Could Video Escape DRM Too?
It appears that the era of DRM-free music is upon us. We can’t help but hope that DRM-free TV shows and movies will follow, but of course that’s a whole different story.
Steve Jobs, the anti-DRM crusader of late, has been careful not to disturb his budding movie download market in public comments.
When asked during the EMI conference call about the potential of lifting DRM from video, Jobs said: “Video is pretty different from music right now because the video industry does not distribute 90 percent of their content DRM free. Never has. So I think they are in a pretty different situation and I wouldn’t hold it to a parallel at all.”
What do you think?
{democracy:2}
Recent
GigaOM Network
Copyright 2001–2008 Giga Omni Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress.com. Marketing consulting by ACS.
Your Poll leaves little room for the most-likely-scenario:
Independent Producersm with more professional Producers, moving into this space, will by-pass DRM obsessions and release Content DRM-free.
Why? Because they will look to maximize revenues across a much shorter distribution cycle, not seek to protect long-term Library Rights. Internet/IPTV releases will hold back enhanced/Director Cut/supplemental content for traditional distribution channels.
The theory is that the closer the actual Producers/Creators are to the money, the less DRM fixated they’ll be. It’s only those in the Big Buildings (record labels, studio execs, etc. — the Suits) who are looking to protect their personal jobs and incomes who are driving the old model.
dave on April 3rd, 2007 at 12:46 pm - Permalink
So likely we left it out! I agree, dave — the same thing happened with music, of course. But what we are talking about with the EMI-Apple announcement is the folks in “Big Buildings,” so that’s the parallel I was trying to draw.
Liz Gannes on April 3rd, 2007 at 12:49 pm - Permalink
Wasn’t that part of EMI’s announcement, that not only will their digital music catalog go DRM-less, but their music videos as well? Maybe those aren’t the “videos” you’re talking about, but it’s a start. It never made much sense to even charge for a music video, since they’re primarily for promoting the sales of the song/album.
AlexC on April 3rd, 2007 at 1:16 pm - Permalink
Video will probably follow the same pattern as music, albeit at a faster pace: they’ll hold on to old business models for as long as they can, but when DVD sales start dipping, they’ll look to digital distribution. I’d pit this happening around the end of 2007. By that time, DRM-free music will have proven to increase sales many fold while only marginally increasing piracy, and so the studios and networks will be less fearful. It won’t happen quickly, but I’d guess that we’ll see a large amount of DRM-free movies by the end of 2008, probably also tied to HD downloads, which are harder to shuffle around at current broadband speeds anyway.
Adam Simon on April 3rd, 2007 at 3:33 pm - Permalink
A fundamental facet of Video especially Movies is that most people do not consume the media over and over. They see it only once.
This means that a mechanism to rent the movie at a cheaper rate is required. For this you do require DRM.
ITunes does not offer movie rentals. But Unbox does and thus DRM may continue to exist as a mechanism to control movie rental.
Note that the whole hue and cry about DRM stemmed from the fact that you did not own the content you owned. However for rentals, You really do not own the content to begin with.
Yuvamani on April 3rd, 2007 at 6:38 pm - Permalink