Reports that Apple has agreed to pay a wholesale price of $15 per movie to 20th Century Fox could mean that the your favorite films in the iTunes store could be gearing up for a price hike.
With the new price nearly on par with that of retail DVD's, it's hard to imagine consumers flocking to the already lack-luster movie section of the iTunes store.
Of course, this deal could be a sign that Apple is finally unveiling it's iTunes rental store. Apple has to realize that customers will balk at paying the same price for a DRM-laden file that they would for a DVD. Renting a movie from the iTunes store via the Apple TV or within iTunes using the Netflix-type model would make more sense to consumers. Rent three films at a time and when one is deleted the next film in your queue downloads.
Is the $15 price tag a new licensing fee? Or have the studios found another way to shoot themselves in the foot. Let's hope there is more to this deal than meets the eye.
Anonymous
December 05, 2007 at 9:32am
Apple will need to dievrsify the prices for Movies. I bought a few movies on iTunes (convenience) while the DVD's were cheaper. I have no problem for new movies to pay a dollar or two more, but there also should be clearance pricing. And 9.99 isn't clearance. Price diversity in music never was there. You could save a few cents or so between shopping at store A or B, but never in the dollars. But with movies, it's completely different. Pricing is all over the place, from 2 dollar (Public Domain) to 30+ dollar for Special Editions.
Anonymous
December 04, 2007 at 9:45pm
Movie studios are so far behind the state of technology. Stuff like this is ridiculous and I am now sure I will not be using the itunes store to buy any films any time soon.
Also I wonder if this means Apple is loosing its control of digital media pricing. If so I hope we don't start seeing any other price hikes such as that found in hard copy form.
