Apple to Sell $110M in Movie Downloads?

iTunes customers are renting and buying 50,000 movies every day, Apple said Thursday. That means the company should push out some 18.25 million movies this year, a huge jump from the 5.7 million in 2007. Apple?s efforts to amp up its video offerings by adding rentals, signing all the major movie studios, and getting new releases at the same time as DVDs are sold appear to be paying off.

Based on a hypothesized average price of $6, Cynthia Brumfield calculates Apple will take in $110 million in movie revenue this year, making it tops in the paid online movie business.

Still, 18.25 million paid downloads is a long way off from the 215 million ABI Research had predicted for 2008. And Apple offers only 2,000 films, compared to Netflix?s streaming library of 10,000 items.

Apple declined to offer a current update on TV show sales, but pointed to the last number it gave out, which put the total at 150 million TV shows sold since being offered for the first time in 2006.

And on a side note: Guess what? Zoolander?s still No. 36 on the current iTunes movie sales leaderboard. Our pal Derek might have trouble turning left, but he doesn?t have any issues pushing digital downloads.

UK Apple Movie Downloads on the horizon

Apple is rumored to be on the cusp of launching a movie downloads service through iTunes in the UK.

According to a report by The Times newspaper, ?studio sources? have said that Apple will start selling films from four major Hollywood studios: Disney, Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox and Time Warner. Some smaller studios, including Lions Gate and MGM, are also thought to be behind Apple.

A specific online launch date isn?t yet known, but the sources apparently revealed that Apple?s not looking to undercut current physical DVD prices. It?s also rumored that films will be available for both permanent download or rental.

Apple?s been testing the water for online movie downloads since 2006, when it posted a Disney TV movie, High School Musical, on the iTunes Music Store. The 487.1MB film was available to download for $10 (�5/?7).

In the US, iTunes 7 currently allows film fans to download movies from a whole host of studios, including Miramax, Walt Disney and Universal. Library titles cost $3 and newer releases are $4. HD films can also be rented.

Apple losing money on iTunes movie download service

It?s common knowledge that superstores sell many products at a loss to get you into the store, once your there, they hope you will buy many other products to make them a profit in total. Selling products at a loss also builds their brand and business by word of mouth. When it comes to online stores and Apple iTunes things are no different, they would sell certain services and products at cost or even make a loss to build the brand and hope for repeat business from you.

Today we are hearing that Apple may be losing money on the new iTunes movie download service, the hype surrounding this new service is the fact that the movie downloads are being made available on the same day as the DVD release. This has been setup with an agreement between Apple and film studios (this includes the six largest movie studios).

From this week you will be able to buy new movies for $14.99 on iTunes, but it has been reported that Apple are paying around $15.50 for each movie, that may only be a $0.51 loss but over millions of downloads (that?s a big loss). Now Apple must have a plan here, and I am guessing that if millions of movie downloads do happen, Apple will be in a position to demand a better price from the movie studios.

Free Movie Download Risks

Looking to download the newest Hollywood hit movie from the Internet free of charge? Everyone you know seems to be doing it and maybe you'd like get in on this too. Or you may have done this a few times and are itching to get even more. Whether or not you've already downloaded some pirated movies, you might want to think about it. A good deal of the 'free movies' on the Internet are violating copyright law. The consumers who download these movies are technically breaking the law and could be setting themselves up for a lawsuit.

The problem of on line theft is growing every year and organizations like the MPAA are stepping up their efforts to fight it. When someone illegally downloads copyrighted films and movies, they leave themselves vulnerable to legal prosecution. Although getting caught is still somewhat unlikely, this will change in the future.

Sometimes, the file that gets downloaded is infested with viruses, spy ware, or unwanted pornography. People have experienced unwanted withdrawals from their bank accounts because of the release of private information. File sharing networks such as peer-to-peer (p2p) are especially insidious in this regard.

If you do your downloading off p2p networks, you may get a file that is nothing more than advertisements. In order to get access to the actual movie, you might be required to jump through a 'few' hoops. Usually it involves submitting your email address to an endless array of advertising promotions.

Both the music and film industries are taking online piracy very seriously and are working on ways to fight it. In the future, penalties such as criminal prosecution and having your ISP cut off your Internet access (proposals for this are in the works in the UK) will become a matter of course. European laws which facilitate the prosecution of people illegally downloading with p2p networks have been proposed.

