A few days ago saw Apple announce that new movies would now be available for download from iTunes on the same day that the DVD is released.
The deal, which was with most major movie studios, as well as some independent ones, sees the new films being released for a set price of $14.99.
For that, you get a single movie file, all wrapped up in the dreaded DRM which prevent the film from being transferred or watched on anything other than the PC it’s downloaded to.
Apple Losing Money
However, rather than the great move for Apple that this was cited as, and profitable one too, it turns out that despite the high price being asked for these downloads, the company is going to be losing a dollar on each sale.
The Wall Street Journal claims knowledge of this loss, which tends to back up the thought that Apple are trying to do for the movie download business, what it has already done for music downloads.
Greedy Movie Studios
A couple of things don’t actually add up here though. Firstly, this means that the movie studios are greedy money grabbing idiots who are being as near-sighted as the music industry.
Secondly, why didn’t Apple just set the price at the wholesale rate they are paying of $16 per download? Then they wouldn’t have lost a cent anywhere in the deal.
At the end of the day though, maybe this is all moot, as be it $15 or $16, most people won’t want to pay that amount for a movie which they could get on DVD with extras and no DRM for the same price.
