Apple Is Fighting Movie Studios to Keep 4K Films Priced at $20 on iTunes

Megalith

Megalith

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Apple is scrambling to strike deals with Hollywood studios to offer ultra-high definition films on its new Apple TV, but discussions have been hampered by disagreements over pricing: while Apple wants to sell 4K movies for $20 on iTunes (the same price it currently charges for newly released HD films), film studios want $25 to $30.

Apple is said to be trying to finish these discussions well before September 12, the currently rumored date that will see the unveiling of the new 4K Apple TV, iPhone 8, iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus, Apple Watch Series 3, and more software-related announcements. As iTunes loses market share to companies like Amazon and Comcast, Apple is hoping that a revitalized Apple TV streaming box with 4K content -- which many rival devices have already supported -- will help boost iTunes sales into the last half of 2017 and the new year.
 
I would guess it goes something like this. The studios are fine with $20.....but they want the $20. Apple gets 30%. So naturally, the studios want the movies to the movies to be sold for $30. Maybe you can rent for $20....that would seem fair....to them.
 
The alternative for this content is MUCH cheaper than $20.

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Other than the camera costs it doesnt really cost them more... it costs the consumer more if streaming and there are caps. An artificial increase on cost for 4k sucks. It only leads to more pirating.
 
And thes movies studios act stunned when they see how many people are pirating movies? "Here's a great idea, let's increase the cost of 4K movies by $5 to $10, I bet that will help accessibility and keep pirating down!"
 
I'd never buy a movie... makes no sense to purchase it. who watches a movie that many times other then if it's really young kids like 3-10 years old. at rental rates of $6, you can watch it 3 times and still save money... or watch 3 different movies.
 
I call BS on this article.

Studio's don't want apple selling 4k movies at all(especially if they have HDR).

ATV much easier to crack than AACS 2.0.
 
westrock2000 said:
I would guess it goes something like this. The studios are fine with $20.....but they want the $20. Apple gets 30%. So naturally, the studios want the movies to the movies to be sold for $30. Maybe you can rent for $20....that would seem fair....to them.
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Bingo imo, studios have no desire to eat the apple tax.
 
Studios want hardcopy prices for digital content. This happened with Ebooks. We want printed prices for digital copies without the overhead. Pirating of ebooks exploded when the publishing houses raised prices and the public felt cheated. Round 2
 
I would like to see apple forge forward in the market, look what it did for digital music.

with $19.99 4k movies, retular HD movies will fall to at least $15.99 with older content falling to 9.99 or less which is affordable. (like the $5 DVD movie bins)
 
Why does it matter what format it is? Its a digital moive you should pay one price and have it in all the resolutions.

I can't wait for the steaming services to kill off the Studios
 
buying digital copy only is a rip off. Why don't they allow the user to choose if they want the blu ray disk has well at no additional charge. If you can go to the store and buy the blu ray copy that includes the digital copy, might as well do the same on the apple store? Either sell the digital copy way way cheaper or shipped the blu ray disk has well when purchasing. I know its not Apple decision and the movie business will need to allow this, but c'mon!?
 
lmao @ buying movies.

and just roflmao @ out of all your options buying them from the apple stor.
 
I wonder if Apple, if and when they succeed at getting 4K content, will offer an "upgrade" program for those with SD/HD copies of the movies. It would be like Vudu's Disc-To-Digital program. Years ago Apple did that for their music when they upgraded their AAC format to their iTunes Plus format (which is DRM free and in a higher bitrate). Apple continues to do it now, but through their iTunes Match subscription.

Vudu got a lot of my money letting me purchase HD digital copies of the DVDs I own for a small fee. I always did it in lots of 10 or more DVDs at a time to get the 50% discount. I managed to free up so much space on my bookshelves by doing this....it gave me room to fill them up with Lego modular buildings.

Just saying, if Apple did the something similar...
 
movie studios don't get it.
A shitty 4k movie is still a shitty movie. 4k doesn't change that experience. So paying extra is not justified.

But picture clarity is what people want.
It's called keeping up with the hardware. 4k TVs are the norm now. and upsampling an FHD movie to 4k looks like shit compared to native 4k.

they should suck it up and do the right thing
 
Saint Apple defender of common folk.
Joke aside 4k adoption is getting screwed all over the place with this bullshit ( the studios)
 
There I thought Apple would be asking for $75 for the privilege of being able to have the experience of buying the movie from their store.
 
kring said:
I'd never buy a movie... makes no sense to purchase it. who watches a movie that many times other then if it's really young kids like 3-10 years old. at rental rates of $6, you can watch it 3 times and still save money... or watch 3 different movies.
Click to expand...

