iTunes Credited with Boosting Primetime Ratings

grandgator writes "TV Week reports on NBC's claims that iTunes downloads are boosting ratings for their primetime shows. Citing one example 'NBC's "The Office" delivered a 5.1-its highest ratings ever-last Thursday among adults 18 to 49, a bump the network credits in large part to the show's popularity as an iPod download. Such a connection between podcast success and broadcast ratings success is particularly significant because the NBC data is among the first available evidence of what network executives have been gambling on when striking their new media deals-that the new video platforms are additive because they provide more entry points into a show for consumers.'"

Comments

That can't be right

[wheany]

The article must mean that the ratings have declined due to rampant piracy. Why would anyone watch something off the tv if they can pirate it from the iTunes online store.

Re:That can't be right

[jurt1235]

Yes, that was the alternative news message from the RIAA which had warned NBC for this kind of mishap. If people get a chance to review your products at their own leisure instead of in a by the RIAA dictated way, everything goes wrong. This week you think you "sell" more, but next week it is all over. Pirates will take over your channel, and you will go broke. NBC be warned, stop this while you still can, and put your other broadcasts behind DRM. People are tivoing them!

Re:That can't be right

[e2d2]

Well I can give my example why and maybe shed some light. I have an ipod video, got in not too long ago. I got it because I ride a train for about 3 hours every day total. Reading and music are fine, video is good too though. So I bought Lost season 1 from Itunes and liked it, now that I could actually tell wtf was going on. I don't watch much TV, maybe a few hours a week not including the video on the ipod. But now that I'm caught up and can understand it I watch it when it comes on. Most of my show watching happens on my ipod, but If I can watch it at home I will. So the ipod pretty much brought me to the show.

But there is one side they may not like, I love TV without commercials. So now I want a PVR to watch those shows later ad-free.

The message top content providers is clear, people will pay for ad free shows with good content. I think this is a good thing for geeks.

Re:That can't be right

[cayenne8]

"I love tv without commercials...need to get a PVR..."

So, do the tv shows you download from iTunes for the video iPod have commercials in them??

Are these the same commercials as show when it was broadcast OTA?

Interesting...I'd assumed that since you were paying for the show...it didn't have commercials.

Re:That can't be right

[natrius]

So I bought Lost season 1 from Itunes and liked it, now that I could actually tell wtf was going on.

I've been watching Lost since the beginning and I still can't tell what's going. I get pissed off every time they end an episode without explaining the freaking polar bears.

Re:That can't be right

[StikyPad]

Well, in all likelyhood I expect the ratings will go back down. What's probably happening is a blip -- those who downloaded the first part of the season now want to see the latest episode, which presumably wouldn't be available on iTunes before it aired. Once more shows are available for legal download online, I expect the ratings will settle back down, perhaps to below previous levels as people get accustomed to the concept of exclusively viewing downloaded content. Once this happens, I'm sure we'll hear executives crying foul and demanding iTunes raise its price, or some other nonsense.

Re:That can't be right

[e2d2]

No the shows I get from itunes have no commercials.

early post

[Anonymous Coward]

SUCK IT NIGGROS

I HAVE AN APPLE MAC IN MY BUTT

not AKJFIGFbb dnjosdjiosd jio jiodsjiosd uio uiosd jiosd jiods jio

podcast

[Anonymous Coward]

Speaking of The Office (original version), and iTunes. Ricky Gervais has a podcast. See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/rickygervais/

Re:podcast

[Pyf]

Yeah brilliant podcast, just like his old xfm radio show. Its the most downloaded podcast in the world now, seems like a good way to get lots of publicity for extras/office/flanimals etc....

Re:podcast

[Anonymous Coward]

Its the most downloaded podcast in the world now

it's the most popular podcast in the UK. your itunes store gives the ratings on the itunes Regional settings, not worldwide

Re:podcast

[Pyf]

No its #1 in the world, well at least thats what they say during the show.... According to iTunes its #6 in america and #1 in UK, so doesnt sound an unreasonably claim....

Re:podcast

[Anonymous Coward]

"No its #1 in the world, well at least thats what they say during the show.... "
There a few different websites that rate podcasts. Itunes is just one of them. One of the first ones to rank podcast ratings was Podcastalley.com. He isn't even in the top 50 there. He is at 70. So it really depends on what you mean by "#1". With seven episodes I doubt he is the "most downloaded" as some of the shows that have been around longer, like keithandthegirl.com have over 200 episodes.
A lot of podcasts claim they are are #1 in the world, you know what? They just *say* that. It doesn't mean anything.

