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January 09, 2006
Media globalization - don't hold your breath
Google's announcement of providing pay-for video content soon in the Google
Video Store is another sign of the growing market for on-demand video. With
this, other offers like Apples iTunes store (maybe we'll see that renamed
tomorrow to Apples iMedia Store) the days of traditional broadcast video
seem to be numbered. After all, the personal DVR already allows us to watch what we
want to - when we want to.
The current video store offerings all suffer from the same problem at the
moment - global rights management. And no, that isn't digital rights management
either. As the press release from Google reads: "however purchasing premium
content in the Google Video Store will only be available in the US". A
German Google spokesperson is quoted in today's press with "we're working on
that."
I bet it's a fun job (not) sorting out the rights issues of providing media downloads at Google or Apple. Especially on stuff like the episodes of TV shows - I've been into that before. In the US, things are pretty clear. Once the episode has aired, then it should be pretty simple to provide the episode for purchase. But as TV series can take years to reach this side of the pond, I guess the episodes may never be made available for people outside the US (even to buy). It would prove really difficult to keep tabs on when which episode airs in each different country and then provide it so that only that country can then download it.
No, I don't see that happening anytime soon. Luckily there are other options.
Technorati Tags: Apple, Google, Media
Posted by Matthew at January 9, 2006 07:40 PM