Piracy - A problem with consumers or the industry?

Regarding the discussion in the last few posts above, there are plans afoot to allow subscribers to watch films at home that have just been released in the cinema.

The project is called "The Screening Room" and it's being set up by Sean Parker of Napster fame.

Some directors are backing it but some aren't happy.
http://variety.com/t/the-screening-room/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/20...-jj-abrams-screening-room-napster-sean-parker

It sounds like a good idea but the pricing is pretty high.
 
Last edited:
I agree, it is a good idea, but not at £35 a pop! That's crazy. I assume that price point is an assumption that the whole family are going to be sat there watching it, which makes it more reasonably priced (but still way too expensive IMO). For any home with less than four people, it's just not going to work.
 
I have a Sky subscription and used to have Prime but cancelled subscription until some more of the shows I want to watch are on.

Sky has most of the shows I'm into at the moment but for convenience (and binge watching) I use Kodi. For me I have no issue doing this as I pay for what I watch anyway but this way I don't have to fill up my Sky HD box with series (when my children and missus have all their junk on it).

I do begrudge having to pay for TV licence when I never watch BBC but there again I do use their website and listen to 5-Live and a few other BBC stations so it's worth the £12.12 for now.

I personally wouldn't rent cinema releases as I quite like the experience of going to the cinema and the times I tend to go are fairly quiet anyway. Plus I go 4-5 times a year on average, depending on what's out there, although there is quite a few releases I want to see this year which is most welcome.

When new season of Bosch and The Grand Tour are out I will probably subscribe again.
 
Last edited:
Mr-White said:
Hollywood need to stop polishing turds with CGI and write decent scripts, it might save them a few quid too.
Click to expand...
This video might be of interest:


I work for a large studio so I'm way too biased to get stuck in this argument. Day and date releasing is way harder than people give it credit. For blockbuster we will do over 250-350 versions of the film. Generally from getting the OV (original version) signed off that will all happen in what is currently a two week period. It's crazy. You talk to the people that work in film servicing that their two week window is now zero and they'd probably nut you :p

The screening room is a good idea but I think it will need to be a higher price for it to work. Apparently he's just come up the 'idea' without any actual plans on security, hardware etc. so it's all just talk at the moment.
 
Last edited:
Combination of the two as always nothing is clear cut!

Some people will always pirate it's just the way they are like the guys that download everything they can even though they will never watch/listen to it but they just got to has it!

The industry also has it's problems and for me at the minute they are getting worse not better, online streaming should be the fix but it is now part of the problem with too many different services offering slightly different content the customer has the illusion of choice and competition but in reality is forced into multiple subscriptions.

The industry will continue to make excuses and drag it's feet while the consumers will continue to download it hasn't really changed in since broadband went mainstream.

Oh and don't get me started on the non-original versions of tracks on Spotify!
 
I pay for Amazon Prime. My wife and I both have Vodafone accounts that give us inclusive Netflix and NowTV (Entertainment)

Despite having access to all three services we can be hacked off at times. NowTV is the most expensive yet only gives media in 720p and doesn't have 5.1 sound. It also isn't available on the FireTV box we use which means we need to have a NowTV box wired up just to access it. The selection of new content is good but it only keeps new content for 28days. The UI is terrible as well.

Netflix and Amazon prime both have much better quality video. (1080p with higher bitrates and 5.1 audio). They also have their own exclusive content.

Even with all three services, they still don't cover everything. The whole Netflix geolocked content stuff is a real pain. I think that is a huge incentive for people to pirate content.
 
Infidelus said:
I agree, it is a good idea, but not at £35 a pop! That's crazy. I assume that price point is an assumption that the whole family are going to be sat there watching it, which makes it more reasonably priced (but still way too expensive IMO). For any home with less than four people, it's just not going to work.
Click to expand...

I'd actually happily pay around £35 to watch new released movies on my own home cinema at the same time as release - ideally less but if it actually made it work in the current environment I'd be for it - though not so happy about the fact a good chunk would be compensating cinemas but I guess that would be the cost of making it happen it as things stand :S

I'm not that bothered waiting (though it sucks) a couple of weeks or something for something to come to digital after release - but all to often it is 6 months if you are lucky and a couple of years if you aren't lucky.
 
Why not just make the movies available at a reasonable cost across all formats at the same release time. This way people can choose how they want to watch them.

