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Wait - I can watch movies on this thing?
There are five televisions facing the cardio theatre at my gym. Two are always showing Country Music Television. The other three switch back and forth between Dr. Phil, Oprah, and reruns of Friends. Once in a rare while I’ll luck out and one will be showing Jeopardy. This doesn’t happen very often (possibly because I call out the answers and scare my fellow gym rats). As you’ve probably guessed, I don’t watch the televisions at the gym too often.
That’s why I was excited when I discovered that I could put movies and television shows on my shiny new iPod (I’m sure you all already knew this; I’m a late adopter). Sunday night, I browsed the available movies and television shows on iTunes before finally settling on War Games as my first purchase. I watched half of it at the gym yesterday and it was fine fitness fun.
You’d think I would be jumping up and down and praising iTunes to everyone I meet. You’d think I’d burry my dislike of their rights management system and forgive the fact that the program won’t let me import music – purchased legally – through their competitors. After all, the ability to watch what I want on the gym or during my lunch break is a BIG DEAL. Like anything, though, I’ve found pros and cons.
The Bad
Basic movie pricing seems to start at $9.99. None of the movies I browsed (and I spent a good hour clicking) were priced lower than that. The problem with this is that it’s not uncommon to walk into a department store and find a copy of War Games or St. Elmo’s Fire (the next one on my list) for about that same price. You could argue that I’m paying for the convenience of having it on my iPod but what about the money that’s being saved on packaging, production, and physical transport? Sure it costs money to send the file over the internet but it also costs money to put a DVD on a truck and send it to my local Wal-Mart.
Movie rentals would be a nice option (there goes the money I saved by downgrading my cable package) but the rental window is only twenty-four hours. This seems short-sighted to me. If I have the time to spend two hours watching a screen, it’s not going to be the one on my iPod. iPods are devices made for life on the go; it’s more likely that people will be watching their rentals in chunks while riding the bus or working out at the gym. A twenty-four hour rental just doesn’t work for me because I go to the gym after work and do about one hour of cardio. I’d only get to watch half the movie at the gym and would have to watch the other half at home. If they extended the rental window to forty-eight hours I’d be spending at least $12 a week in rentals. Heck, even thirty-six hours would suit my needs.
The Good
While the television selection is limited, it’s still fairly early on in the service offering and I’m optimistic that more players will jump on the wagon. While there may be some issues with rights and distribution, it’s too big of a market for key players to ignore. At $1.99 an episode, it’s reasonably priced and attractive to TV junkies like myself who tend to buy up their favourite series. The last hold outs may be networks like the BBC and HBO who tend to charge extremely high rates for their series (at $1.99 an episode, series three of Doctor Who would cost me $25.87 – a far cry from the $89.99 I paid in-store)
In the End
It’s unlikely that I’ll buy or rent many movies – at least not as the system and pricing stands now. In the meantime, I’ll be keeping an anxious eye on the television selection; I’d like to see this Mad Men that everyone keeps talking about.
That’s why I was excited when I discovered that I could put movies and television shows on my shiny new iPod (I’m sure you all already knew this; I’m a late adopter). Sunday night, I browsed the available movies and television shows on iTunes before finally settling on War Games as my first purchase. I watched half of it at the gym yesterday and it was fine fitness fun.
You’d think I would be jumping up and down and praising iTunes to everyone I meet. You’d think I’d burry my dislike of their rights management system and forgive the fact that the program won’t let me import music – purchased legally – through their competitors. After all, the ability to watch what I want on the gym or during my lunch break is a BIG DEAL. Like anything, though, I’ve found pros and cons.
The Bad
Basic movie pricing seems to start at $9.99. None of the movies I browsed (and I spent a good hour clicking) were priced lower than that. The problem with this is that it’s not uncommon to walk into a department store and find a copy of War Games or St. Elmo’s Fire (the next one on my list) for about that same price. You could argue that I’m paying for the convenience of having it on my iPod but what about the money that’s being saved on packaging, production, and physical transport? Sure it costs money to send the file over the internet but it also costs money to put a DVD on a truck and send it to my local Wal-Mart.
Movie rentals would be a nice option (there goes the money I saved by downgrading my cable package) but the rental window is only twenty-four hours. This seems short-sighted to me. If I have the time to spend two hours watching a screen, it’s not going to be the one on my iPod. iPods are devices made for life on the go; it’s more likely that people will be watching their rentals in chunks while riding the bus or working out at the gym. A twenty-four hour rental just doesn’t work for me because I go to the gym after work and do about one hour of cardio. I’d only get to watch half the movie at the gym and would have to watch the other half at home. If they extended the rental window to forty-eight hours I’d be spending at least $12 a week in rentals. Heck, even thirty-six hours would suit my needs.
The Good
While the television selection is limited, it’s still fairly early on in the service offering and I’m optimistic that more players will jump on the wagon. While there may be some issues with rights and distribution, it’s too big of a market for key players to ignore. At $1.99 an episode, it’s reasonably priced and attractive to TV junkies like myself who tend to buy up their favourite series. The last hold outs may be networks like the BBC and HBO who tend to charge extremely high rates for their series (at $1.99 an episode, series three of Doctor Who would cost me $25.87 – a far cry from the $89.99 I paid in-store)
In the End
It’s unlikely that I’ll buy or rent many movies – at least not as the system and pricing stands now. In the meantime, I’ll be keeping an anxious eye on the television selection; I’d like to see this Mad Men that everyone keeps talking about.