Re:podcast

[FriedTurkey]

The Ricky Gervais podcast is hillarious. The whole show is Ricky making fun of Karl Pinkington who talks about the wierdest crap. Karl is like every caller to the Art Bell radio show. In Karl's world chimps are the most intelligent beings that can operate spaceships and rescue people from burning buildings. It's awesome.

Makes sence

[Aqua OS X]

Although I'm fairly disappointed in the way Apple delivers their TV content (too small, can't burn to DVD, etc), iTunes is the reason I have started to tune into shows such as The Office.

Moreover, it's the only (legal) way I can watch Battlestar Galactica on a weekly basis.

Re:Makes sence

[Professor_UNIX]

Moreover, it's the only (legal) way I can watch Battlestar Galactica on a weekly basis.

Isn't it on the Sci-Fi network? You don't have cable TV? What the heck is wrong with you? For around $50/month you get sweet digital joy delivered to your television set 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can't beat that entertainment value.

Re:Makes sence

[gmf]

Isn't it on the Sci-Fi network? You don't have cable TV? What the heck is wrong with you?

Uhm, perhaps there are places in the world where there's no sci-fi network on cable tv? Not everyone lives in the US.

Re:Makes sence

[cmdrbuzz]

True, not everyone lives in the US, however in order to be-able to purchase TV shows from iTunes, you have to have a US credit card.

Re:Makes sence

[Anonymous Coward]

What there are people living outside the US!?! Jeeez!

Re:Makes sence

[gutnor]

There are people out there that don't want to pay 50$/month for Cable TV. Or even have the TV.

I know, I don't have a TV. Most of my friends don't have a TV. I don't care paying for digital joy 24/7, I have internet and a monthly subscription to a postal dvd service, and that's enough for me. If tomorow I get bored, I would rather take WoW than TV !

However from time to time ( like for Battlestar Galactica ) I would like to be able to download 1 specific show ( .. I mean legally download .. ) without waiting 3/6 months for it to be available on DVD rental.

But anyway, I'm out of luck, there is no itune download here in the uk ...

Re:Makes sence

[oakgrove]

Maybe he is working or going to school or whatever during the timeslot it plays in.

Re:Makes sence

[Harlockjds]

in some area's sci-fi isn't a part of the basic cable package. Some people may not be willing to spend 50 bucks extra a month for jusr one show.

Or the person may work friday nights or (gasp) have a social life and not have a tivo/vcr.

I know i'm happy it's availabe on itunes since i know i'll miss it friday night but i can watch it when i get back home on sunday.

Re:Makes sence

[tkrotchko]

Can't you record it on a TV Tuner on your PC and then convert to a video to downloaded to your iPod? I think that's legal, isn't it?

Re:Makes sence

[ThePhilips]

Then they are all evil terrorist threatening U.S. liberty!!!

Lopata.

P.S. The major problem of the iTunes Store (and any subscription service for that matter) is that you have to have good internet connection. And still, video of good enough quality takes lots of space. (Think DivX or MPEG4/AVC: 10 minutes ~ 100MB or more). Even if Apple would start selling h.264 full size movie downloads - who would want to pay money for ability to kill connection for a whole day or more? With all the DRMing stuff that would be too burdensome to customer. So for now Apple decided to go with something they can fit into appropriate download size.

But on other side, this is the only option at moment. Quality streaming had proven to be undoable on internet: average (read: cheap) home connection (infamous last mile) has way too high latencies.

Re:Makes sence

[sh00z]

[snip]Or the person may work friday nights or (gasp) have a social life and not have a tivo/vcr.[/snip]

A social life is fine, but a VCR costs less than a single happy hour (at least the ones with my friends...)

Re:Makes sence

[cmpalmer]

Yes, you can do this (I've done it). The next step will be for ATI and BeyondTV and MythTV to support the iPod video format as a native recording format so we don't have to convert the recorded video. Actually, I think iTunes or QTPro will convert any Quicktime movie to iPod format semi-automatically. Unfortunately, I currently use Beyond TV for my TV tuner and it won't save as Quicktime (just WMV and mpeg2).

Legal? Probably not in the strictest definition, but no different than a VCR or DVD recorder (unless you are uploading your results)...

