Apple and Amazon Video On Demand have started rival promotions this week on digital movie and TV downloads, offering movies for under $5 USD and offering rentals for .99.
New digital films will also cost $14.99 at Amazon now, a discount from their previous $16.99 price tag, and occasionally cheaper than their physical media counterparts.
As an example, both sites have slashed the price of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a May release, to $9.99 USD, while the DVD sells for $15 and the Blu-ray for $25.
Most competitors, such as CinemaNow and VUDU, offer new releases for over $17 USD.
FutureSource analyst David Sidebottom adds that Amazon has been trying to steal iTunes market share in the music market, with aggressive pricing. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they did the same on the video side.”
The best deals, however, are on TV shows, with over 9 full seasons of popular shows available for under $5 USD.
Result for: tv show
Ten major movie studios have joined the Swedish legal-threat frenzy and have sued The Pirate Bay. The studios, including Disney, Warner Bros, Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures have demanded a court order in Stockholm, Sweden for TPB to cease and desist helping its users to share movies whose copyrights are owned by the studios in question.
“We’ve been forced to seek a court order demanding that they stop the spreading of these roughly 100 films and television programmes”, the studios’ attorney in Sweden told to The Local, Swedish online news service. Studios’ request for injuction involves TV shows such as House and Grey’s Anatomy and movies including Matrix and Harry Potter series.
Studios name the TPB admins as the defendants, including Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde, as well Black Internet AB.
“They’ve been sentenced to prison for criminal activities but haven’t stopped carrying out those activities”, studios’ attorney told in an interview.
Studios join a legion of other content owners who have previously sued the company.
Result for: tv show
According to a report over at Open Salon, the upcoming Apple iPhone 3.0 firmware update is expected to hit the phone next month, and with it will come direct downloads of movies and TV shows, eliminating the need for a PC with iTunes.
Alleged screenshots (posted at the end of the article) seem to show direct links to “iTunes Movies,” “iTunes TV,” and “iTunes Movie Rentals.” All movies and episodes are separated by genre.
Apple has not confirmed or denied the rumor.
Currently iPhone/iPod Touch owners can only directly download podcasts.
We will keep you updated.
