Purchase Movie Downloads

Apple iTunes Movie Re-Downloads Not Coming Soon, Report Says

The latest rumors about iTunes Replay were first reported by App Advice last Wednesday. The basic idea behind Replay is that Apple would allow you to re-download almost any movie purchased after January 2009. You would also be able to stream your content to your Mac or Windows PC and possibly iOS devices; however, the report was less clear about how streaming would work.

You can already stream rented iTunes movie and TV Show content to your Apple TV. And recent changes to Apple's set-top box allow you to now purchase television shows instead of just rent. You can also stream previously purchased TV episodes to your set-top box directly from Apple's servers.

While Apple TV users have enjoyed iTunes streaming, other iTunes-compatible devices have so far been left out of Apple's streaming party.

Replay is being held up, as CNET describes it, at least in part by the HBO window--a period of time when HBO has the exclusive digital distribution rights for movies from Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and Universal. The HBO window would presumably make it difficult for Apple to give you access to previously purchased content via Replay. The pay-TV agreement also prevents current services such as Amazon video on demand and Netflix from delivering premium titles during HBO's exclusive distribution period. The HBO window usually exists six months after the official DVD release and can last as long as eighteen months, according to The Wrap .

While the HBO window might be annoying right now, it appears the rest of the movie and film distribution industries want to see the agreement disappear. The end of the HBO window would clearly make like easier for Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and other digital distributors. But the movie studios are also anxious to get off the ground with their “buy once, stream everywhere” scheme dubbed UltraViolet .

Movies appear to be the last major holdout for iTunes content flying completely into the cloud. Apple announced in June that you will be able to re-download music with the advent of iCloud and iOS 5 this fall, and recent changes reportedly make TV shows directly accessible across your iTunes-compatible devices.

Hollywood Finds a Standard for Digital Movie Downloads | The ...

Unless I’m missing something, Hollywood took a credible leap into the digital future this week when about four dozen companies made a quiet announcement that they had agreed on a single file format for virtually all forms of digital downloads.

The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), comprising 48 movie studios and tech companies, came up with a single, standardized format that will allow consumers to download movies (or any content, really) and play it on any device - the computer, Verizon phone, your X-box or cable-ready TV.

Well, with one big exception: Apple. They're not on board. Oh, and one more: Disney. They're not on board yet either.

But most everybody else is: Paramount, Warners, Fox, Sony, Comcast, Intel, Panasonic, Toshiba, Thomson, Cisco and a dozen other tech companies.

This means that when consumers buy a movie, their 'ownership' will be stored in a cloud of servers to which they can have access at any time, and stream that movie onto any device. (Except, say, an iPhone. Ouch.) They'll receive a code that unlocks their purchase, but that can be used on most every device.

The format is called 'the common file format,' and is a new format, based on Flash existing technologies.

The idea of the DECE's efforts - ongoing since September 2008 - was to avoid the format battles that plagued the video market in the battle between Betamax and VHS. The movie companies managed to avoid that mistake when it came to DVDs, and agreed on a single standard for formatting on that platform. That led to a decade of dazzling prosperity in the home entertainment market.

The hope is that the DECE's aim of "buy once, play anywhere" will create the same prosperity for the age of the digital download, as consumers move away from all physical entertainment products toward downloads that they don't have to own and store.

What does this mean for Apple and Disney? Disney may change its mind and join the party, but for the moment has a competing technology called 'keychest.'  And Apple, notoriously single-minded, may stay the lone wolf.

But for the moment, the industry has figured out a way foward, by cooperating.

Here's the announcement from earlier this week:

LOS ANGELES, CA (January 4, 2010) – Today the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem LLC (DECE LLC), www.decellc.com ,  a coalition with support from every industry involved in digital entertainment, announced it has reached key milestones toward establishing the first open market for digital content distribution. In addition, DECE announced that 21 companies have joined the group which now includes 48 members across entertainment, software, hardware, retail, infrastructure and delivery.

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