Slashdot Mirror
CBS, NBC to Offer TV Shows for 99 Cents
According to an AP report. "CBS and NBC have announced deals to offer replays of prime-time programs for 99 cents per episode, shifting television toward a sales model that gained popularity with downloaded music." But the shows will only be available over Comcast on Demand, not for download.
For the cost of fifty shows you can just get a Tivo.
NBC's offering will be through DirecTV. CBS will be through Comcast.
We had our Comcast person hooking up a phone line to let the cable box talk to their service. At the last minute he asked, "do you have DSL?" We did, and now it looks like we have to use the actual phone to order OnDemand shows. We never have, since it's such a pain, though we constantly watch the free ones, expecially the kid shows.
Of course, eMule works fine with DSL and the price of t.v. shows from that venue are quite competitive. For some reason, using the Internet as my Tivo doesn't fill me with a twinge of guilt.
First comes mainstream TV on the net.
Then comes internet only TV.
On-demand, lower broadcast costs, and the replacement of 'public access' with equal opportunity online broadcasts all push internet video over it's ancient predecesor.
It's only a matter of time until the TV joins the newspaper in it's slow walk to the grave.
Mooniacs for iOS and Android
I'm willing to bet they will push DC to enact laws that may recording TV illegal. Kiss your Tivo goodbye. This is just them being able to tell everyone, look people can get the TV show after it plays for a fair price, they shouldn't be able to record it on their own.
Error: Sig not found.
you can watch your ipod show over and over. The Comcast deal is $0.99 per play.
Channels like HBO and Showtime offer all of their programming free to subscribers on Comcast In Demand.
What makes time-shifting Survivor worth 99 cents when I can time-shift The Sopranos for free?
... $0.99 seems good, until you realize that this is a rental, not a purchase.
...
Rental schemes in the music industry have yet to take off (Napster? Yahoo music?). iTunes provides ownership, which I think is a cause of it's popularity
From the article "The new DirecTV DVR comes with a hard drive that holds 160 hours of programming. One hundred hours are available for subscribers to record and store programs. The remaining 60 hours will be used by DirecTV to download programs that can be viewed on demand for an extra fee."
So they are recording a few shows from NBC, push them to your PVR, then let you pay money to watch them. Are you able to record them using the PVR in the first place for free? Or does the software prevent you. IF they prevent you from recording them yourself, this could be a preview of the boradcast flag, well a proprietary version of it.
Which means, to make ourselves clear, neither of these are IP downloads.
or until DirecTV cancels MPEG-2 service, but i tell you what, i'm going to run my hacked DirecTiVo until the wheels fall off - screw everyone else and their lameastic ideas.
My Hacked DirecTiVo works 1 step simple to get any show i want with my iPod (now, with Video), doesn't cost me per play, works great with my Mac, and doesn't have any DRM.
These things are going to be insanely valuable in years to come because of their incredible feature set, lack of DRM, and compatibility with so many other devices.
meanwhile, newer systems are going to be less and less useful and less interesting to me. HDTV doesn't make my skirt fly up compared to a well written show or good coverage of a hockey game... neither of which requires higher resolution.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
I misread your question. The cost difference is $1.00. Comcast is offering their product (with commercials) for $0.99 while Apple is offering their product (without commercials) for $1.99. Again, the Apple download can be viewed multiple times, whereas Comcast is essentially rebroadcasting for your viewing pleasure at a time more convenient for you. You are paying for the service of the rebroadcasting, not a downloadable product.
Me: OK - now I have my DVR so I can record shows.
Satellite company: Hey, but if you miss a show, you can download it to your DVR!
Me: Uh - that sounds pretty good. How much?
Satellite company: $0.99!
Me: Great - that's a better price than iTunes! So I can download it and watch it on my computer while I'm traveling -
Satellite company: No, you have to watch it at home.
Me: Oh. So can I sync it to my [insert portable video device here]?
Satellite company: No, you can watch it at home.
Me: But - could I just record the show with my DVR then? You know - the whole reason why I got a DVR?
Satellite company: You could, right until we decide that you can't record any shows you can buy. Isn't that swell?
Me: I knew there was a reason why I only use basic cable. This "digital crap but only through our proprietary boxes" is for losers.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
With the Comcast deal, you buy an episode for $0.99 and you can watch it as much as you want until the next episode airs, at which point it becomes inaccessible. This is the same VOD model they use for most of their programs: build in an expiration date, much like a video rental.
For more information, click here.
This is proof that the Networks still don't understand this whole "internet" thing at all.
1. While downloading for iPod is mentioned in the article, NBC and CBS are referring to OnDemand (same ol' crap that cable companies have been pushing for years) with their set top boxes.
2. The article says that 99 cents is the cost, but it includes commercials. So you're paying $1 to watch a free show WITH commercials.
3. NBC still believes there "aren't enough protections" to put their content on the internet.
These guys don't realize that their shows are mediocre at best and placing any higher threshold on watching them will actually DECREASE viewers, not increase it. I'm not going to pay extra to watch a show with commercials (which you probably can't skip).
