Disney Co. (DIS) Chief Executive Robert Iger, and a smattering of TV executives,” Ronald Grover reports for BusinessWeek.
Grover reports, “Most of the rest of Hollywood was conspicuously absent. Only four months back, when Iger announced that Jack Sparrow and the rest of Disney’s movie characters could be downloaded to Apple’s video iPod, it looked like Jobs was on his way toward taming the beast called Hollywood. A prototype of Apple TV, then code-named iTV, would soon link to the iPod and ship movies from Steve’s world to our TVs—or so the whiskered one led us to believe.”
Grover reports, “But no other Hollywood studio has yet joined Disney in giving Jobs their most precious commodity: new-to-the-home-market movies, which continue to be the studios’ hottest sellers in the still-robust $32-billion-a-year DVD market. To be fair, Jobs & Co. did manage to lure a second studio, when Paramount Pictures announced it was joining the iPod brigade. The Viacom unit, eager to overcome its image as a digital Neanderthal, said it would license to Apple 100 or so of its older movies. You want Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Mean Girls, you can get them. But try to get Dreamgirls when it comes out on video in a few months, or Shrek 3, which Paramount will release this summer for DreamWorks Animation.”
“Paramount may eventually give Apple its hot new flicks, but not yet and not until it sees how its maiden iPod voyage goes. But as Jobs was making his starlit announcement at Macworld, I was several hundred miles away in Las Vegas, getting the lowdown at the Consumer Electronics Show from studio executives who aren’t likely to join Paramount and Disney anytime soon,” Grover reports.
“Hollywood, I was told, still doesn’t trust Steve Jobs with its crown jewels. Yes, everyone loves that ratings for shows like NBC’s (GE) The Office and ABC’s Lost seem to be up thanks to the promotional exposure of being available via iPod download. But while just about every TV network quickly followed Disney’s 2005 decision to give its TV shows to Apple, few have yet to join the Mouse with movies. When you have a piece of content than can cost upward of $100 million to produce, you don’t give it up without a lot of soul-searching and number-crunching,” Grover reports. “What does Hollywood want from Steve Jobs? For starters, more protection for their films.”
Full article here.
Related articles:
Hollywood movie studios demand Apple strengthen DRM limitations before joining iTunes – November 29, 2006
Disney sells nearly 500,000 movies via Apple’s iTunes Store in less than two months – November 09, 2006
Disney sells 125,000 movie downloads via Apple’s iTunes Store in first week – September 19, 2006
Fire up those TPMs, Steve – here’s the reason why you got em.
F$&k Hollywood.
I mean it.
Really. In this day and age, we get better films from the indy scene.
F$&k Hollywood.
Time will tell. First Disney, then Paramount and increasing number of titles. Miramax? should be in the pipeline already.
The funny thing is “Only four months back”. Jeez, is this guy idiot or what? FOUR months. FOUR MONTHS. For Hollywood to make a move pretty much 4 months amounts to 4 hours in effective times. FOUR MONTHS and the idiot spouts “where is Hollywoood”.
FOUR MONTHS MORON. Layers take the double time to just devise the title of the agreement, lobster!
People who rail against DRM always seem amusing to me. They simply don’t understand the way business people think. DRM exists not to lock people to a platform but because intellectual copyright holders (and of course even THEY differ) wish to have SOME kind of protection against widespread free reproduction of their works. When the investment is higher, that need for protection is even more intense.
It’s true that some music is available as a non DRM mp3 file. Quite a lot of it actually. But those people are less concerned about not making money on their product. Those that ARE concerned will always demand some kind of DRM.
Having been in the music, television AND news industry personally I can tell you that the investment in producing content is higher than you think. It’s not going to be freely distributed, willingly by the producers as long as there’s a profit to be made by controlling the distribution, which DRM provides. Without it, there has to be some other source of revenue. Can it come from live shows? Theatrical distribution? Advertising? Not very likely.
mw=needed as in DRM is still needed
Here’s to the rippers, may Gawd bless them, one and all.
Every time I hear a Hollywood studio exec fret about “more protection for their films,” I laugh my butt off. Despite your best efforts, YOU DON”T HAVE ANY NOW! NONE! ZIP! NADA! So what’s all the fear and fuss about, dumbasses?
F$&k Hollywood
@ Randian
Yep.
And here we are CRITICIZING APPLE FOR FORCING DRM ON US.
Thanks a bunch, Hollywood.