Online movie memberships do not deal in pirated movies and offer safety from worms, viruses, spy ware and mal ware. By comparison, downloading free movies is full of risk. The required movie player needed to view your free movie or the shared file you've downloaded may be infested with a virus.

Increasingly, the established online download memberships are collaborating with the major studios to provide a huge array of quality movies. You can get peace of mind by staying clear of the hazardous risks that come with illegal downloads. Keep your computer, your bank account and your privacy secure by joining a legal movie download membership such as Vizumi Movie Download or Apple Movies.

Why Use Movie Download Membership Services?

With the advance of technology and the growth of the Internet, we are no longer forced to drive to the local video rental store to get our movies. We can make our movie selection on the Internet and wait for the video to arrive by mail. However our options don't end there since we can also select and view the movie immediately online.

There are two ways to go about this. We can pay for our movies via a movie download membership site such as Vizumi or we can try for the free route online. Here we discuss the benefits that an online membership has over the offline video rental store as well as the advantages of the paid membership over the free alternatives online.

A big advantage of joining a movie download site is the sheer size of movie title selection that you have access to. You can download as often and as much as you please from these extensive movie archives. Traditional brick and mortar DvD stores have a storage capacity that is limited by building space.

This means that they are forced to cater to popular tastes. Online download memberships don't suffer from this type of restriction and therefore can accommodate a broader variety of movie genres. If you're into the more obscure movies whether they are very old classics or cult films, you are more likely to find them online.

Searching online is often an easier task than browsing through endless shelves for a particular movie in a brick and mortar store. An online site will usually have a search box that can search by the title, actor, director or any particular keyword. Also, lists that group movies into different categories or genres are usually provided.

In addition to movie genre, their lists often group movies by popularity, latest additions, critic picks and alphabetically. Some even allow the members themselves to rate and write reviews for the movies. Movie reviews given by ordinary people can often be a better indicator of a movie's entertainment value than those of professional critics.

Online memberships have a large selection of movies in their archives. Free online movies that are actually legal are generally public domain movies with expired or un renewed copyrights. These tend to be very old 'classic' movies.

The major television networks will usually make recent episodes of popular TV series available for viewing on their web sites. However, only a select few of these series are available and only for a limited time.

Movie download memberships are safe from viruses, worms, spy ware and mal ware. However, downloading movies from 'free' sites can be a game of Russian roulette. For example, if you download using p2p, you are sharing files with a multitude of other users and are trusting that none of these strangers will infect the file with spy ware or viruses.

These are just some of the benefits that paid online movie download sites have over your local video store and over the so called free alternatives that exist online. The speed, convenience and economy of getting entertainment directly off the Internet is nothing short of amazing. However the shortcomings and risks of the 'free' downloads available online makes the choice of paid memberships a very intelligent and sensible decision.

The Consumer's Dilemma: Cinema vs. Movie Downloads

In January this year, a book called The Pirate's Dilemma was published, written by Matt Mason. In it, Mason argues that piracy should be regarded as another kind of business model, one that exposes the inefficiencies in the existing market and acts as a catalyst for progress and innovation.

If pirates are prospering, he argues, it is usually because they have responded to changing consumer demands and are offering them services and conveniences that the original copyright holders are not, or will not. If, then, copyright holders want to take back their share of the market, they need to offer the same services and better; they need to give consumers good reason not to turn to piracy. The movie industry, of course, is constantly crying foul of the pirates - so what can it do to protect DVD sales and box-office receipts? What does it have to offer that an illegal movie download doesn't?

Arguably, the movie industry's greatest weapon against the pirate's free movie downloads is the cinema going experience itself - so let's examine the relative merits of going to the cinema versus downloading:

Advantages of going to the cinema

• It's an event. Executing a few mouse-clicks is never going to seem as special as picking something you really want to see and making the effort to go out and see it. Furthermore, spending money to do so has the psychological effect of making it seem more special - if it wasn't special, why would you have spent money on it?
  


• Exclusivity. That might be overstating it, but still if you're seeing something at a cinema, you're one of the first people to see it, and to see it as it was intended to be seen.
  


• Escapism. Sitting in the dark with surround-sound is a world away from that office chair in front of your computer screen; particularly if you work at that computer, too. And when you emerge from the cinema to find that day has turned into night, it really feels like you're returning from somewhere else; any amount of time could have passed; it could even be tomorrow.
  