Apple's solution for $1.99 adds the benefit of watching it where you want and without commercials. It's great for the occasional missed episode that I can catch up with while traveling.
I've never used OnDemand TV (whether Cable or Satellite) and this won't be any different.
I pay for cable, which technically pays for all the shows that are broadcast during the month when I have access. And then if I miss a show, they want me to pay again to see it? Like people are actually going to pay twice to see a show, rather then buying a PVR or hacking up a free one themselves?
Honestly, I have no idea how the cable industry can explain how this business model will work now that PVRs are becoming popular.
It doesn't even make sense. People know they don't own the shows they watch, unlike they do with the music they download. If the cable industry wants to copy the music industry, then they would have to let people pay for shows al la carte, and give them access to that same episode as many times as they want. But then the industry wouldn't be able to charge for those huge DVD episode packs, nor if people recorded movies would people ever need to buy DVDs in general. That's not going to happen.
But then again, the point may be to simply capitalize on the millions of people out there who forget to do things. HUGE amounts of money are made from people who forget to cancel subscriptions, who return rented movies late, or who don't know anything about how simple it is to same money by using a free program on their computers. I guess if they really think this is going to work, then there must be a LOT of people who don't own PVRs and who forget to watch shows, that they would be willing to pay 99c to be able to see.
Its about time to face facts, people in general do not consider content to have the value that the companies would like to claim. I would suggest that a rough acceptable tariff for downloadable content would look like:
In addition I would suggest that people expect a licence to the content to mean they have a right to that content in any form with no extra licence costs. DRM might exist, but it can never interfere with the customer enjoying their property.I'll guess that there are rewards for the first company to realise where the market is going and act accordingly. People expect that the quality will not be there, and are unwilling to pay up on spec. Its a mass product market, not a premium product market.
Why pay to watch it once when you can just TiVO it and be done? Maybe this is what the broadcast flag thing is all about. All TV will become pay-per-view.
DUH!
2 cents,
Queen B
HDGary secures my bank
The Daily Show/Colbert Report is the big stumbling block for me.
*dramatically shakes fist* Damn you Jon Stewart!
I am getting excited about the shift towards internet viewing, and would actually prefer cheap rental over buying for video, and as a consumer don't really care about rented material being highly DRM'ed (purchased is anothering).
But this particular service isn't all that exciting. You need to have DirectTV's or Comcast's DVR already in order to use the service. That means that I could have been recording these shows and watching them whenever I wanted.
The price wouldn't be too bad on it's own. I figure that reasonable internet rental prices prices are $0.50 for a 20 minute show, $1.00 for a 40 minute show, and $2.00 for a movie. But this is on top of the $50-70 dollars that you are already paying for cable or satelite. I have already payed to watch these shows, I am not going to pay again.
If you have a working MythTV box, couldn't you just record the episode when it airs instead of paying $1 the next day to rent it? Then you can strip out the program to get to the commercials you want to see.
For more information, click here.
Oh how wrong you are.
They're turning alright... Just in the other direction. This is the first step towards requiring payment for timeshifting. Want to record that show to your DVR or VCR? You have to pay. This is the beginning of the networks trying to get people back in their seats watching only one show in any particular prime time slot so their current ratings and advertisment rate paridigm will continue to work. You're *not* the customer, you're the product, and your eyes are being sold to the advertizers.
That's assuming that you knew it was coming up and scheduled a recording in advance.
If only there were some kind of "guide" to give people advanced notice of upcoming TV episodes...
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
If you have a working MythTV box, couldn't you just record the episode when it airs instead of paying $1 the next day to rent it?
For now. That's the danger of the broadcast flag. It's currently defeated, but stay tuned, more to come after these messages.
NBC makes $0.00 if you record with MythTV
NBC makes $0.99 if you buy/rent/beg for it the next day
They probably understand these numbers very well, and will make no bones about describing MythTV, Tivo, et al. as "theft" devices to your local congressman. The way to prevent such "theft" is with a broadcast flag.
Remember boys and girls, anything that doesn't make money for media companies is stealing. People who steal media will damage the American economy. Terrorists want to damage the American economy. Therefore if you have MythTV you are clearly a terrorist.
TW
I keep a small notebook next to me during the rare times when I watch live televisual programming. When I see a commercial advertisement, I open the notebook and remark on whether I thought the advertisement was of substantial quality. If it contributed positively to my televisual experience, I note the company's name and the qualities which I liked about the advertisement. If it detracted from my experience, I note the objectionable qualities instead.
Afterwards, I place my findings in an OpenOffice.org document on my Debian GNU/Linux-based Ubuntu 5.10 "Breezy Badger" AMD Athlon computer workstation. I then utilize a StarBasic macro to dynamically transpose the content into an XHTML document whose DOM I manipulate with CSS and JavaScript using advanced AJAX techniques I learned; this document is then propagated through the blogosphere so that it attains sufficient impact and increases the televisual capacity of my fellow netizens.
But that's just me.
For more information, click here.