The amount to pay would be set and should be a lot lower than current cinema pricing say £10 giving you access to the movie for a few days if watching at home and more for a physical copy.

Due to the current costing model of going to the cinema there are always going to be films I would not entertain paying to watch. If it could be downloaded and watched legally for a reasonable price then I would possibly do that. As far as I am concerned they are better getting a smaller amount than the nothing they would receive if it is downloaded illegally.

Also due to having a young daughter it is not always easy to go to the cinema and easier to just download the movie. if the option was there to pay a reasonable amount to access movies currently in the cinema I would certainly use it but not for £30+ quid a month subscription as there just aren't enough good movies to justify it.
 
I think it depends a lot on the area the cinema(s) you go to are in. If I go to one at Teesside park it's almost always filled with scummy people who don't know how to STFU, and smell bad.

Middlesbrough's Cineworld is surprisingly a bit nicer, and the Odeon at the Metro Centre is generally ok. But the smell of nacho cheese. Bork.

I have/had subscriptions for Netflix, Prime, NowTV.. in fact I currently have them all. may get rid of Netflix but I keep finding/hearing about good things. Prime I have mostly for the one day delivery thing anyway, the TV is a bonus, but I've not really found much I really like on there.

I just wish there weren't regional variations with the catalogues - Netflix especially. I HATE that they blocked Proxies... is there a way around that? I didn't find one. UK Netflix is poop compared to the USA one, in quantity if not also quality.

I've not pirated a film, but I've happily accepted them when others have. Even though the quality is generally terrible.
If there were blu ray quality rentals available online the day of release, or even a week after I'd go for that. For a fiver a time, probably. But there aren't.

So mostly I seem to just be waiting until stuff comes out on BD and buying that.
 
Cant cope with the cinema.

Phones and idiots chatting throughout. They should be left at the counter in a box
 
My local Cineworld's quite good to be honest, I've got a Cineworld card and have absolutely no reservations about keeping it on the go indefinitely.
I've got Netflix and Tidal.

Although Netflix I mainly use as a tester for stuff, and then I'll buy a physical copy if I can.
 
scamartist said:
Also due to having a young daughter it is not always easy to go to the cinema and easier to just download the movie. if the option was there to pay a reasonable amount to access movies currently in the cinema I would certainly use it but not for £30+ quid a month subscription as there just aren't enough good movies to justify it.
Click to expand...

Consumer habits have changed as well in this context - even 10 years ago with my friends they'd organise say a Saturday to see a big new release, dump all the kids with a babysitter or one of the mums that wasn't interested in the movie, etc. and go as a group, these days especially with people increasingly working the weekend and so on people tend to watch movies at their own pace and have much more diverse interests.
 
Did this argument to death at University; sometimes got in to quite heated discussions over it.

The film/television industry lacks innovation with changing technology/changes in society (in regards to viewing) and the price point of cinema's keep rising.
 
The industry cant give what the consumer wants.. The people want a loaded KODI box. It is the best solution.

Boils down to the GREED.
 
scamartist said:
Why not just make the movies available at a reasonable cost across all formats at the same release time. This way people can choose how they want to watch them.

The amount to pay would be set and should be a lot lower than current cinema pricing say £10 giving you access to the movie for a few days if watching at home and more for a physical copy.
Click to expand...

You say that as though film companies could afford to stream films to customers, or would accept the reduced revenues they'd get from established streaming businesses.

scamartist said:
Due to the current costing model of going to the cinema there are always going to be films I would not entertain paying to watch. If it could be downloaded and watched legally for a reasonable price then I would possibly do that. As far as I am concerned they are better getting a smaller amount than the nothing they would receive if it is downloaded illegally.
Click to expand...

If it's not worth paying for, then don't watch it. Yet again we have the bewildering idea that the fact that bad films are not worth paying to watch makes it OK to pirate them. If they're bad, why do you want to watch them?

scamartist said:
Also due to having a young daughter it is not always easy to go to the cinema and easier to just download the movie. if the option was there to pay a reasonable amount to access movies currently in the cinema I would certainly use it but not for £30+ quid a month subscription as there just aren't enough good movies to justify it.
Click to expand...

Family life, yo. Live with it. There's plenty of streaming services you can pay for that will allow you access to films at home if you can't get out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom