Dish to begin DRM on PPV May 6th

[Scott Greczkowski]

Pay-Per-View (PPV) Services Subject to Digital Rights Management

DISH Network has been asked to comply with industry standards which require us to make some changes to our Pay-Per-View (PPV) services. These standards apply to ALL TV-service providers and are not unique to DISH Network.

These new standards will only affect some PPV movies that are recorded on or after May 6, 2008 by DISH Network subscribers. Any movies or events recorded by DISH Network customers before May 6, 2008 will not be affected.

How do these new standards affect PPV movie services effective May 6, 2008?

• Limited Recording – The amount of time PPV movies can be kept on a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) will be restricted.

24-hour window – Once customers begin to playback a recorded PPV movie from their DVR, they have 24 hours to pause and finish watching it, and may also watch it for an unlimited number of times within that period (if the entire 24-hour period is within the license window of the movie – please refer to the “License Window” section below for more information).

After the 24-hour window – After the 24-hour time period, customers will be able to see the title of the movie in the “My Recordings” section of their DishDVR, but will not be able to view it; they will also be prompted to delete the movie/event from their DVR. If the customer does not delete the movie, the title will remain in “My Recordings” but customers will not be able to view it.

• License Window – The license window is the length of time that a movie may air on PPV. License window time durations differ but average between 3 to 6 months. A movie with limited recording will not be available to view once the license window is over.

If the license window expires before DVR playback begins, the customer will not able to view the recording, and will be prompted to delete the movie.

• External Hard Drive – If a customer moves a movie to their external hard drive, DRM restrictions still apply.

 

[jcrandall]

Both providers are going to 24 hours PPV, not good.
Still have Neflix

 

[Lkr]

how are current movies? you buy and watch as many times as you want?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yup up until May 6th that is. Then the DRM is in place.

 

[tinydoughboy]

This is for all PPV>..including sporting events. . . . I am not liking this!

 

[rogerpl]

noticed it on my guide- select a movie - and you see - limited recording- i still like HD ppv but this is an issue- I would record well in advance and they got my money , now i have to wait and can't be sure i would or could record.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

This is bogus. I can see doing it from May 6th forward, but not for purchases before that time. Total B.S. from the industry powers that be.

 

[rogerpl]

After reading more carefully 24hr window after initial viewing isnt horrible. I delete watched movies most of the time anyway. I'll have to see.,

 

[kluken]

This is why I don't buy PPV and will watch Dish less and rent/buy more BD content or SD content from NetFlix and whereever.

 

[dennispap]

Pay-Per-View (PPV) Services Subject to Digital Rights Management

DISH Network has been asked to comply with industry standards which require us to make some changes to our Pay-Per-View (PPV) services. These standards apply to ALL TV-service providers and are not unique to DISH Network.

These new standards will only affect some PPV movies that are recorded on or after May 6, 2008 by DISH Network subscribers. Any movies or events recorded by DISH Network customers before May 6, 2008 will not be affected.

How do these new standards affect PPV movie services effective May 6, 2008?

• Limited Recording – The amount of time PPV movies can be kept on a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) will be restricted.

24-hour window – Once customers begin to playback a recorded PPV movie from their DVR, they have 24 hours to pause and finish watching it, and may also watch it for an unlimited number of times within that period (if the entire 24-hour period is within the license window of the movie – please refer to the “License Window” section below for more information).

After the 24-hour window – After the 24-hour time period, customers will be able to see the title of the movie in the “My Recordings” section of their DishDVR, but will not be able to view it; they will also be prompted to delete the movie/event from their DVR. If the customer does not delete the movie, the title will remain in “My Recordings” but customers will not be able to view it.

• License Window – The license window is the length of time that a movie may air on PPV. License window time durations differ but average between 3 to 6 months. A movie with limited recording will not be available to view once the license window is over.

If the license window expires before DVR playback begins, the customer will not able to view the recording, and will be prompted to delete the movie.

• External Hard Drive – If a customer moves a movie to their external hard drive, DRM restrictions still apply.

This is bogus. I can see doing it from May 6th forward, but not for purchases before that time. Total B.S. from the industry powers that be.

Reread the original post. I underlined where it says purchases BEFORE may 6th WILL NOT be affected.

 

[waltinvt]

We had plenty of warning that this was coming and the most people either didn't believe it or were apparently ok with it.

Now before you apologists jump in and defend Dish by saying it's industry wide, keep in mind that if even a couple of the major providers (Dish being one of them) had flat out said "NO" or even tried to fight it and rally consumers, we might have been able to do something (like with the original broadcast flag).

It's about time people stood up to the blood-sucking production companies and pushed congress for some real "Fair Use" legislation.

If we don't and no resistance goes forth, I can guaranfuckingtee you it won't be limited to PPV for very long and you'll eventually be paying somebody something every time you walk past a movie.