I own over 500 movies between DVD and blu-ray. I prefer owning movies. Renting is fine for some movies, but I'd rather have them.
 
kring said:
I'd never buy a movie... makes no sense to purchase it. who watches a movie that many times other then if it's really young kids like 3-10 years old. at rental rates of $6, you can watch it 3 times and still save money... or watch 3 different movies.
Click to expand...
It's not really buying it if it's streaming. You're just renting it anyway even if it says "buy". You're renting it until the company goes out of business, you loose your account, or when their license expires to stream the movie.
The only thing I "own" is what I can use completely independent of outside factors. So I can play it anywhere with access to nothing but my own equipment.
 
Master_shake_ said:
Apple is good guy?

That's unpossible.
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My guess... you are all a bunch of marketing suckers!

Because behind closed doors they were actually toying with lower prices "but we'll say 20 vs 30 just to make the sheep think they are getting a better deal".

Kinda like when stores have "specials" of 80% off but inflate the prices 120% before hand.

;)
 
Kdawg said:
movie studios don't get it.
A shitty 4k movie is still a shitty movie. 4k doesn't change that experience. So paying extra is not justified.

But picture clarity is what people want.
It's called keeping up with the hardware. 4k TVs are the norm now. and upsampling an FHD movie to 4k looks like shit compared to native 4k.

they should suck it up and do the right thing
Click to expand...

What I find odd is that a lot of movies are shot in 4K or higher, then are mastered in 2K (little bit higher res than FHD) and then upscaled to 4K for theatrical release and UHD BluRay.
 
Zepher said:
What I find odd is that a lot of movies are shot in 4K or higher, then are mastered in 2K (little bit higher res than FHD) and then upscaled to 4K for theatrical release and UHD BluRay.
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Exactly, not trying to be an arse, but that dudes comments are probably B.S.


Most of the first UHD Blu-ray discs released weren't even 4k, they were mastered in 2k and unconverted. Ignorance is bliss.
 
Zepher said:
What I find odd is that a lot of movies are shot in 4K or higher, then are mastered in 2K (little bit higher res than FHD) and then upscaled to 4K for theatrical release and UHD BluRay.
Click to expand...
More distributors are now mastering from the source film, which most often transfers to a little more than 4K. The lists posted above are a pretty good resource to find out which mainstream releases are doing this, and I wouldn't buy a UHD movies without knowing this beforehand. It's a little extra work, but I did this when Blu-ray and HD-DVD were new as well, because they were notorious for putting the DVD transfer on the disc (sometimes without even upscaling) so they could sell old movies again for $40-$60 and the average consumer wouldn't know any better.
 
Meh, most movies are not keepers nowadays anyway. I don't remember the last time when I wanted to keep a movie, for actually being that good that I'd want to watch it again later.

Kdawg said:
But picture clarity is what people want.
It's called keeping up with the hardware. 4k TVs are the norm now. and upsampling an FHD movie to 4k looks like shit compared to native 4k.
Click to expand...
What clarity? Most movies are shot with so long exposure that all scenes with any kind of movement is a blur. 4K won't help that. I'd prefer 1080p@100fps with fast shutter speed over 4K@24 anyday.
 
M76 said:
Meh, most movies are not keepers nowadays anyway. I don't remember the last time when I wanted to keep a movie, for actually being that good that I'd want to watch it again later.


What clarity? Most movies are shot with so long exposure that all scenes with any kind of movement is a blur. 4K won't help that. I'd prefer 1080p@100fps with fast shutter speed over 4K@24 anyday.
Click to expand...

You wont get it.

The "blur" of 24fps has become a norm. Yep. A norm, because all movies shot over the last 100 years were limited by 24fps, folks now think that its how it should be done.

24 fps was a limitation related to the technology available in 1923.

1923!

Since we have about 100 years of this limitation folks feel different when its done faster. Nostalgia has a way of normalizing things in such a way that changing it makes folks feel that something wrong is going on. Todays discs actually have a blur frame inserted in action scenes to give the impression of movement. When the action is actually filmed precisely because the frame rate can accomplish it, folks revolt. It doesn't look..............real.

Ok, it may happen, but its why its taken longer than it could.

You may like this episode of Home theater geeks: Historian Mark Schubin on Home theater geeks.

Guy knows too much about all things movies, he should document it before he forgets it all.

Another take on frame rate: Douglas Trumbull on Home Theater Geeks.

Brings up why blur is added and other things frame rate.
 
^^^

They tried 48fps with the hobbit. Everyone hated it. If there ever was an opportunity for it to change, that ship has sailed.
 
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