Re:Makes sence

[poot_rootbeer]

fairly disappointed in the way Apple delivers their TV content (too small, can't burn to DVD, etc)

I thought iTunes movies were standard MPEG-4 Quicktime files. Why can't they be burned to DVD? Is Fairplay copy protection involved?

(Although at QVGA resolution, there's the question of why you would WANT to burn iTunes video content to DVD...)

Re:Makes sence

[Anonymous Coward]

too small, can't burn to DVD, etc

Ah, but you can, in recent versions of iTunes, stream video, through the usual sharing interface. This was added silently in 6.0.1, or 6.0.2, and is probably the single most obvious sign that a video-capable AirPort Express or similar is on the way. This pretty much removes the need for DVD burning for most people.

Re:Makes sence

[Smurf]

Actually, I think iTunes or QTPro will convert any Quicktime movie to iPod format semi-automatically. Unfortunately, I currently use Beyond TV for my TV tuner and it won't save as Quicktime (just WMV and mpeg2).

AFAIK, QT Pro will allow you to export any format that the QuickTime Player will read into an iPod-friendly format. This includes any format that can be opened using a 3rd party extension, like DivX, 3ivX, some AVI, and (drums rolling...) WMV and MPEG-2.

Unfortunately, i believe the free version of Flip4Mac doesn't allow you to save the audio track, so you may have to pay for the $29 version which may spoil the fun for you. On the MPEG-2 side of things, Apple charges for the MPEG-2 extensions for QT, but I'm not sure about the price.

Re:Makes sence

[Atario]

Jonathan Green? Is that you?

Re:Makes sence

[Squirrelgirl]

iSquint for MacOS X on www.versiontracker.com takes almost any video format (including WMV if you have Flip4Mac $29) and convert to iPod Video format. And its free. Doesn't need QTPro or the MPEG addon.

Re:Makes sence

[Squirrelgirl]

There are tools out there that does MPEG2 -> iPod conversion. Even free tools. Or any tool that exports to mp4 or h264 and lets you rescale the movie to 320x240 will do it.

Re:Makes sence

[cmpalmer]

I shouldn't have included the link to what I used: http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/

Obvious

[Anonymous Coward]

*Gasp* *Shock* *Horror* Do you really mean that if you give the viewers what they want, they will be happy? No way, I don't believe you!

iTunes Payola

[capt.Hij]

How long will it now take before we start seeing iTunes Payola. Networks eager to get their shows on people's ipods will certainly be tempted to try to strike special deals to make their shows more easily obtainable. They may try to offer Apple cash, try to reduce the cost to consumers, or try to find ways to get their links on the front page. If it happens, can an individual state try to take action against the practice? This may turn out to be another interesting episode of the theatre of greed.

Re:iTunes Payola

[heatdeath]

Networks eager to get their shows on people's ipods will certainly be tempted to try to strike special deals to make their shows more easily obtainable

This makes no sense. People aren't going to browse iTunes looking for good TV shows to watch. They're going to download the shows that they missed. This makes the series more watchable, because missing a single episode doesn't ruin the plot. (It also makes it more portable)

But, your scenario you described is silly. You fail.

Re:iTunes Payola

[damsa]

I already saw this episode on Office. It's the Christmas party where everybody wants the iPod.

Re:iTunes Payola

[gnasher719]

'' How long will it now take before we start seeing iTunes Payola. Networks eager to get their shows on people's ipods will certainly be tempted to try to strike special deals to make their shows more easily obtainable. They may try to offer Apple cash, try to reduce the cost to consumers, or try to find ways to get their links on the front page. ''

It might happen, but it won't be as bad as on radio. On the radio, if they pay, you can hear it, if they don't pay, you can't hear it. On iTunes, what would happen: If they pay, it is advertised big on page 1. If they don't pay, it is still there on page 3 or 4.

Re:iTunes Payola

[yotto]

Wait, you're mad that televisions executives would dare to LOWER THE PRICE in order to increase downloads of their shows? Are you insane?

Lower the price all you want, television executives! Make BSG episodes available at 10c each!

Next, you'll complain that Fox will start rebroadcasting Firefly in order to trick you into watching their channel again.

Re:iTunes Payola

[TobascoKid]

Networks eager to get their shows on people's ipods will certainly be tempted to try to strike special deals to make their shows more easily obtainable.

