They could easily do that now if they would only sell their movies to us in standard formats. I sure as h*** am not spending my money on DRM'd media, but I'd gladly go to whatever website is selling me standard format content for reasonable prices.

The reason this doesn't work is that many people are unaware of the parent brand behind the content. I couln't name two movie studios (or music studios) if my life depended on it. So an NBC Universal download site? And most people are supposed to know that this is where Battlestar Galactica lives?

Since these parent companies are weak consumer brands, a uniform middleware (iTunes) is the only viable way to go.

"can't be much harder than an on-line music store, and everybody has opened one of those in the last couple of years"

oooo and there are so many successful online music stores out there aren't there !!!! get real

you're discounting the importance of distribution testudo. why do you think wal-mart wield so much power in cd and dvd sales?

and this wonderfully vertical itunes/ipod ecosystem has done wonders for the industry. it's a good distribution model for digital media and apple understands it better than anyone else (think wal-mart's failure in this arena).

what the studios don't want is another wal-mart. and with digital distribution growing rapidly, the power and control can be placed in the hands of the studios. the problem is, the industry itself is a dinosaur and i highly doubt it will ever learn from its past mistakes (from 'hometaping is killing music' to napster to itunes).

so this study is complete garbage and a waste of time quite frankly. it's pointing the obvious. this is what the studios should've looked into a long long time ago.

These studios take a very liberal point of view (go figure),"Charge more and we'll make more." They don't understand that if they charge less, they'll make more. Let the people have what they really want and make it easy to get, and they'll sell way more.

As it is, I don't buy movies from the iTMS as it is because I personally believe they are still too expensive.

If there's any similarity to the market in how I've just started changing the way I consume media, I think these research firms are not see the "whole" picture.

Apple has created a legitimate, painless way to rent and buy movies as well as TV show. This is in it's infancy and just now starting to spread it's wings. I recently purchased an AppleTV and love the fact I can RIP all my DVDs and have my entire movie library available in a couple clicks.

I also love the rent feature, the video podcast choice, the photo feature, etc...

My family members who have seen this now for the first time want one for their HD TV. I believe AppleTV is going to take off this year and grow substantially in the coming years.

Hollywood studios would be STUPID to listen to these research firms.

The Entertainment Technology Center @ USC, founded in 1993 with the help of George Lucas, is a non-profit organization within USC's School of Cinematic Arts. The ETC brings together the top entertainment, technology and consumer electronic companies to evaluate what consumers really want, which is then translated to the companies that make technology products. Current ETC sponsor participants include; Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, NBC-Universal, Viacom/Paramount, Warner Bros., along with Cisco, Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Inc., Lucasfilm Ltd, and Thomson

"'iTMS->iPod/iPhone/AppleTV and nothing else' market"????

You mean iPod/iPhone/AppleTV, and just about every laptop and desktop in existence, mac or PC, right?

How outrageously restrictive!

I don't think there are too many companies out there that have the "knack" or skill or making the complicated look easy like Apple does with it's software. Look at Microsofts Zune music store with its ridiculous point system. You know going into it you will alway get screwed when a song is 98 points but you can only buy points of 100 blocks or something like that. Most people can't set an alarm clock, remember all those flashing 12:00 on VCR's? Movies studio's make movies and distribute them via theaters and brick and morter stores. Good luck devising a download system that is fun, and easy to use as iTunes.

together so it will never happen. Just like the music labels couldn't agree to go in on a common digital music download site, so Apple moved in to fill the need

hit enter by accident

anyway, the studios will never work together to create download sites. They would just fight among themselves in typical Hollywood d***-swinging contests and nothing would get done. Apple moves in and does it for them and oh by the way, this study completely ignores the importance of the iPod.

Apple makes an additional $750-$850 on the iPhone, in addition to the price they charge for selling it - hence, users of unsubsidized iPhones may discover that to buy an unlocked iPhone will cost exactly as much as it costs in France -- $1,100 to $1,200.

'guest' figured i out, vasic is being overly optimistic.

In essence, this law would do nothing else but bring the US in line with France (which is sweet irony in its own right), and would still permit offering the $399/$499 iPhones, as long as the carrier and manufacturer also provides an unlocked version, at the full price/value of the device.

..I think it is brilliant, and I think every single studio should follow suit, and follow this advice.

Set up their own distribution system, set up their own infrastructure, spend millions on marketing and branding (so the consumer knows where to go), and by all means make sure the content is protected.

Then, after all the money is spent, discover that selling TV shows at $1.99, and movies at $4.99, and music at $0.99 is pretty much the lowest they can go, as otherwise all their overhead costs them more, and they make even less.

So, naturally, they will raise their prices, create a diversity of confusing tiers, and have endless meetings trying to figure out why no audience is streaming to their Microsoft powered online stores -- all the while everyone else keeps purchasing from the iTunes store, including most of these execs themselves.

