Warner Bros. Hopes to Find Trove of Online Consumers
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Written By Reprise Media | January 31, 2006 | Share This
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A major US movie studio is preparing to distribute its films and television programs over a peer-to-peer file sharing network…just not in the US.
Video Business reports that Warner Bros. and German firm Arvato Mobile will offer entertainment to consumers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland beginning in March, with an eye to expand into other markets. The service, In2Movies, will use Arvato’s GNAB file-sharing platform, which is very similar to BitTorrent, a technology many studios blame for increasing movie and television piracy. Says president of Warner Home Entertainment Kevin Tsujihara, “One of the most effective weapons for defeating online piracy is providing legal, easy-to-use alternatives.”
The content will include movies such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Die FledermausMensch Beginnt (er, Batman Begins) dubbed into German, as well as locally produced fare. Registered users of the service will be able to download films on the same day as their release on DVD, for prices described as “comparable to DVD.”
But as Peter Pollack observes in Ars Technica, GNAB works by downloading small pieces of larger files from multiple sources on the network - typically other consumers’ machines - rather than from one server operated by the distributor. It also slaps on microsoft-developed copy protection, which of course makes perfect sense for Warner Bros. But despite talk that at some point content could be moved to a portable device or burned to DVD, it will initially be restricted to the hard drive of the downloading computer. Says Pollack:
“I’m not sure that a cost ’similar’ to DVD is such a good deal if I’m expected to deal with DRM and make my computer do some of the lifting.”
Reservations aside, the move represents an almost monumental shift for an industry perceived by many as a creaking dinosaur. Warner Bros. would like other studios to come on board with In2Movies, and that has DVD sellers nervous because the service could trump their sales. Theater chain owners were anxious themselves about Steven Soderburgh’s Bubble, according to the CBC; the film was released last weekend simultaneously on DVD, HDNet Movies, and theaters (the ones that didn’t boycott the experiment, anyway).
But the concerns of theater owners and DVD retailers are the least of movie studios’ worries. With the burgeoning popularity of Apple’s iTunes service and an improving Google Video already changing the way people are consuming their entertainment, the industry shouldn’t wait to play catch-up.
Topics: ECommerce |