They could just put downloadble copies on thier own websites, already in downloadable in an iPod friendly file for free. Channel 4 in the UK are going to do something with the launch of the IT Crowd - while that looks like it'll be streamed instead of downloaded, it's only a matter of time before they start making downloads of programmes available in order to drum up interest. As long as watching video on an iPod is not as good as watching it on the small screen (or should that now be called the the medium screen) it'll be a great marketting tool to sell the broadcast.

Re:iTunes Payola

[RockModeNick]

Damn homemade ovenmitt!

Re:iTunes Payola

[timster]

People aren't going to browse iTunes looking for good TV shows to watch.

On the contrary, it's one of the best ways to try out new TV shows. You are feeling bored on a Sunday afternoon so you browse for something that looks interesting and sink $2 on the first episode. If you like it you watch more, and if you don't you aren't out much.

Contrast to conventional TV, where if you want to try a show you have to figure out when it is on and arrange to be at a TV at that particular time -- and forget about starting from the beginning.

Re:iTunes Payola

[sh00z]

The networks wouldn't have to fall to the level of payola; they just have to be willing to forego some profit. There's been one episode of (NBC-owned) USA Network's "Monk" offered for free, just last week. That got it boosted right to the front page of the iTunes store. The FA doesn't mention it, but I'd want to see if the ratings for "Monk" went up. (I've never watched the show. I downloaded, but have not watched the free episode.)

Re:iTunes Payola

[Peter Bonte]

If it brings down the price for a download its good, i think Apple will promote value for money on its front page more than the expensive series. Apple doesn't allow adds in the series and won't let them pay for front page exposure (see iTunes music) but will embrace cheaper episodes, maybe even occasional free content to promote the networks.

Re:iTunes Payola

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

How long will it now take before we start seeing iTunes Payola.

That is a good question. So far, however, Apple deserves our admiration for not giving in to this temptation. Many people assumed that Apple would do this very thing with music, it was/is common practice on the radio. Even with the majority of the music download market they have not showed any preferential treatment.

If network executives have even half a brain (which is doubtful) they will be working on deals to offer a few free episodes of all their current and back shows. People need a way to find shows they like and this is one of the easiest ways to advertise them. It makes a lot of sense for them to pay Apple the cost of the hosting and downloads, just for the advertising it will provide. And the first one to complete a deal will see the biggest bump, since free shows on itunes will be major news and a lot of people will grab something, just to see if it is good.

Re:iTunes Payola

[cmpalmer]

Actualy, with product placement like that, the Christmas episode should have been a free download...

Re:iTunes Payola

[ostermei]

How long will it now take before we start seeing iTunes Payola. Networks eager to get their shows on people's ipods will certainly be tempted to try to strike special deals to make their shows more easily obtainable. They may try to offer Apple cash, try to reduce the cost to consumers, or try to find ways to get their links on the front page.

This is certainly one of the most idiotic things I've seen posted on /. (which is saying quite a bit ;) Payola is defined (per Wikipedia) as "the illegal practice of record companies paying money for the broadcast of records on music radio [...], if the song is presented as being part of the normal day's broadcast." iTunes does not broadcast music (or in this case, TV shows), so right there your argument falls apart. But allow me to continue picking at it. On the radio, you can only hear whatever song the radio has chosen to play at that moment; if the record companies are paying the radio station under the table to alter what the radio station would normally have played, that's a problem. With iTunes, YOU choose what gets played, so the problem can't exist. What you're talking about is just standard advertising. It's like when you go to Barnes & Noble and there are stacks upon stacks of the new Tom Clancy novel on the table directly inside the front door. B&N didn't choose to put it there on their own: the publisher paid for that spot. There's nothing shady about this... if you aren't interested in the book (or in the case of iTunes: song/TV show), don't look at (listen/watch) it!

Re:iTunes Payola

[porcupine8]

*shrug* I downloaded an episode of Monk because it was free, and I'd heard good things about the show from a friend. I've never actually watched it myself, don't even get whatever cable channel it airs on, and would never have d/led the episode if it hadn't been the free one of the week or whatever.

Sometimes, when you make things easily accessible, people *will* just grab it for the heck of it.

(I haven't actually gotten around to watching the episode I downloaded... but I'm sure I'll be bored someday and watch it.)

Re:iTunes Payola

[DECS]

Payola is the "corruption" of pimping out the finite timeslots available in a broadcast to play the songs you're paid to play, rather than playing songs that are picked by (i guess) virtue or popularity, and then making it look like the "ad" you just played was not really an ad.

