14 DAY TRIAL // At the beginning of last year, Google decided to get into the online video business, with its Google Video service. Now, the company has decided to pull the plug and stop showing paid programming on August 15. While this may not be huge news, it does show a glimpse of what could happen with other similar services.
Google Video has been offering a wide range of video content such as sports, music and news, since January 2006. The prices varied and customers were given the choice between 'renting' the right to watch a selected video for a day or buying it so it would be available to watch indefinitely. Unfortunately, because of the way that the service was set up, all videos had to be watched through a viewer on Google's site and with the service closing down, even those customers that bought content will be forever separated from it. This highlights one of the fundamental problems with subscription models where the right to enjoy content is rented on a monthly basis. It's not when the user decides to end the subscription that it is a problem, but when the service itself fails and customers can no longer enjoy the content they legitimately purchased. Of course, Google is well aware of this and is providing refunds in the form of credits that can be used on its online payment service, Checkout.
Music labels would still love for Jobs to accept a subscription service for iTunes, but this is one of the main reasons why it will not happen. While the iTunes Store is in a rock solid position and it is unlikely that it will be closing down in the foreseeable future, customers are simply not willing to take that risk and Apple is not willing to risk the image hit such a termination would incur. Apple's Fair Play DRM remains one of the most customer friendly ones out there and all content bought from the iTunes Store will be retained by the customer even if for some reason Apple were to pull the plug.