I know some of this is old, but I kept it around because it stuck with me. I also think that this post will make me seem like a technophobe, but I'm nothing of the sort. I truly believe that in the next 20 years, we'll be downloading all our content - movies, video games, tv, music, and experiencing it however we want: on any device or on any screen in the house.
Having said all that, I think Bob Iger is full of crap in this news/press release.
Look, I give him credit. He sealed the deal with Jobs and Pixar when Eisner couldn't get it done. He had the first network to put their shows on iTunes, and everyone else followed suit. And now, he's got the first movie studio to put their films on iTunes as well.
However, he tells us in the release that Disney sold 125,000 movies through iTunes in their opening week, generating $1 million.
I guess we're all supposed to just sit back and think that's good (and it might be), but there's no way for us to know. Was that within their expectation? Is that new business, or business that would have been a DVD or movie ticket anyway? How much money does Disney get here vs. Apple? This is certainly good news for Apple, as it's new business for them (assuming the operating costs of running a movie download service aren't for some reason incredibly higher than running their music download service), but it's not remotely clear what this means for Disney. There's no context, nothing to compare it to, just the word of an executive...
Actually, we do have something to compare it to: the box office. Let's call out the week's worst (and most heavily derided) new performer: All the King's Men. It made $3.6 million this weekend - more than 3 times that amazing iTunes download number. I mean, Buena Vista's own Invincible is in its 5th week at the box office, and it still made $2.5 million. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 farted a million bucks during it's opening weekend. It made $135.6 million in 72 hours - an average of $1,883,813 per hour. That million bucks (or less) from iTunes, and their projected $50 million (or less) for the year will have absolutely no impact on Buena Vista's bottom line for years to come.
I mention all this today, because David Card wrote today that TV and film programmers should treat new platforms as "relatively small revenue streams whose primary value is promotion."
Again, I don't think it will always be this way, but let's be careful when and where we toot our own horns, shall we?
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