In the case of iTunes, there is infinite (or at least no scarcity) of presentation - you can put up links to buy any songs you want. Also, there is no charade of presenting the music promotion as something other than music promotion.

Re:iTunes Payola

[naoursla]

Or even worse they might start producing better shows that more people want to see. Those no good deceiving dirty deceivers.

Re:iTunes Payola

[supersocialist]

Early Monk is better. It's gotten absurd, lately. Very contrived.

Re:iTunes Payola

[maxpublic]

and arrange to be at a TV at that particular time

There's this new-fangled device called the "VCR" you might try looking into. Not only can you watch the show whenever you want, you can skip right past the commercials!

Max

Re:iTunes Payola

[timster]

Right, so I'm feeling bored on a Sunday afternoon, as we said. How is this "VCR" going to deliver content to me? I hear you can't even get one with an Ethernet port!

Like most Americans, I will not be purchasing a VCR in the future; it is a colossally useless device. It never worked right with cable, and besides, it's really quite a pain to use. Why muck about with a remote and a 1-line LCD display when I can just point and click? $2 barely buys a Coke these days, you know.

Re:iTunes Payola

[maxpublic]

Like most Americans, I will not be purchasing a VCR in the future; it is a colossally useless device.

What the hell are you talking about? You set the timer to record the shows you want when they air, then watch them whenever you want, skipping by the commercials while you do so. Better yet you don't have to play "uber-geek" with computer/TV connections, nor do you have to watch the show sans couch on your LCD screen. It's about as simple as it gets.

Max

Re:iTunes Payola

[timster]

Really, I should ask what the hell YOU are talking about. I mention that the service under discussion gives me the power to pick a random TV show on a whim and watch the first episode (or any other episode) on-demand. You bring up the VCR, which does not have these features. Yes, the VCR allows me to pick a TV show and watch an episode of it at a later convenient time, but I am still subject to the network's schedule; I don't get to pick the episode, and it won't be delivered to my VCR until it is aired (which could be a week after I decided that I wanted to see it). You have not addressed the original situation, which is "I am bored on a Sunday afternoon", except by suggesting that I go play with my VCR and daydream about the TV shows I'll get to watch someday.

Besides, I'll watch the show on my computer screen, which is reasonably nice, and from my computer chair, which is frankly more comfortable than my sofa. If I like the show, then I would figure out its schedule and set events in motion so that I could watch it on TV. I wouldn't use a VCR, though, as it appears that the networks do not generally show great TV during the middle of the day when I would be at work.

Re:iTunes Payola

[Anonymous Coward]

And what, pray tell, is wrong with payola?

iTunes video store implementation for Linux?

[Debian Troll's Best]

Normally I'm a pretty hardcore Debian user, but at my current contract job at a fairly major publishing house, I've been dealing with quite a lot of Mac systems. While OS X still has a ways to go before I would consider replacing my trusty Debian desktop, things like iTunes Music Store (iTMS) and the relatively recent addition of iTunes music videos and TV downloads really make the switch worth considering. But if only iTMS could come to Debian!!! While writing a little multithreaded print workflow app in AppleScript for the client, I struck upon an idea: what if I could expose the functions of iTunes using AppleScript in a client/server type arrangement, and then make those functions accessible across the network to a Debian system running a modified dselect iTunes browser? AppleScript is pretty powerful, as any seasoned Mac user will attest, so it was quick work to create a handy little mutithreaded fully re-entrant AppleScript based server for the core iTunes functions (load song, play song, browse playlist, buy song, video clip etc). The next part was to patch dselect on the Linux side so it could connect to my AppleScript server/wrapper on the Mac. I'd previously extended dselect with a Scheme-scriptable plugin, so it only took me a day or two to modify dselect with some Scheme macros so that it emulated to look and feel of iTunes (using ASCII art of course!!), but accessing the actual iTMS functions though the network exposed AppleScript..errr..script. It worked a treat!! It is now a simple matter of running dselect on my Debian box to browse the iTMS, as long as the Mac over in the corner running the AppleScript wrapper is turned on of course. I have actually implemented a direct USB->USB cross over connection to get around bottlenecking problems with our Ethernet so I don't have to put up with skipping in iTMS MP3 or MPEG4 video playback. Now it works great!!! The final step will be to patch apt-get with iTMS interface functionality...then buying my favorite music and TV shows legally will only be an apt-get install Justin-Timberlake or apt-get upgrade Desperate-Housewives away! Which is nice.

first post

[Anonymous Coward]

to claim first post

Re:first post

[Anonymous Coward]

damn, how did I get rated offtopic in like 1 second. does it automatically screen for "first post"?