Geesh this pisses me off!

 

[haertig]

I have never understood the appeal of PPV movies. They cost more than rentals. Due to over-compression, they probably look worse than rental disks. You can only view them on your DVR whereas a rental you can play in any computer or laptop or portable player if you so desire. You don't have anywhere near as much selection as at a rental store. And now, you can't keep them as long as rentals.

I see zero benefit for PPV (movies, not sporting events). Unless you don't have a place to rent locally. But then you always have NetFlix.

The studios are "protecting their content" to the point where nobody will be wanting to mess with it anymore. What's the deal with a 24 hour time limit? What purpose does that serve? I never saw much need to order a PPV movie before. Now, there's definitely NO need to even consider it as a potential option, IMHO.

 

[Mojo]

Now before you apologists jump in and defend Dish by saying it's industry wide, keep in mind that if even a couple of the major providers (Dish being one of them) had flat out said "NO" or even tried to fight it and rally consumers, we might have been able to do something (like with the original broadcast flag).

It's about time people stood up to the blood-sucking production companies and pushed congress for some real "Fair Use" legislation.

If we don't and no resistance goes forth, I can guaranfuckingtee you it won't be limited to PPV for very long and you'll eventually be paying somebody something every time you walk past a movie.

Geesh this pisses me off!

Thank you. That had to be said

 

[haertig]

This is why I don't buy PPV and will watch Dish less and rent/buy more BD content or SD content from NetFlix and whereever.

Unfortunately, BD is DRM'ed up the wahzoo and I would not bet the farm that any of your purchased content to be safe for all eternity. Who knows what they'll try to "enable" in the future? Obviously Dish had the ability to enable DRM on these PPV's and they just didn't turn it on in the past. Now they have (or will in a few days). I can imagine the day when you pop in a new BD disk and it refuses to play until you upgrade your players firmware. And the new firmware includes additional DRM controls that can then be applied to your older BD disks as well. Don't forget the rootkit that Sony installed stealthily on people's PCs to "protect their content". Its effects went far beyond just the specific CD that it came trojaned on.

 

[todd.wood]

I'll not be watching a PPV ever again, back to the video store

 

[Juan]

We had plenty of warning that this was coming and the most people either didn't believe it or were apparently ok with it.

Now before you apologists jump in and defend Dish by saying it's industry wide, keep in mind that if even a couple of the major providers (Dish being one of them) had flat out said "NO" or even tried to fight it and rally consumers, we might have been able to do something (like with the original broadcast flag).

It's about time people stood up to the blood-sucking production companies and pushed congress for some real "Fair Use" legislation.

If we don't and no resistance goes forth, I can guaranfuckingtee you it won't be limited to PPV for very long and you'll eventually be paying somebody something every time you walk past a movie.

Geesh this pisses me off!

umm the alternative is prolly NO PPV REVENUE

 

[treiher]

What a joke . . . PPV service was not that great to begin with, but now I will never spend another dime on it. I have always wondered why they don't emulate the Netflix model with their dish online service, and they could do the same thing with PPV. They could limit the number of movies you have recorded and you could keep them as long as you like for a monthly fee perhaps. Ofcourse, it would have more appeal if the movies were actually very new releases. All PPV movies are available in DVD stores first anyway.

The good news is I do believe they are going to torpedo their PPV service as a result of this, which might free up more bandwidth for HD channels? Even so, this is a terrible marketing blunder and a dissappointing one as well. Nobody will tolerate a 24 hour time limit. Netfilx lets you keep movies as long as you like, most other DVD stores are several days to a week. Maybe, just maybe, I could see this working if they were pre-release movies like you might see in a hotel room where the movies available are often not available in rental stores yet. But this is not the case by a long shot. No great loss, really. I won't buy any more. In fact, I think I'll take the PPV favorites out of my guide that I had set up and use it for another list of channels.

Again, I believe this will be the death of Dish Network PPV. Maybe they want this?

 

[azdevil]

This is great news! What do you think this means, 6-10 more HD nationals as soon as the movie industry shoots itself in the foot?

I look forward to the day it becomes a damn hassle to watch a movie in any format so I can start reading more. Just don't put a 24 hr time limit when I check a book out at the library.

 

[tsduke]

I don't like, but understand why the industry is doing this, but I think the 24 window is BS. I can't rent movies from local vid store for 5 days and for much less money.

 

[DSpud]

Why would anyone buy a PPV again? The only time I can see someone might want to rent a pay per view is if they see a movie on there they really wanted to see, forgot about, but saw it and was already in for the night and figured it was better off paying the extra buck or so.

I see people that rent PPV all the time mostly lazy "givemenow" people that don't have the patience for services like netflix that sometimes takes 2 WHOLE days to get in the mail.