Then, at the end of the day, and after losing hundreds of millions of dollars to failed experiments, they will crawl back to iTunes, agreeing to Apple's new terms - kinda like NBC is doing, slowly and quietly.

Yeah, I think it's a great idea. When do they start?

Dear zinkdifferent,

Not that I'm disagreeing with you, but how do you know that NBC is coming back to Apple?

With regard to this potential future scenario, why would they come back to Apple at all? Wouldn't they go to someone like Amazon, where the music studios are all going to now?

and this from the bunch that made The Hottie and the Nottie?

They need to look at it this way, APPLE provides a service for films, movies, videos etc to be distributed to the masses. Much like BEST BUY sells TVs gaming consoles and ipods. Apple is a sales business who has found a way to market product better. This is the future of Entertainment- on demand! Bottom line- they should look at the apple model and see how they can use it as a way gain profit, true, but look to utilizing them as a conduit for selling there wares.. That simple. I mean, in a sense, they make films- not web based applications. Its like telling Best Buy to start making flat screens because they want to get more profit. Just not cost effective for them, the entertainment industry to develop online systems and distribution is just not the way its done. Not a good model and will more than likely cost them much more money and film costs will just get higher and that cost will be passed on to you know who...

"A distribution method isn't that hard to set up (can't be much harder than an on-line music store, and everybody has opened one of those in the last couple of years)."

None of them are anywhere nearly as successful as iTunes - iTunes is the 2nd biggest retailer of music in the US.

"As for devices, the key here is that it would work on a variety of devices. As opposed to Apple's wonderfully vertical 'iTMS->iPod/iPhone/AppleTV and nothing else' market, this talks of various different mobile devices, something Apple refuses to do."

You can convert the music into DRM free audio CD by burning to a disc. There doesn't seem to be much demand for other audio players as iTunes has so much of the market. How many other services provide support for the Mac? See the difference between Windows and the iPod / iPhone is people are buying the iPod /iPhone because they love them, not because of compatibility with Windows - because they have to. Why don't you get your Zune and Vista and leave our forum. Nobody wants you here. Go away troll.

For teens, even though the music is only a dollar, that can be a lot of money. Using file sharing programs is pretty easy and free.

iTunes has to be easier and very un-restrictive to get teens to part with their cash. They've done a good job making it very easy to use, even easier than the file sharing programs are.

With DRM free higher quality tracks, they're on their way to make it worth downloading files for everyone. DRM free is key because it's a requirement if you want to play your music on non-apple hardware. Since Apple doesn't make EVERY digital player, this makes it possible to sell music to more people. I have an iPod, but I also have other players that need DRM free tracks. Without that, I would need to source my music elsewhere.

As far as pricing, they need to keep that delicate balance of a fair price for the music. If it gets too expensive, the file sharing option becomes an alternative again.

"As far as pricing, they need to keep that delicate balance of a fair price for the music. If it gets too expensive, the file sharing option becomes an alternative again."

I still don't get it that if the price is too high, you just steal it. Do you go to the store to buy bread and say the price is too high, so you'll just steal it. You think you will continue to get the music if no one pays for it?

Can I get an 'Amen'?

AMEN BROTHER

I wonder who paid them off for these "studies" - what a waste of money...

Well, duh! You don't need a million dollar study to figure that out. I've known that since the day the iTunes store opened.

What the studios and the study group haven't figured out is that they suck at distribution. Apple knows how. The other thing is that Apple makes the devices the content gets played on.

Unless studios want to enter every concievable market, this is just a waste of words. Studios make content, other companies sell the content. Apple is no different than Wal-Mart. The former sells content via internet download, the latter by putting a DVD on a shelf. They're both retailers. What's the big deal?

Do I understand the arguments posed by these research firms? "Hollywood shouldn't let Apple make all the money…” so their anti-Apple solution is, "Judicious use of free mobile content…” Are the studios really paying consultants to tell them to give away their content, rather than use an established, stable and growing revenue and distribution channel such as iTunes? A thing done well make the task look easy to accomplish. The success of iTunes/ iPod wasn’t duplicated by Sony’s PSP, and the studios bailed. Knowing this, what studio business model would now leave a successful distribution channel and revenue generator for an unproven one? More importantly, what studio’s shareholders would support it? I find their argument that the entertainment community will profit from creating unique content for an interface without merit as well. We have this model in the dying broadcast and cable industry. I’ve waited for their “unique content” to arrive on interfaces I do use: DVD and online. I notice my wait time keeps getting shorter. Their other findings: that studios should develop their own platform-independent online distribution that has the established user base of iTunes, or that “consumers aren’t renting movies online, so beat out Apple by renting movies online” are merely laughable. Lastly, positing that “consumer habits are just [now] taking shape” sounds like these analysts haven’t been paying attention to the market over the last four years. Maybe they’re weekend dads who bought their kids iPods out of guilt and then tuned the whole thing out. I’m getting curious how these people got the consulting gig as I don’t see any of their findings as being of any market value.