Paying for TV is for morons

[Anonymous Coward]

Who in their right mind would pay for television episode downloads? IRC and Bittorrent has these episodes in glorious XVid format without the bullshit commercials.
Try:
http://www.ircklipper.info/search.php?Description= the+office
http://www.mininova.org/search/?search=the+office

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[Aqua OS X]

Well, iTunes shows also lack commercials and also go online the very next day. But these are legal and download a hell of a lot faster then they would on BT.

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[random_culchie]

Maybe people that don't want cobbled together rips of differing quality.

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[tbone1]

Who in their right mind would pay for television episode downloads? IRC and Bittorrent has these episodes in glorious XVid format without the bullshit commercials.

Um, it could be that some people believe in paying for something that isn't theirs, and that they may perceive IRC and Bittorrent to be stealing? I know, these wacky oldsters with their fax machines and hula hoops and libertarian ideas about property rights ...

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, iTunes shows also lack commercials

Yeah, but is it in HDTV aspect?

and also go online the very next day.

TVTorrents and BitMeTv usually have The Office posted within 4-5 hours after air.

But these are legal

Your laws don't apply to me.

and download a hell of a lot faster then they would on BT.

Bittorrent is all about the upstream. Your download speed is affected by upstream bandwidth. It's your problem if your American broadband connection can't keep up.

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[BenjyD]

And presumably, if everyone did that, the money to make shows like The Office would magically appear in the networks' bank accounts? Another case of an "I'm special, it's OK if I break the law or behave immorally" fallacy.

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[Freexe]

Are you sure? I can download through bittorrent at about 1.3MBytes/s and most content servers max out at 500KBytes/s.
Saying that, I would be happy paying for TV shows/Films if the quality is high and the DRM is acceptable, but no such service exists (I pay for all my music at emusic.com which has no DRM and the bitrates are fair), until then I will download my TV shows for free.

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[meringuoid]

I know, these wacky oldsters with their fax machines and hula hoops and libertarian ideas about property rights ...

Libertarians support government-enforced monopolies restricting certain forms of speech for corporate profit? Interesting.

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[Anonymous Coward]

What's a hula hoop?

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[Anonymous Coward]

Would you please tell me then how this differs when I fire up my replaytv and skip through commericals? I start watching shows(if I can watch them when they air) 15 minutes after they start JUST so I can do this. Tell me PLEASE how this differs from me downloading them without commericals(other than the process of course).

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[Anonymous Coward]

Honest people who believe in rewarding the creators of quality programmes.

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[forgotten_my_nick]

You pay for basic cable no?

Although your actions is why a lot of TV shows now have blatant product placement within them and some are just adverts in disguise.

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[BenjyD]

It's not that different: if everyone did that, commercial TV would either die or find alternatives, such as product placements, adverts spliced more closely into the shows or going subscription-based. We have another alternative here (UK) of state-funded, advert-free TV.

That said, it is clearly more wrong to illegaly download copies of shows, when there is a legal alternative which provides the makers of the show with income, than it is to skip the adverts electronically. At present, advertisers know that most people don't watch the adverts very much anyway, which is why they go out of their way to make them grab attention - loud, bright, odd, funny etc.

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[Shihar]

No, it isn't for morons. It is for people who don't steal and (far more importantly) people who don't have time to waste looking for a bit torrent link that works and is offering something of quality.

The other Friday I missed Battlestar Galactica. Sure, I could have done what I used to do was the fuck around with BT to get it. Instead though, I just threw them 2 bucks, which for a guy with a job is nothing, and got a good quality version without any hassle.

Hell, the reason why I will pay for a TV show is the same reason why I will pay for a videogame. First, I don't want to be a douche and not give the people who made it their due. Second, it is just a hell of a lot easier to simply buy what you want then to screw around trying to download it.

At this point, the only thing I am waiting for now is for all TV programming to be offered free, any time, but with commercials. It is down right archaic that I need to be in front of the television at a certain time to watch a show. I should be able to watch it whenever I damn well please with commercials. Just disable the fastforward function while viewing commercials and you have something as good as normal TV.

