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Can iTunes Resurrect Old Time TV?

Posted by Zonk on from the only-the-shadow-knows dept.

An anonymous reader writes "With iTunes selling a couple of popular TV shows now there has been significant hesitation from other television producers to follow suit and put their content on the Web. It has also sparked activity from the actors unions who want additional compensation for what appears online. But there is also existing content that stands to be revived in this new context, older television shows from the 50's and 60's that have been squeezed out of the traditional broadcast by popular shows of more recent vintage. It was suggested to a producer who is presently digitizing 27 episodes of a 1950's show called Captain Zero to offer it up on iTunes for a buck an episode. Is this an opportunity for these old shows to strike while the iron is hot and while the owners of more contemporary content are caught like deers in a headlight? As the Captain Zero article points out purveyors of old time radio programs have enjoyed a significant revival by embracing web-based technology. Why not old time TV?"

1 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. What I want: by Seumas · · Score: 4, Interesting


    If you want me to be a customer, you need to offer me several things:

    + I don't want to view it just on my ipod.

    + I don't want to be able to view it only with Quicktime.

    + I don't want to have severe DRM limits that hamper my ability to store and watch the content any time I want on any device I want.

    + I don't want to pay through the nose for the content.

    + If I watch it on a non-iPod device, I want higher quality downloads available.

    + You should have at least the selection that Netflix does. Even if you're just the "Netflix of television".

    I'm one of those consumers who is not opposed to paying for information/entertainment/data on any real basis other than I want it to be affordable and flexible. Don't place silly restrictions on me that hamper my enjoyment and don't charge me so much that I have to seriously think if each download is worth it.

    Also, isn't most of the content they're talking about already public domain? Hell, some of it can be downloaded from the Internet Archive already.