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."

Comments

When will the rest of the world sign on?

[mattyohe]

Evidently TV is still only downloadable at the US iTunes store.

Re:When will the rest of the world sign on?

[British]

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.

Re:When will the rest of the world sign on?

[frostilicus2]

Here's what wikipedia has to say:

"In the United Kingdom, these fees are set by Parliament and go directly to the funding of the BBC, enabling it to run without the need for market competition. The licence fee, initially for radio sets (exempt since 1971), was mandated by the 1904 Wireless Telegraphy Act. The fee was originally 10 shillings (£0.50) and in 2005 was £126.50 for colour TV and £42 for monochrome TV. There are concessions for the elderly (free for over 75s) and blind people (50% off). Only one licence is required per household. It is believed that approximately 5% of TVs are unlicensed. With the BBC's increased worldwide output (including its online services) there has been a debate as to the abolition of the TV licence, which has been denounced as a violation of the freedom to receive information without inteference. Generally, competing television companies favour the licence fee since it means the BBC will not compete with them for advertising or subscriptions. Proper debate of the licence fee is consistently suppressed by the BBC from its own airwaves. Numerous polls show significant public opposition to the fee.

According to the definition of TV receiving apparatus [1], a licence must be obtained for any device which is "installed or used" for receiving broadcasts, which potentially covers devices such as a tuner card in a PC or a portable television. However a television installed and used for some other purpose, such as a closed-circuit monitor, video player or a games console, is exempt provided the owner can demonstrate it is not used for receiving broadcasts.

Enforcement in the UK is provided by Capita Group and the AMV consortium. Capita agents are paid bonuses on the basis of the convictions they secure. AMV is an advertising and public relations agency. Several hundred thousand prosecutions are brought each year. Observations at magistrates court show that a very large proportion of those prosecuted are single women on benefits. Capita maintain a database of all addresses in the country, with electronics retailers being subject to large fines if they do not pass on the addresses of anyone buying television receiving equipment. Addresses with no licence are assumed to have a television, and are subject to repeated threatening mailshots and visits by the enforcement agency. In addition to the database, the BBC claims that electronic detectors are used to pick up the small amount of energy re-radiated by the local oscillator in the tuning circuitry. There is no evidence of any prosecution ever having been brought on this basis of this warrantless electronic surveillance and it is widely suspected that the famous detector vans are no more than mock-ups designed to intimidate viewers. It's open to doubt how well the much advertised detectors would work on a TV tuner card within the electrically noisy Faraday cage enclosure of a PC: the simpler method of calling round and looking for the aerial or an operating television would seem more effective. Note that, since the inspectors are not police officers or any other type of government official, they have no right to enter private property unless invited. Some feel that the scheme is as a regressive tax, in that the very poorest are those least likely to have a licence, and least able to pay the fine for not having a licence. A report ("TV sinners", March 1998) by the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux pointed out that failure to pay the fine is the single largest reason for the imprisonment of single mothers. However, supporters of the licence fee claim that it helps maintain a higher quality of programming on the BBC compared to its commercial rivals. Some also claim that it also leads to better programmes on the commercial channels as they seek to draw viewers/listeners away from the BBC's output."

Any other questions should probably be directed here.

iTMS dominates now that they feature....

[presearch]

International Superstar David Hasselhof.

Re:iTMS dominates now that they feature....

[generic-man]

They've had FOUR of his albums and one EP before Knight Rider was available. (Link requires iTunes.)

Re:iTMS dominates now that they feature....

[DikSeaCup]

There needs to be a "+1, Scary" moderation.

Apple's going to take the lead just for trying.

[hal2814]

Apple's has the opportunity to take a big lead in this new trend just for going out of the gate with it. Here's an idea that will eventually have to take hold. With large bandwidth, modern compression, and the "Media Center" role PCs are starting to play, there will be a market for video-on-demand via the computer. It was obvious, but Apple will get out there first and build a big lead in this market just because they went after it.

Re:Apple's going to take the lead just for trying.

[justin12345]

Apple! Increase the frakking resolution of the video! I would love to download Battlestar Galactica but I won't do it if its only going to look good on my iPod. I want video that will look good anywhere I play it, including my DLP projector.

Re:Apple's going to take the lead just for trying.

[hsmith]

People may want to deny it, but on demand content like this IS the future. Sure, it has DRM, but most people don't care at all. It is about convenience.