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, I think that you don't know what the word "liberterian" means. Look it up in a dictionary sometime before you make a fool of yourself again.

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[Deliveranc3]

"download a hell of a lot faster then they would on BT"

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[ElectroBot]

Except that of the 6.4 billion people on the planet, only about 280 million have access to TV Shows on iTunes (less than 5%). The US iTunes Store is the only country to have deals with the TV networks to allow tv shows being sold through iTunes.

So d/l'ing the program through P2P or Bit Torrent, rather than taping it on VHS doesn't seem wrong to me. I'm not profiting from it and I delete the program after I've watched it.


[offtopic]

BTW. I absolutely hate commercials. - There's a scene in one of the early Futurama episodes where Fry has a commercial implanted into one of his dreams and the other crew members ask him how prevalent commercials were back in the 20th century. He answers by listing all the ways except in dreams. Other than dreams, there are still places that commercials aren't: underwater and space. If they (corporations) try to get space "banners" that cover up our view of stars, they'll see backlash and possibly the first case of space vandalism.

[/offtopic]

Re:Paying for TV is for morons

[Aqua OS X]

Ya, but if your upstream sucks, as it does with a LOT of US broadband connections, then your download speed is limited by BT.
I can download at about 1200Kps, but I can only upload at about 300Kps.

It takes me hours to download a show on BT. I can watch a show off iTunes in a mater of minutes.

Wish I could say I predicted this...

[jcr]

But all I can say is that it doesn't surprise me at all.

When the video is available from iTMS, it's uncoupled from the network schedule. You can send an episode to a friend as a gift. You can buy one show and see whether you want any more, and the critical thing is, you can watch it anytime you want. It's a whole new ball game.

-jcr

Re:Wish I could say I predicted this...

[stunt_penguin]

You missed one point, it should also have been done years ago, is the way of the future. Hope the RIAA are listeining, the tossers.

Re:Wish I could say I predicted this...

[Dachannien]

When the video is available from BitTorrent, it's uncoupled from the network schedule. You can send an episode to a friend (or a total stranger) as a gift. You can download one show and see whether you want any more, and the critical thing is, you can watch it anytime you want. It's a whole old ball game.

Re:Wish I could say I predicted this...

[jcr]

The difference being that when you do so with iTMS, you're not running the risk of getting busted.

-jcr

Re:Wish I could say I predicted this...

[Hadlock]

...and that it only takes 15-30 minutes tops to download, and you don't feel guilty about only having a download ratio of 0.64, since your ISP throttles the hell out of your down speed if you UL any more than 8.5kb/s

Re:Wish I could say I predicted this...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey Jackoff, the RIAA did it first, it is the iTunes MUSIC Store after all.

Re:Wish I could say I predicted this...

[Dachannien]

The point, of course, is that people have been doing for years the same thing that video on iTMS lets them do. Why should "piracy" of TV shows have a negative impact on viewership when downloading episodes from iTMS evidently has a positive impact?

Re:Wish I could say I predicted this...

[SteeldrivingJon]

But iTunes is more convenient.

I tried BitTorrent, and didn't find it particularly easy to use to find and download something I wanted. Perhaps I missed a key piece of information, but there you go. And I'm speaking as someone who has configured UUCP and sendmail.

I'm sure that people with the right connections, who have good sources of information about torrents, who are plugged into the 'torrent culture' find BitTorrent convenient, but it's not exactly ideal for the casual computer user.

The other advantage of iTunes (for the casual user) is that the video itself is ready-to-play with the software you have. It's not done with some codec that you may or may not have installed.

It's obvious!

[heatdeath]

Before, I had to watch TV for free on that terrifying screen that was so easy on my eyes. Now I can pay money to watch it on a tiny screen that I have to hold in a viewable position for 40 consecutive minutes.

No wonder video iPods are such a hit.

Re:It's obvious!

[uonuoha]

Yah... but now I can use the extra 20 minutes to do barbell curls...

Re:It's obvious!

[peragrin]

Or you can get a clue and join the real world.

I wanted to see how it was so I downloaded the free battlestar galatica season opener special. I played it on my TV just fine and it looked just like the regular shows. Other than the fact it was commercial free and I could pause it at will.

So i downloaded the season 2 and every night for 4 nights I watched 2-3 episodes to get the season i missed. Now I can watch the new episodes without having missed anything.

