Jordan O'BrienRemember Screening Room? The controversial movie streaming service was unveiled with quite a bit of fanfare earlier this year, promising movie fans the ability to watch films currently in the cinema without ever leaving the comfort of their living room or home theatre. Soon it could have a deep pocketed competitor, with Apple reportedly mulling a move into the day and date movie market – with the iPhone maker already reportedly in talks with major movie studios.
Not much has been heard of Screening Room since the huge debate erupted just before the annual CinemaCon in Las Vegas. The debate dragged in big names such as James Cameron and Steven Spielberg, both who are said to be on opposite sides of the argument. What would these two big directors think of Apple’s approach to the technology?
Per sources speaking on condition of anonymity to Bloomberg, Apple has been talking to 21st Century Fox, Warner Bros and Universal Pictures about a day and date movie rental service that will be hosted on iTunes. The report suggests that movies won’t launch at the same time on iTunes as they will in the theatres however, with a short gap between cinema availability and digital rental – reportedly as soon as two weeks after release.
Movie studios have been mulling a change in release dates for home entertainment for the last few years. Each attempt by the studios to shorten the time span between cinema release and general release has received huge backlash from the theatre companies themselves however. In 2010 Disney made plans to release Alice In Wonderland on DVD just 12 weeks after appearing in cinema, down from the standard 17 weeks. In response both Odeon and Vue threatened to boycott the film unless Disney backed down, in the end an agreement was struck leading to Alice In Wonderland being released on DVD 13 weeks after its theatrical release.
Apple has been concentrating more on its music streaming business in the last year, with iTunes having taken the back seat to Apple Music. The company is reportedly looking at ways to refresh iTunes however, and one solution is to offer newer content that isn’t available anywhere else.
It’s not known what benefit the movie studios would get by restricting themselves to Apple’s platform, but the industry has already signalled its willingness to take the movie screening monopoly from the cinema chains. US exhibitors are already willing to move forward with the times too, AMC was linked with Sean Parker’s Screening Room, while Cinemark, the US’ number three exhibitor, believes that a premium service could satisfy all parties.
The security of Apple’s platform may not endear it to the film studios however. Currently someone could use screen recording technology or a camera pointed at a screen to pirate a film from iTunes, while Screening Room features watermarking. If security is a real concern however, XCINEX may have the solution – with the company’s advanced camera technology and watermarking technology supposedly one of the most robust currently available.