Overheard at GDC 07: Disney's to blame for no downloadable movies
by Andrew Yoon 
{ Mar 11th 2007 at 5:00PM }
Sony was supposed to offer full-resolution downloadable movies for the PSP, but the service has never come to fruition, citing "DRM problems." On the GDC showfloor, I overheard one Sony employee talking about how there's one giant stumbling block for Sony's potential movie download service: Disney. The giant media corporation doesn't want to make its catalog of movies available to Sony, most likely due to restrictions caused by their deal with Apple's iTunes Store.But, why not go forth even without Disney's backing? Surely, Sony Pictures' vast library of movies would be more than enough to satiate a PSP-owning movie lover's tastes. However, as Connect proved, a half-assed attempt at digital distribution usually ends up quite fruitless.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SKI @ Mar 11th 2007 8:19PM
Sounds like Disney is a scapegoat.
Sean @ Mar 11th 2007 8:52PM
DUDE! James Bond versus Buzz Lightyear!? That sounds like quite BS... older audience... yeah right... and DRM is child's play, and with upgradeable firmware it should be cake. Sony's either too pedantic about the simplest things or too lazy to do it right... pshh. I have wads of cash that I'm willing to throw at movies like "Goldfinger" and "Lies and Alibis" but Sony continues to keep their wad's of ten's blocker up.
moosey @ Mar 11th 2007 8:57PM
is that edward norton? ;)
Aeron @ Mar 11th 2007 10:43PM
Funnily Enoguh disney are back BD Exclusivley...
san @ Mar 12th 2007 12:29PM
By "DRM problems" they probably mean interoperability with other DRM-based systems like iTunes; e.g., beyond an exclusive deal with Apple -- Steve Jobs is after all on Disney's board -- Disney may only wish to support one DRM scheme, and since they're distributing through Apple, that's Fairplay.
If there is any company that Apple should license Fairplay to, it's Sony. They don't compete on operating systems, they really don't compete head-to-head in the computer industry, they will sort of compete in the phone market -- but that's a big market with a lot of players -- they only vaguely compete in the media player market.
The received wisdom is that Apple won't license Fairplay because it would cut into iPod and soon AppleTV sales -- although Jobs claims it's more to do with integrity of the DRM system. I'm not sure that *anything* can cut into iPod sales. I have a current generation iPod *and* a PSP; I know *many* people who have both and wouldn't trade one for the other, even though there are some feature intersections. As for the AppleTV, if PS3 played iTunes Store HD movie sales, no I would not buy an AppleTV. But having already bought a PS3, I won't buy an AppleTV anyway. First of all, in a pinch my iPod will play to my HDTV via the S-video on the dock and a -- granted, not 5.1 digital -- audio connection to my stereo receiver. Otherwise, I'm happy to stick with Blu-ray and will probably concentrate my movie purchases there and on standard DVD when BR is not available. A different box for everything is just too much, and the PS3 is more expensive of course, but also does a lot more than AppleTV. I don't see the PS3 market being the same as the AppleTV market. I mean, I think the AppleTV will sell mainly to people who don't have a current generation games console, or maybe only a Wii, or perhaps any console they own is exclusively the domain of their children.
I expect Sony is more pedantic than lazy.