Jobs sees this and he has taken hold of it. the success of the iPod proves it, people will pay a moderate sum and be locked in to propriertary content and players. Not even i really care, i'd rather d/l instantly with iTunes and scour the net for 1/2 hour for a song. Move this into other media formats and Jobs is solitifying the long term future of apple. They can move from just computers and ipods to tvs, dvrs, ect. this is the future and he is making apple the leader of the pack

Re:Apple's going to take the lead just for trying.

[2nd Post!]

Funny, consumers have already shown that quality for convenience trumps price with regards to the music store:

$0.99 for slightly less than CD quality sans liner and jewelcase.

It hasn't stopped the music jaggernaut any.

Re:Apple's going to take the lead just for trying.

[eclectic4]

My wife and I watch Lost via iTunes on our TV, and it's not bad, not bad at all. There are a few gradation anomalies in dark areas, but other than that, it's definetly watchable to say the least... I used to BT recent HDTV grabs, and then convert to mp4, but the time it took wasn't worth the $1.99 to have Apple do it as well as I could.

Spend the $1.99 and try it, it's not that bad at all.

I want Firefly!

[Lispy]

And while youre at it, I want new episodes.

Adam-12

[MrFreak]

Wow, the entire first season of Adam-12! I've been waiting for this.

David Hasselhoff show, but not Baywatch???

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't believe it. I mean, I like Knight Rider as much as the next guy, but if I had to pick one David Hasselhoff series it would be Baywatch. Call me crazy.

Re:Important question...

[Angostura]

A quick peek at iTunes shows that it is the U.S office. Getting the UK Office would require Apple to do a deal with the BBC. And wouldn't *that* be a great day.

This will be news when...

[blinder]

... 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?

Hasselhoff?

[sczimme]

Just when you thought you'd never be able to get live action David Hasselhoff on your iPod video

s/thought/hoped

After all the years

[Southpaw018]

After all the years of insanely stupid business decisions, lagging in the markets, struggling to compete, and relying on loyal users to keep it up, look at Apple now. ITMS dominates, and it does so for the right reasons - good software, good hardware. No acts of Congress involved. Good for them.

Re:After all the years

[frank_adrian314159]

...and it does so for the right reasons - good software, good hardware.

And you even forgot the most important reason - David Hasselhoff!

Danger! Danger! Non-uniform pricing!!

[ZachPruckowski]

I'd like to point out that most of the Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien stuff is $1.99, which means it costs the same as 45 minutes of LOST. But they are selling two roughly hour-long specials from Conan for $9.99. This is a big example of non-standard pricing, and I wouldn't be suprised to see more of it in the future.

Important Add-on comment

[ZachPruckowski]

I'd like to point out that most of the Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien stuff is $1.99, which means it costs the same as 45 minutes of LOST.

The important part of that sentence is that the Leno and Conan stuff is 5-10 minutes long for the same price.

Re:Not for me.

[richdun]

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?

What Technology is Behind iTMS?

[johnthorensen]

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

Re:What Technology is Behind iTMS?

[ediron2]

The deep-down URLs in apple.com usually mention webobjects, so that's a safe bet, but nobody sane would actually run a farm of business-critical servers based on BSD. Get real. </snark>

Re:What Technology is Behind iTMS?

[amichalo]

iTunes Music Store is using Web Objects. Macworld reports in this article that it runs on Xserve and Xserve RAID and every investor knows Akamai (AKAM) is the bandwidth provider.

SD Quality Downloads

[Frobozz0]

It's Standard Definition (SD) quality television. In fact, it can look a lot better than SD if you play it through an HD set with upsampling or other quality improving technologies.

For example, I have a Sony 50" LCD Projection HDTV (Love it, BTW.) I also have a PowerBook. All I do is plug the S-Video cable from my computer to my TV and play all those episode of LOST I love. I had never seen LOST prior to downloading on iTunes, so I thought I would DL a couple and try it out. I was really impressed by the quality. It's better than a normal SD broadcast, the colors are amazing, and the compression is almost never noticable.

So, yes, I would like HD quality downloads for video (nominal charge is fine for bandwidth) and I'd like higher quality AAC's (norminal charge fine) as an option. But this is a great start and will prove the validity of the concept.

Re:Not for me.

