Thanks to a reader (the Cap’n of course) submitted tip, I came across this story about Hollywood and DVRs and it made me want to run down the street screaming hysterically.
Those of you with Direct TV may have noticed recently that pay-per-view movies suddenly have some with an expiration date. For example, I purchased a few movies awhile back, like Eastern Promises, The Brave One, etc., and they had these deletion/expiration dates set about a month in the future.
I never got to see them for one reason or another (mostly procrastination) and suddenly they were gone. Now, the good part of this, from looking at my past bills, is that I didn’t get charged for them at all since I never viewed the movies.
But what if I had started one and postponed the finish of it for a few weeks? I definitely would have gotten the $4.99 charge and then the movie would have been deleted if I somehow forgot about the expiration date waited too long to finish it.
Well, all that is about to get a lot worse. And it’s probably not specific to Direct TV I would assume.
According to BroadbandReports.com, Hollywood is now demanding that these PPV movies be only available for TWENTY-FOUR hours after they are purchased.
And the Direct TV website actually has it in fine print already:
Effective April 15, 2008, DVR recordings of PPV movies will be available for 24 hours of unlimited viewing after purchase. Major movie studios have required that satellite and cable providers alike may no longer allow their customers to view these recordings for longer than 24 hours. During the 24 hour viewing period, you will continue to enjoy all of your DVR features such as pause and rewind.
So basically that means those of you who want to purchase a movie on PPV and save it to your DVR, you basically have 24-hours to finish it. I know that on occasion, I wont watch a movie all the way through the first time. I’ll start it and finish it later.
In fact, I have a few movies right now that I purchased, started but haven’t ever watched again because I know I can get to them later if I want to.
But not anymore.
HBO putting time limits on TIVO users
This story is in addition to the one above and just gives you all a sign of things to come.
The recent mini-series that debuted on HBO, John Adams, is restricted for TIVO users who recorded it to their DVR. The shows actually have a 24-hour expiration date on them.
Not only that, but they will also restrict the number of TIMES you can watch it.
Goodness.
The story on The Culture of Ownership has screenshots of the ordeal a man went through with the Making of John Adams. He recorded the show and then didn’t watch it until 28 minutes before the 24-hour expiration date.
The DVR wouldn’t even let him START the show, because he didn’t even have enough time to watch it before it expired. That’s ridiculous.
Is the writing on the wall?
All of this stuff is just the beginning of ways the studios and motion picture companies are going to start protecting their content and handcuffing the way we watch TV right now.
You all know that these big production companies HATE the idea of viewers skipping commercials. With these little forays into the world of controlling our DVRs, could that be next?
Will skipping commercials down the road suddenly go away?
This stuff has me worried.
Time to
a) dust off the VCR
b) buy a DVD Recorder
c) tell HBO to go spit.
Oh wait, I’m too cheap to pay for HBO; I just get DVDs after the fact. Guess I’ll skip (c).
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I’ve already had the experience of having a movie deleted on Direct TV PPV. This was bad enough but at least I did not get charged for the movie. However, the new 24 hour rule is pretty much a bag of crap.
Yeah, a DVD recorder would be a good investment, although I’d want an HD one personally, which would cost a lot more.
What a joke!
The Trousered Ape’s last blog post..Ape 2 - Dentist 1
Well hollywood consists of all democrats anyways so thats why they want to tell you what you can or can not do….
Can you imagine HBO is going to limit how many times you can watch something…why would they even care?!!? who cares you watch it 25 times, shouldnt they take that data on how many people watch it and create or continue a series with it?!?!?! Rediculous…
This is ridiculous. We don’t use PPV hardly ever, so that won’t really effect us, but for TV shows and regular aired movies/programs it will. What if you go on vacation for a week and want to watch all the shows you missed when you got back? Or, like the hubby and I, we are busy during the week so we save up alot of stuff on DVR to watch on the weekend when we have time. I guess they’d rather not have us watch it at all, then watch it on delay?!?! Surely there’s a better solution to the production companies’ “concerns” about ownership, usage and advertising in regards to their shows?!?!
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This might actually make me watch less shows since I will have less control of when and how I can watch it. Good job Hollywood - what a bunch of morons…
The Trousered Ape’s last blog post..Ape 2 - Dentist 1
What will end up happening is what always happens when companies start doing stupid stuff like this. Other, smarter, people will find ways to hack the systems (DVRs and whatnot) to break their controls and those of us brave enough or angry enough will have to use those hacks to get what we feel should rightfully be ours. I’m not saying I would do that, of course…
This is the sort of thing that will keep downloaded movies from becoming the #1 way of renting movies. This is the reason people like my parents won’t ever learn how to use their DVR.
And yes, they will find a way to stop people from skipping over commercials. That’s a guarantee. In fact, TIVO, I think it is, already has commercials that play over the fast forwarding of the commercials you’re trying to skip.
Until money goes away, things like this will continue to happen. The music industry is finally realizing it’s a hopeless battle, and are starting to go DRM-free, so it’s only a matter of time before Hollywood does, too, IMO.
Not skipping over commercials, I can definately see, though. I completely understand that, because it’s the commercials that pay the bills for a lot of shows. Anything else, like restricting the time you can watch a TV shows, seems ridiculous. Though I must say, the restriction on PPV movies doesn’t seem out of line to me — no different than the late fee at a lot of rental places, most of which “new releases” are only available for a day or two as well.
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@ DL - I didn’t even think about that…can you imagine taping stuff while on vacation only to come back and have it all gone?
The sad thing about HBO, is that we all FRAKKING pay for it, it’s not even free TV, so let it sit on our DVRs for the love of Pete.
I’m with Mike on the HBO thing. If I’m paying extra for the channel I certainly don’t expect to get less than I would with other networks.
The reason people love DVRs so much is precisely because they can record and then watch whenever they want. If you take that away you take away half the value of having a DVR.
If you take away the ability to skip commercials you take away the other half. I couldn’t own a DVR if I couldn’t skip commercials. I’d record more shows than I could humanly watch. And if I can’t watch them faster than I could by watching them on regular TV…there wouldn’t be much point.
Well - you know what money grubbing people those corporations are - soon they will charge you extra for watching HBO to keep the shows you are already paying for indefinitely…I can see it coming.
The Trousered Ape’s last blog post..Ape 2 - Dentist 1
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