The Time Warner CEO (which owns HBO) is on the Charlie Rose show now. One interesting exchange:
"How far off are we from a big movie being released simultaneously in theaters as well as over every platform available? And what will be the model for the release of the movie on the platform?"
"There is a bunch of companies and investors that put up your local multiplex. Lately they've been trying to make the place cleaner, the screens to be crisper, you've got hi-def. And that creates a certain viewer experience to go to the theater and see it that way. So as we think about the fact that can you release simultaneously what happens if you do that, we are all trying to be as thoughtful as we can about doing this in a way that does not undermine the quality of the theater experience. Not take away all the business..."
"You still haven't answered my question."
"Right... so that's one answer... the other answer is if you delay a while to give the theaters a chance to make a long run sell on tickets, what you're doing, and you see it all over the world, is you create gaps for piracy where..."
So there you go.
These guys aren't ignorant, they are maxing out profits. Not everyone is on Hulu yet. This is a really big country and the economics don't make sense for them yet.
He also directly disagreed with the HBO CEO by saying HBO Go "is working" and: "some of the connections where you try to sign on are not as good as they should be and that's what we've got to fix"
"How far off are we from a big movie being released simultaneously in theaters as well as over every platform available? And what will be the model for the release of the movie on the platform?"
"There is a bunch of companies and investors that put up your local multiplex. Lately they've been trying to make the place cleaner, the screens to be crisper, you've got hi-def. And that creates a certain viewer experience to go to the theater and see it that way. So as we think about the fact that can you release simultaneously what happens if you do that, we are all trying to be as thoughtful as we can about doing this in a way that does not undermine the quality of the theater experience. Not take away all the business..."
"You still haven't answered my question."
"Right... so that's one answer... the other answer is if you delay a while to give the theaters a chance to make a long run sell on tickets, what you're doing, and you see it all over the world, is you create gaps for piracy where..."
So there you go.
These guys aren't ignorant, they are maxing out profits. Not everyone is on Hulu yet. This is a really big country and the economics don't make sense for them yet.
He also directly disagreed with the HBO CEO by saying HBO Go "is working" and: "some of the connections where you try to sign on are not as good as they should be and that's what we've got to fix"