Apple movies get SA excited

By Candice Jones, ITWeb online telecoms editor

Johannesburg, 18 Jan 2008

Apple's decision, announced at this year's Macworld Expo, to step-up its online movie effort has South African entertainment providers excited.

"[Apple CEO] Steve Jobs' announcement shows the online movie rental industry is gaining traction, and creates new possibilities for South African providers," says Debora Wynne, business development director of PushPlay, an online DVD rental company in SA.

While SA still has a few hurdles to overcome to make the concept work, she notes, the announcement has created hype around the possibilities for South African business. "It boils down to economic and technical difficulties; most people are not going to pay the high prices for bandwidth, as well as the cost of renting a digital movie."

Government regulations and the lack of studio representation in SA are also factors that the local entertainment industry will have to scale, she explains. "The telecommunications industry is a large part of the frustration, to the entertainment business, as well as consumers."

However, with connectivity becoming more affordable, it may change in the future. "We still have an advantage, which is the convenience of renting a movie online. Our customers' responses have shown that there is definitely a demand for this kind of service."

PushPlay MD Darren McLean says the online industry is still a long way from overriding the physical DVD rental business. "The DVD is ubiquitous and new physical high-definition formats are still taking centre-stage. The physical format will be with us for at least another 20 years."

He says Apple's announcement will stir some interesting competition in the international market. "It will be interesting to watch what happens between Apple and Nextflix [a competing international online movie business]."

McLean says Netflix has the added advantage of time, having been in the industry for quite some time. "Apple does have its iStore, but will have fewer titles available for rent when they launch the service in February."

At the Macworld Expo this week, Jobs announced the company is adding movie rentals from all the major Hollywood studios to its iTunes download service. He said more than 1 000 regular definition and about 100 high-definition movies would be available in February.