[Hrvat]

'FairPlay' DRM? Not good. I can't play it outside iTunes.
It's an Apple service intended for video iPod users. Why would they want you to have it anywhere else?

Open and accessible store? Nope. You need iTunes which is only available for Macintosh and Windows.
Hm, Mac OS X and Windows. That covers how much market?

Compatibility with many devices? Nope. Only one: the iPod 5G.
Here's an idea. Lets build a time machine and go back and build in video functionality in the old iPods.

Well at least I can create a DVD, like iTunes lets me burn a CD with my purchased songs, right? Nope. No burning. Only playback.
Hrm. Let's see. Can you play a DVD on your iPod? No?

Well at least the new episodes of Law & Order, which are filmed in HDTV, will be shown in brilliant 1280x720 resolution, right? Nope. 320x240.
Again, you're talking about a service for the video iPod. The resolution it can display is only so high.

Good for you, Apple. Welcome to the 19th century. I'll be over here with my trusty BitTorrent client.
19th century? Wow. I guess you're trying to make your point. Yet Apple is the first company to offer something like this.

As for BitTorrent, grow up. Do you seriously expect that everyone would work for free to create these shows?
Imagine if half the audience for Lost suddenly started watching the shows only on BitTorrent. The advertisement rates for the slot would drop, creating less cash for the network and the show, probably causing the network to pull the show because it's not creating enough revenue.
That is one of the reasons I shell out $40 for the seasons worth of Battlestar Galactica. I know I can get a reasonable quality copy off BitTorrent, probably even the very same DVD images. However I'd like to see more of the show. Thus I pay some money so the actors and the crew and the network can earn some money and be encouraged to create another season.

Re:How about some free downloads too?

[RobotRunAmok]

Why not offer some episodes for free as an incentive to download the others?

Because if I'm Steve Jobs, slashdot is the first site I click each day for marketing advice.

Soon in France...

[Sylvain]

Apple was about to open the TV shows download service in France but backed out at the last minute after a market analysis showed that nobody would care unless Apple offers all seasons of MacGyver in HD.

Re:Not for me.

[danaris]

Let's get out my handy-dandy little red pen here.

Sure, let's. I'll get out my bright green pen and join you.

h.264 format? I guess that's okay.

Oh, you're too kind.

'FairPlay' DRM? Not good. I can't play it outside iTunes.

Well, actually, you can play it in QuickTime. A much better video player.

Open and accessible store? Nope. You need iTunes which is only available for Macintosh and Windows.

And...Apple should cater to the 1% of computer users who run only Linux with this why, exactly?

Compatibility with many devices? Nope. Only one: the iPod 5G.

Um, actually, it's compatible with those 99% of computers running Windows and Mac OS X.

Well at least I can create a DVD, like iTunes lets me burn a CD with my purchased songs, right? Nope. No burning. Only playback.

I'll admit that this is kind of annoying, but I have little doubt that it will change, given time. Don't forget, this is still a very new service.

Well at least the new episodes of Law & Order, which are filmed in HDTV, will be shown in brilliant 1280x720 resolution, right? Nope. 320x240.

Ah...well, you may have a nice fat OC3 to download shows on, but many (if not most) of us are still stuck on nominally 784kbps pipes, that actually turn out to be more like 80kbps most of the time if we're lucky. Oh, and most of us don't have HDTVs to watch them on, either.

Good for you, Apple. Welcome to the 19th century. I'll be over here with my trusty BitTorrent client.

And I'll be here with my copy of iTunes, watchin' the next Law & Order legally in what I, and many, many others consider to be a perfectly acceptable resolution and format, on my laptop, or maybe plug my TV into it and watch it there (it'll probably be higher quality than what comes over the cable anyway).

I think your real problem is that you are both rich and extremely myopic. You seem to think that Apple's (essentially) brand-new service should provide the absolute top-of-the-line product to be worth purchasing at all, when in reality, most people either couldn't use that product ('cause it would take them 3 days to download the file) or it wouldn't be any different, for them, than what they're getting ('cause they don't have a 60" 1080p HDTV with 9.2 ultra-surround--they have a 28" analog TV with ordinary stereo speakers).

So take a peek outside your soundproof, well-upholstered, $30,000 technological paradise and glance at the real world once in a while, and you'll see why Apple is doing this. Then stop being such a whiner.

Dan Aris