I still don’t understand what “protection” they want. All you have to do is type “rip dvd” into a google search and it’s clear that the “protection” of physical DVDs is a joke.
I would think that they would love to sell movies with no costs (dvd, packaging, distribution, returns, etc.).
I have to believe this is more about the risk thhey are taking in transitioning their distribution systems from the “big box” retailers to online downloads.
Each of the studions is terrified to be the first mover and have Wal Mart and Target pull their movies while selling those from the competition.
Unfortunately it would be illegal for all the studios to get together and collectively tell Wal Mart to f**k off.
why would we wait 6 months or more for films to be put on itunes?
we download movies before the release date now!!!!
if the studios arent carefull they will lose the entire market
drm hurts movie studios
“What does Hollywood want from Steve Jobs? For starters, more protection for their films.”
That’s a laugh. They have zero protection now with DVDs. They want the only thing that matters to any business, more money.
As I said to MDN when I alerted them to this article, the hollywood studios won’t be happy until we’re a nation of renters.
And Jobs forsaw this. He adopted Intel for its TPMs as a hedge, and the danger of him giving in to them – ie using the DRM hardware in every Macintel for more than just OSX installations – grows with every new online video download sold at iTS.
The rename to “Apple Inc”, as much as it makes sense from a business perspective, is to me also an indication that Apple is moving on from its roots. And I think that’s dangerous in some ways. SONY went down that road, and the journey took them from being a truely great electronics company to becoming a media conglomerate whore. It’s no less possible for Apple to similarly lose it’s way, and start viewing technology as nothing more than a way to lock people into a revenue stream.
Don’t underestimate the power of greed. It can corrupt anything or anyone that was once good.
pr: People who rail against DRM always seem amusing to me. They simply don’t understand the way business people think. DRM exists not to lock people to a platform but because intellectual copyright holders (and of course even THEY differ) wish to have SOME kind of protection against widespread free reproduction of their works. When the investment is higher, that need for protection is even more intense.
Yeah, I don’t understand why I, who purchased legit DVDs, must sit though the FBI warning, all movie previews and advertisements that are not skippable while those who pirated it can remove all the crap. I don’t understand why people who bought legit CDs get their computers rootkited while those who pirated it can avoid all the inconveniences. See, as a paying customer, I don’t like to be treated like potential thieves. I guess you are right, we don’t understand how business people think and I don’t need to as long as I am the customer. The days when customers are kings are dead, so it seems. Name one advantage a DRM brings to paying customers. Even the most lenient DRM that is transparent for most people like FairPlay does not bring any advantages to customers.
DRM isn’t about copyright protection. It is about the ability to charge multiple times for the same content. Paramount and all the other major studios do not want to you watch a movie on your computer and then watch it on your iPod. They want better “protection” which will make you pay once for a “higher quality, movie like experience” at home and then pay a second time if you would like to watch the same movie “on the go.” They want better DRM so you will download ONE movie on iTunes then be asked to pay for it a second time if you try and move it to an iPod.
Maybe Hollywood should make something I want. I have old gift cards for Blockbuster which are expired because they’re unused. It isn’t like I haven’t tried. I walk into Blockbuster, scan everything from A to Z on the new releases wall, then after disappointment and disinterest, walk out empty handed. The product is so bad I can’t even spend free money on it.
Perhaps I’m not in the target market for Biodome 2.
Reasonable article. It boils down to the fact that Hollywood is just a tougher nut to crack than the music industry and TV. Jobs will progress but at a slower pace. What do people think he is….a god or somthing
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…delivered with his usual charm and controversial style,
What’s controversial about the way Steve Jobs delivers his keynotes? Would Business Week be happier if he was a dull as the other presenters who came on to stage? Is he controversial because his keynote don’t suck? What is this crap?
Absolutely no advantages for consumers with DRM. It’s not a benefit for consumers at all.
But DRM IS about numbers. It’s important to keep things in perspective. There is a large segment of the population… probably the overwhelming majority for whom computers and anything remotely technical are very intimidating. Then there are a huge number of people who COULD get around DRM but don’t based on moral grounds (“Isn’t that stealing?”), some of whom won’t even accept a gift of music not paid for.
So… what percentage of the world’s population do you think understands how to Rip DVD’s or visit a bit torrent site? In the big picture it’s not that many…which is why iTunes has, in part, done so well. People WANT to follow the rules for the most part. That many people used Napster because it was so easy and that 500,000 people (just a made up number, it could be higher clearly but it’s NOT the majority) regularly rip DVD’s or use peer to peer is of concern to Hollywood and the music industry… they want to KEEP that number low.
