Slashdot Mirror
Apple Adds New TV Shows To iTunes
Phaedo00 writes "Ars Technica is reporting that Apple has added eleven new and classic television shows from NBC, the Sci-Fi network, and USA. The new shows include Alfred Hitchcock, Battlestar Galactica, Monk, Surface, Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, Dragnet, Law & Order, The Office and most importantly: Knight Rider!" From the article: "Steve Jobs took the opportunity to toot Apple's horn, stating that since the inception of video downloads on the iTMS, they'd sold nearly three million individual items. In addition to the sales figures, the PR from Apple stated that their current offering of video stands at approximately 300 episodes. All in all this looks like a slam dunk for Apple as they're rounding up their distribution deals and diversifying their suppliers. If the rumored deals with FOX and CBS are true then Apple will have a dominating lead in this market, much like their current domination in the digital music distribution arena."
... when they lock up some kind of deal with rhino to distribute mystery science theater 3000.
yeah... now *that* would be a dream come true? need a quick manos fix? go to itms... and watch on your ipod.
*thinks about productivity*
perhaps that isn't such a great idea.
but yeah... wonder if mister jobs is a misty?
sad robot making broken music
Which brings up an interesting problem: If this were available in the UK, how would the television license come into play? Would it be rolled up into the cost if you wanted to buy an episode of the UK Office? Since you don't need a tele to play it, just a computer or ipod.
Sorry, but I have to rebutt this.
h.264 will be the format of choice with the next-gen video cards with hardware support for h.264.
FairPlay does sort of suck, since you can't do anything with it, but at least it works, and doesn't get the movie/music people are bent out of shape.
Mac + Windows represents virtually all the _consumer_ market. Plus, iTunes can run on Linux via CrossOverOffice and others, so this point is not all that strong. The market just isn't there for solid native Linux support.
You can play these videos are FAR many more devices than the 5G iPod, like EVERY PC and Mac with iTunes. Yes, the videos right now are built for the iPod, but if you think the iPod is the only intended device, you've missed the point - the iPod is just a test.
Why do you need to burn a DVD when you can hook up your PC/Mac to your TV/HDTV, or even better yet, watch them on your nice high res monitor? Most people don't have HDTVs, so their computer monitors are as high res as they go. And you can burn the files to a data DVD to take wherever, or network share, or whatever. The DVD isn't tomorrow's technology - it's barely even today's. These videos represent a physical media-free environment, so again, whether this is a good thing or not, I think you're missing the point.
HDTV downloads would take FOREVER. Of course, if reports from Front Row-equipped iMacs streaming in HD trailer without stuttering or loading times is true, Apple is two steps ahead of us on this already.
Point is - this isn't meant to be a be all that ends all offering. This is a test, this is only a test. Why the heck else would they pick such a crazy variety of shows to test many potential demographics?
I'm curious as to what technology underlies the iTunes Music Store. Are they using Apple hardware on the hardware side? WebObjects on the software side? If it's an "all-Apple" solution that's a major success story that they ought to be leveraging to sell their server products.
-JT