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At the same time that Brokeback Mountain hits video store shelves,
savvy computer users can download the entire movie ... legally. The
Oscar-winning drama is the inaugural release of a new video-on-demand service from Movielink.
Five of the major Hollywood studios started the California-based
company four years ago to offer time-limited online rentals of feature films , but Movielink chief executive officer
Jim Ramo says purchasers can now own a downloaded digital copy to watch
over and over again. "What we've tried to do with our launch is
having a great mix of Academy Award winners, blockbusters and classics,"
he explains. "We have a little over 300 titles in all with our launch."
King Kong is also among the recent titles now available online along
with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Memoirs of a Geisha. Sean
Carey, digital distribution vice president of Sony Pictures Home Video,
says the studios are responding to audience demands. "From a business
standpoint," he says, "it offers us - the studios - the ability to get our
content the way we believe consumers want to get it: anywhere, anyhow and
any place they choose."
Of course, video pirates already have those
options. Warner Brothers Home Entertainment president Kevin Tsujihara says
the new plan provides a legal alternative to online theft estimated to
cost the entertainment industry more than $4 billion annually. "Obviously
it's a factor in the decision-making. Consumers are telling us through the
usage patterns that we're seeing from piracy that they're looking for our
content in this form. It's one thing for people to do it when it's free.
It's another when we're asking them to pay for that content, but obviously
there is a demand and a usage that's being done."
Movielink CEO Ramo says the company's experience with some 100,000
rental downloads per month demonstrates that illegal copying can be
prevented. "All of our content is secured with a digital rights management
system," he says, "what that means is encryption of the move file, so it
is very, very difficult to decrypt. Movielink has now been in business for
about three and a half years and we're beginning to develop some real
confidence that the Internet channel of distribution can be as secure as,
say, satellite and cable."
With a high-speed (cable modem or DSL) connection, a full-length film
takes about 90 minutes to download. The digital files are in Windows Media
format and will only play on a PC. Purchasers can burn backup copies to DVD; however, those discs will not
work on a standard DVD player. Mr. Ramo says that will change when copy
protection protocols can be perfected. He also notes that the downloads
will not work on Macintosh computers and suggests Apple, which pioneered
video downloads through its iTunes site, may have its own film
distribution plan in the works, perhaps with Disney."We would certainly
like to work with Apple and it's a possibility, but it's also possible
that Apple will work directly with the studios themselves."
Movielink has films from Warner Brothers, Sony, Universal, Paramount,
Fox and MGM in its catalog. A rival company, CinemaNow, uses similar
technology to offer titles from the Sony and LionsGate studios. However,
Mr. Ramo says the download-to-own service is only available within the
United States. "Movielink is only licensed to do business in the United
States ,so we have a filtering mechanism that makes sure that
the only people who can get Movielink are within the United States. Having
said that, I think we're starting to see studios license other
distributors around the world. There have been announcements recently in
The Netherlands, the UK and Germany, so I think there are certainly more
and more countries that are going to be opened up for digital delivery."
Will it replace DVDs that currently bring the studios some $40
billion in annual worldwide sales? Movielink CEO Jim Ramo believes it is
too soon to tell. For now, he says film fans should consider
download-to-own another option: one that is higher quality and safer than
illegal pirate copies. |