Apple can and likely WILL license FairPlay since of all the schemes out there…it is still the most reasonable since it’s liberal and with a little effort can be easily defeated. The copyright owners are depending on the morality of the audience, the fear of technology and the hassle of defeating DRM from cutting further into their profits.
why pay for movies at all?
watch them for free:
http://simplisticsmovielinks.blogspot.com/
it’s like Napster all over again and the studios didn’t learn the lesson from afar…
More protection?
WTF! movies from itunes are already more secure than 95% of the dvds out there- look at mactheripper and handbrake.
you have the studios bellyaching about not enough protection and on the other hand a bunch of dweebs bit@ching about apple’s green monster drm program.
LP–>Cassette–>CD
VHS–>DVD–>HD (Blue Ray, HD, download)
Death, taxes, and paying for the same content over and over.
You should be able to return your old copy on the previous format to the store and get the new format for the cost of the media (since the value of the “content” on the media hasn’t changed).
“What does Hollywood want from Steve Jobs? For starters, more protection for their films.” Soooo, why is the press still beating up SJ for DRM? Shouldn’t the press be asking Hollywood the dreaded DRM question?
“His user rules just scare the heck out of us,” one studio executive told me. Indeed, under Apple’s video iPod digital-rights-management scheme, folks can share their flicks with as many as three other iPod users.”
Right. We should really be paying for every time we see the movie.
3 other iPod users! Wow. I know when I watch a DVD, I am careful that only 1 person that did not pay for that DVD watches it. Come on, asswipe. A consumer wants some freedom to put movies on THEIR devices.
Undercutting DVD sellers:
Well, let’s see. The version Apple sells is inferior in quality to DVD. Why the fuck should it cost the same?
Speaking of ripping DVD’s.
How do you rip the newer Sony DVD’s on a Mac? and don’t say Handbrake or Mactheripper. They don’t cut the mustard with Sony’s latest ‘bad sector’ DRM.
Movies on iTunes isn’t going to happen; at least the way it works now. Movies on your iPod/iPhone is small patatos. Everyone really wants HD, so until you can get your movies in 1080p glory forget it. There is an oppertunity for digital downloads because Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are duking it out, but by the time iTunes gets 1080p that issue may be resolved.
Then there is the thorny problem of rentals. As everyone knows, most movies suck. You might watch them once, and then only on DVD. The movie studios are already whining about the fact that people don’t go see their movies, but wait for the DVD. So, we really want to rent, watch once, and forget it. How many times can you watch a movie before it looses it’s appeal? I watched Star Wars over a hundred times when I was a kid, but I can’t stand it anymore. Movies have limited shelf life.
Is apple going to offer subscription services? If they do it for movies and TV shows would it open the pandoras box for music? It could. What if folks get used to paying a monthly fee for .Mac services for movie rentals, iPhone stuff, ect., might music follow?
One of the conscessions Apple may have to make to get 1080p content is that you won’t be able to store it on your computer, maybe an AppleTV device, but you won’t be able to access it in any way other than to view it. Now, who will want to “own” content that they can’t control? No one. So, subscription services seem to me the only logical answer and that could affect the music side of things too.
I used to think music subscription services were not going to work; and up to this point they haven’t. But, the movie equation will change this I think. Apple will have to control the content more tightly with movies and the result will be a refusal to pay to own. Besides, who wants to manage terabytes of digital movie data? And Apple will have to play ball because there are other companies chomping at the bit to offer this.
The iPhone will help it along too. At what point will your .Mac subscription fee, with all the new must have services that Apple will dream up, and your phone bill merge? And .Mac is already tied to iTunes.
When is Hollywood gonna crumble under it’s own weight? I haven’t see a movie worth a shit in two years.
Here is an interesting slant some of you might enjoy. From what I know you can buy a CD from anywhere and play it on a CD player from anywhere. The same cannot be said for DVDs. I brought a bunch of DVDs overseas and guess what, they could not play some of on the local machines due to regional coding. What a laugh. I was able to buy a cheap player that allowed the regional code to be set to international but some DVD players stated that the player only played DVDs from a certain region. So much for the global village.
I also had another laugh. I bought a double DVD that had “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” and “Fantastic Voyage” on it. Now the cover art on DVD is different overseas as well. I was at a video store and saw a single “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” DVD that actually had the submarine from “Fantastic Voyage” on it.