• The social element. There is something so different about watching a movie in the company of others, even if you don't know them - it's a shared experience. When you're one of a hundred or more people all laughing at the same joke you feel part of something, that you're not alone. In fact, your response is generally heightened by the presence of other people; scary becomes scarier, funny becomes funnier. As for those discussions with friends on the way home, aren't they sometimes more interesting than the movie itself?
  


• State-of-the-art technology. Who has a computer system or home-cinema set-up capable of replicating the full cinema experience? And just say that you do, what resolution is your download? Put it on a screen bigger than the average computer monitor and chances are the picture will leave much to be desired. Assuming you're even techie enough to know how to make it show on anything other than your monitor?
  


• Stalled downloads. They're the equivalent of queuing for an age outside Screen 1, only to find that once you've been told you can go in, no matter how hard you try, the bloody door won't open. Unlike downloading 99% of a film only for it to irretrievably stall, that just never happens. You don't find yourself waiting outside for an utterly unknowable and indeterminate amount of time, either.
  


• You can't download popcorn. Seriously, you just can't.

Advantages of downloading

• Convenience. You don't have to leave the house. You don't have to queue for tickets. You can watch your film whenever you like. Sometimes, you don't even have to wait until a film's been released in your own country.
  


• Choice. That interesting art-house flick that just came out on limited release, won't be coming anywhere near Stafford, say, so how else are you going to see it? And never mind the current releases, you've got practically the whole history of cinema to choose from online.
  


• Cost. At least �5 per ticket, plus the cost of getting to the cinema, and maybe some snacks and drinks. Or, free. No contest, is it?
  


• No waiting. To the consternation of everyone else, films still tend to be released first in America, usually some while before they reach anywhere else. Evidently, some Americans think this is unfair too, judging by the number of new releases available to download even before they've left US cinemas.
  


• An unrestricted view. At home, no-one ludicrously tall, wearing a hat, or with unfeasible hair is ever likely to sit right in front of your monitor (unless you have a very odd cat). Neither will there be any backrest jogglers. Or arm-rest hogs. Or talkers. In fact, there doesn't have to be anyone in the room more likely to annoy you than yourself.
  


• No ads or trailers. Of course, some people like the trailers, but for many it might be considered an advantage.
  


• Try before you buy. Still prefer the cinema experience, but fed up of throwing good money after bad movies? Check one out as a download first, and if it's any good go and see it in its full glory.
  


• The Tom Cruise consideration. (Or insert own source of cinematic irritation). Download for free, and rest easy in the knowledge that you're not financially complicit in the torture of innocent moviegoers.

Looking at that list, it's pretty apparent that while watching pirated downloads in many ways fails to top a visit to the cinema, movie downloads do have their own advantages. It's probably for this reason that the movie industry has started, all too slowly and restrictively, to embrace the technology. Or at least reluctantly hold its arms out with a slightly worried expression on its face.

But if it just had faith in the public's apparently unshakeable love of cinema-going (box office receipts certainly don't appear to have been hit by piracy), perhaps the industry could truly embrace innovations such as simultaneous releases across all territories, Long Tail retailing of its back catalogue and niche products, ad-supported free downloads and streaming, fast and affordable paid-for downloads, releasing the first half hour of movies as tasters for the undecided? well, there are just all sorts of revenue streams open to any studio that dares to be adventurous.

As for downloads versus cinema: there's no reason consumers shouldn't embrace both; once the move industry decides to.

How to download legally

Essentially, there are just two options available to you if you want a movie download. You can either download legally or illegally and this obviously depends on which website you download a movie from.

Legal sites will offer the best software designed and tested to work on your computer so you can trust it will not harm your pride and joy.

If you are not sure after reading on their website what exactly they are offering or are confused and unsure then contact them and ask the following:

Question: ?Is a movie download from your site legal??
Question their legality of the service you are signing up to. Simply ask is a movie download from your site legal? You obviously do not want the strong arm of the law coming down on you as a result of an illegal movie download.

Question: ?Will I be using peer to peer software??
Another important question to ask is when you download a movie IS ?does it involve using peer to peer software?? Sites such as Kazaa, WinMX, Limewire, TorrentSpy, YouTorrent all use peer to peer software or file sharing.

If the site does use peer to peer then it is more than likely illegal. This type of setup can easily lead you to download movies that are copyrighted and not legal for you to possess without paying a fee.

What you need is a service that provides you with direct links to sites where free authorized downloads can take place and that are perfectly legal.

Question: ?Can I copy the movie once downloaded??
Along with asking about the download method, you will also want to know if you can make a copy of the movie after the download. If the answer is yes, then you should take it as another warning sign that something is not right. Free official downloads are for viewing only and are not set up for saving or caching on your hard drive. A service that offer access to no charge movie downloads knows this and will make it very clear to their customers that this is so. If you get any other kind of answer, you should move on immediately.

Question: ?How many movies do you have??
Sites that claim to give you an unlikely number of choices when it comes to movies, music videos, television shows, and other types of shows should be another sign that it is not legal. While ethical services offer you a wide range of choices, they will not give you access to every film ever made. When you see that kind of incentive it can often indicate conditions that are too good to be true. You should get away from this type of site immediately.

Question: ?What is your software compatible with??
Check the compatibility issues with your ISP, the type of operating system you have, and your connection speed. Genuine providers will have clear answers to these types of questions and will often have a good support team that can help you with more technical issues if needed. Don't just buy into the idea of one service meeting all the needs of every single customer; it just isn't realistic.

A legal service provide of no charge movie downloads will provide you precise answers to the questions highlighted above.

In contrast, free bootleg movie download sites will use smoke and mirrors to sidetrack you so the question is never ever directly answered. When you get that type of response, you should look elsewhere.

Asking these simple questions will make it possible for you to pick a company that provides you access to approved and lawful no charge movie downloads. With a little patience and asking the right questions, you can easily identify a service that really does it all it says.

A good example of a legal and safe site is Vizumi Movie Downloads which offers 100% legal, safe and official movie downloads. Vizumi is backed by media giants Arts Alliance Media (AAM) who is Europe?s leading provider of digital film distribution services owning sites such as LOVEFiLM.

If you would like to find out more about Vizumi, here is a review of their website:

Movie downloads – an interesting debate

Apple CEO Steve Jobs dropped a bombshell on HD DVD, Blu-ray, Blockbuster, Arts Alliance Media (Love Film and Vizumi movie downloads) any everybody else in the movie download business this week.

Steve Jobs announced at Macworld that iTunes will now rent out movies. Users will be able to download movies and watch them on iPods, iPhones, Apple TV or home computers. Inevitably, Apple has the support from all the major movie studios.

So will history repeat itself and Apple repeat what they did to the music industry with iTunes and change the way we watch movies with iMovies?

An interesting battle to come out of this news will be the battle of HD. Movie lovers will have more options than ever on how they prefer to enjoy their movies and no doubts that digital downloads are the future but not overnight. Average Joe isn?t going to immediately throw out DVD player tomorrow to buy an Apple TV.

In the same instance, Blu-ray may never reach mass usage before digital downloads become mainstream. However, physical media will not vanish because many consumers like to own something they can touch and feel so DVDs will still be in demand for the short term. Another thing to support this is that the market is full of DVD players and only in recent year has seen the VHS video disappear from the shelves. And, when up-scaled, many regular DVDs look surprisingly impressive on HD TVs.

One thing against DVD collections is they take up so much room and that is where digital downloads has an advantage. Conversely, you will need a device big enough to store all these downloads and also Broadband that allows you unlimited downloads.

Before Apple announced their movie download plans, many digital movie rental services already have existed. Websites such as Netflix, Cinema Now and Vizumi Movie Downloads allow movie streaming for its users, offering legal movie downloads to own and rent, and importantly backed by film studios.

HD video-on-demand is available from certain cable TV providers. You can download HD movies from Xbox Live but the choice of movies is limited. Downloads can take forever. Quality can be poor and this is frustrating having taken so long to download and although iTunes presence will help movie download rentals forward, home-theater geeks will complain that Apple's HD video quality is only 720p and audio is only Dolby Digital 5.1 which is good enough for the general user.

So what are Apple charging for movie downloads? This is where the battle for movie downloads could we won or lost. Apple is currently offering $4.99 to download a HD movie. Users then have 30 days to watch it and 24 hours after you start watching to finish it. It will be very interesting to see what Microsoft does which already has 18 million Xbox 360s in homes worldwide and also Sony with the recent success of Playstation 3 and also PSP.

Subscription plans are not yet available and users will demand watching HD movies as often as they like with no restrictions.