Who is protecting the overseas consumer from Hollywood?
pr: Absolutely no advantages for consumers with DRM. It’s not a benefit for consumers at all.
Bingo! So, it should not be amusing when people rail against DRM. People (the customers) are perfectly justified to complain when DRM is shoved down their throat because they gain nothing while losing their ability to exercise fair use of purchased contents. Sure, there are many tools to rip DVDs for backups, but in doing so it violates DMCA. So, while backing up is permitted under fair use, people are prevented from doing so. Once again the paying customers are inconvenienced while pirates freely copyright-infringe contents which DRM failed to prevent off P2P networks.
Yeah, that is funny — Hollywood, the sleaziest city on earth, comprised of sleazy people from top to bottom — thinks that their customers are *gasp* thieves! Isn’t that slightly ironic? I mean, here we have a bunch of ruthless and immoral people broadcasting their vices on to their customers? Sounds like the way that liberals project their own fears onto that big scary world between the coasts.
These idiot movie studios dont realize that the iTunes store can make them a ton of money. they need to get on board with Apple
Speaking of ripping, did you ever fart so hard-just kidding.
CandTsmac-I’m sorry. I didn’t catch that-some sort of noise. Could you repeat it please?
I think that the studios who are so security obsessed should get that enhanced protection from their friends in Seattle. Meanwhile Disney and Paramount can continue to sell via iTunes.
Every quarter Apple will release their financial results and those studios not with iTunes will see what they are missing. Meanwhile, those movies will be safeguarded with all the security that Microsoft can offer.
Before long they will come to their senses, but making a deal with Apple early on, when Apple wants partners, is likely to be on much more favourable terms than trying to negotiate later, when the ‘protected’ alternative has been seen to fail.
uh, Apple TV doesn’t link to the iPod.
“What does Hollywood want from Steve Jobs?”
1. Money.
2. Repeat sales.
3. LOTS of 1 and 2.
Film-protection (DRM) is just one means of producing these.
Hollywood, the sleaziest city on earth, comprised of sleazy people from top to bottom — thinks that their customers are *gasp* thieves! Isn’t that slightly ironic?
What’s the term (“projection”?) where someone thinks everyone must be as crooked as them-self?
Heh maybe it’s fitting that films are shown on projectors…
Let Hollywood keep playing their DRM game. If it can be made, it can be broken.
What I find odd is I can’t burn a movie I bought from iTunes. Yet I can rip a DVD. Think on that for a moment Hollywood. It all boils down to the fact that iTunes isn’t willing to charge wat they want so they are holding out.
“Hollywood, I was told, still doesn’t trust Steve Jobs with its crown jewels.”
Hmm, so who are they going to trust? Bill Gates? They just got done screwing their PlaysForSure partners, paying lip service to URGE before stabbing it in the back with Zune Marketplace, etc. Microsoft has shown with Zune they want to be just like Apple and control everything.
Ooh, or how about Rob Glaser, a.k.a. Mr. “Let’s hack into Apple’s DRM”. Yeah, bet he sounds pretty trustworthy to a Hollywood studio.
Amazon Unbox? Wait, what ever happened to that…
What’s the alternative? Are they going to build their own movie codecs and DRM system? Unlikely. That’s not trivial stuff.
It remains to be seen whether anyone besides Apple can move digital content into consumers’ hands in meaningful volume, and generate profit from it for the content owners.
Mr. Peabody:
“Shouldn’t the press be asking Hollywood the dreaded DRM question?”
Because the press is and has been in bed with Hollywood from the movie industry’s inception. How else could pitiful movies get glowing reviews? How else could Hollywood get the attention it needs to be in front of the public the way it has all these years?
If the press and other media did its job correctly and honestly, Hollywood would be suckig up to Steve Jobs and Apple. They would be happy to have people interested enough to take the time to steal from them.
Try finding out who owns and runs the studios and then the press and media companies and you’ll see relationships between them.
The only way for hollywood to be brought to its knees is a general boycott of its useless movies and dvds. But that will never happen because of the lack of intestinal fortitude of the general public who like their creature comforts too much. They’ll bicth, moan and complain, but don’t have the stomach to stand up for changing the way things are.
Stomach? What about brains?
people now a days have the information, but they just don’t have the drive to get involved to change things for the better……those creature comforts
try this:
ask cable customers how much they like the cable prices, then ask them to give up cable for month
OMG NO TV!