As for the electronic market, there will be big demand for a combo HD DVR/HD-movie-library downloading unit. One solution would be to merge HD channels, regular TV channels and HD movie-rental services into one subscription package for a monthly fee.

The writing's on the walls of video rental stores such as Blockbuster and I expect they will jump on the band wagon of movie downloads also. Why waste petrol driving to Blockbuster if you can download it from the comfort of your home? Even Netflix seems like a hassle in comparison because who exactly wants to wait hours upon hours for a Blu-ray movie to show up in the mailbox?

One thing is for sure, the movie download market is going to get very competitive which is great for us the consumer as it will bring the best products and lower prices.

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Apple maps its assault on movie downloads

The eagerly anticipated MacWorld happened a few days ago and Steve Jobs delivered what Apple plan to do with its movie download business. Movie download services across the board has started to take off in the same way downloading music did with iTunes. Can iMovies emulate what iTunes did to the music industry?

During the 90's, Time Warner spent $10,000 a customer in Florida to show downloading movies over cable lines was technologically feasible. Now in 2008, as more companies jump on the band wagon, movie download services will be widely available from many sources, some legal and some unfortunately not so legal, but movie downloads are sure to part of everyday life before the end of this year experts predict.

Apple's plans at MacWorld will have undoubtedly shaken a few feathers, not because Apple is offering a fundamentally new twist on VOD but because it's Apple.

The movie download market today is very similar to where online music was in wake of the first Apple iPod. Back then, MP3 players were already on the market but were largely niche products and most music that played on them was illegal pirated copies. Apple created the first cool digital music player.

Steve Jobs was also the first technology executive with the heft in Hollywood to actually cut deals with studio executives to allow enough legal content online to create a marketplace and demonstrate that making money from digital music was at least possible.

In 2008, most consumers still aren't all that interested in cable companies' movie download offerings, largely because the studios are so worried about piracy and cannibalizing their existing TV syndication and DVD businesses that they haven't supplied enough product to interest subscribers.

Movie downloads from services like Vizumi , Netlflix and CinemaNow are still largely a curiosity for hobbyists and people who don't know how to download the pirated stuff or using file sharing sites such as Limewire.

Until now, Apple hasn't fared that much better and sold approximately 7 million movies compared to about 4 billion songs and 125 million TV shows.

Once again, Steve Jobs has persuaded the film studios to make vastly greater stores of content available to consumers in exchange for the tacit promise that he can create enough of a market to offset the inevitable increase in piracy that will occur when millions of new consumers realize how easy it is to download and share movies on their computers, iPods and TV sets. You only have to look at the movie piracy rate in Korea, which has the world's most ubiquitous broadband.

Apple's movie rental service could be exactly the spark Hollywood needs to jump start its online cinema business. Or the spark could become a conflagration that devours industry profits. Or it could flop once again, just as so many for-profit video-on-demand ventures have since Time Warner first dipped its toes in Orlando.

The only certainty is the movie downloads, legal or not, are here to stay.

Apple offers £3 movie downloads - Will this spark other movie downloads to drop their prices?

Apple has continued its assault on the movie downloads market with a movie rental service for iPhones and iPods.

Competition in the movie downloads industry is now really hotting up with 20th Century Fox and Disney among the 11 major film studios who have signed up with Apple to provide rental titles.

It will be very interesting to see what Vizumi movie downloads and other players such as Jaman, AOL and Netflix will do in wake of this news. One thing is for sure, it is great news for movie downloaders with an increase in competition leading to reduced prices and better services.

More than 1,000 films, including Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter and older releases such as The Matrix, will be available to download online through Apple Movie Rentals.

Movie downloads take less than 30 seconds and users have 24 hours to watch rented movies. They can also download them to iPods or iPhones to watch in this period.

The service is available immediately in America, and will be launched in Britain later this year.

Older films cost $2.99 --around �1.50 - while new releases will be $3.99 to rent - around �2.

"I think it is a revolution," Apple chief Steve Jobs told the Mac World conference in San Francisco. "Most of us watch movies once, maybe twice, and renting is a great way to do this.

"People can watch these anywhere - on Macs, PCs, all current generation iPods and iPhones.

Other studios that have signed up include New Line Cinema, Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal, and Sony Pictures.

Digital downloads of movies and TV shows will also come free with DVDs to enable users to view them on their iPods and iPhones.

Jim Gianopulos, chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox, said: "People will still want to buy DVDs, and we don't want to deny them the benefits of this."

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