On my TV downstairs on the couch. I do wish HD was an option but that's okay for $2 I can watch it when i want to without interruption.

What I want to know though is is apple selling more quicktime pro licenses. It's the only way to get good fullscreen viewing of protected content. I wish mplayer would work but it doesn't.

Re:It's obvious!

[MBCook]

There is a tiny applescript that you can use to make QuickTime Player go fullscreen. You just launch your file, hit pause, then run the script. It works just fine.

tell application "QuickTime Player"
present front movie scale screen
end tell

(Normally that second line would be indented)

Re:It's obvious!

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, Quicktime is multi-platform. Is there any way to do this on anything other than a Mac?

Re:It's obvious!

[mkw87]

I wish mplayer would work but it doesn't.

Have you tried quick time alternate?? I dont know if the codec for it is any different than just using mplayer with the regular quicktime installation or not...

Re:It's obvious!

[clifyt]

"What I want to know though is is apple selling more quicktime pro licenses. It's the only way to get good fullscreen viewing of protected content."

Actually iTunes has a feature that will play the protected content in full screen WITHOUT QTPro.

Its in the preferences...I found it just recently...it might be under Videos or Advanced. I can say I was 'midly' miffed that after two months of paying for QTPro6 an automatic update grabbed QT7 and disabled the standard full screen option (Yeah I know I can disable the mac updates -- but I like the idea that its there more often than not -- probably because I administer a few dozen PCs and servers at work and its a force of habit :-)

Re:It's obvious!

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Its in the preferences...I found it just recently...it might be under Videos or Advanced.

Inded, you are Rignt. Here it is:
Edit->Preferences. Select Playback tab. Check "Play videos" at the bottom, in the drop-down box pick "full screen".

Re:It's obvious!

[Golias]

What I want to know though is is apple selling more quicktime pro licenses. It's the only way to get good fullscreen viewing of protected content. I wish mplayer would work but it doesn't.

Why are you playing them with a different application at all. You're already right there in iTunes, which can play any format QT can play, and do so in full-screen mode.

I've even started using iTunes as my default media player for all my video files, including the Doctor Who bootlegs I scored off the newsgroups. It works great, keeps my stuff organized, and is relatively remote-control friendly.

Re:It's obvious!

[sh00z]

Why would you be running anything other than a Mac? Or, alternatively, when is Windows going to be scriptable?

Re:It's obvious!

[Anonymous Coward]

Or you can drag the file on top of your applescript.

I still think it's completely bizarre that OS X comes with all sorts of very nice software, but they pull this shareware crap when it comes to Quicktime.

Re:It's obvious!

[Glsai]

Thanks for posting this, and I know it probably wasn't your intention, but I just thought of the perfect way to get the downloaded episodes onto DVD. DVD Recorders. I just got one for Christmas, now instead of having to go to my brother's house to watch Battlestar Galactica (I cancelled everything on my cable that wasn't local channels as it was too expensive), I can just hook up my DVD Recorder to the TV-Out on my video card. Assuming the resolution is equal to my crappy POS cable DVR I'll be really happy :) I'll just have to do a test on that. and hopefully one of the solutions below for getting the video into full screen will help.

Re:It's obvious!

[Graymalkin]

Beeecause they have to pay people like Sorenson for use of their codecs. Remember not all of the codecs in Quicktime are developed by Apple, several are licensed from third parties (QualComm, QDesign, Sorenson). Quicktime Player doesn't need a paid license to view the content in a window but to encode that video or play it full screen the license agreements likely require a fee.

Re:It's obvious!

[Redundant offtopic t]

This analog hole for video works fine. Because my brother doesn't have broadband, I made him a dvd of what he's missing. I made an itunes playlist of the pixar shorts, a few music videos, and some video casts (tikibar tv). Set itunes to play full screen, record/play. The quality is better than the 320x240 spec would suggest. Like a decent video tape recording, I'd say. Looks better on my tv than on my laptop, actually.

Re:It's obvious!

[Anonymous Coward]

> It's the only way to get good fullscreen viewing

The fullscreen button in iTunes requires QuickTime Pro?

Re:It's obvious!

[MBCook]

I agree. That is the one thing that bugged me when I bought my Mac about a year ago. It is a great computer. But here I laid down $x000 to buy a new top of the line Mac. I got OS X. I got iLife. I got tons of other software.

And a demo for QuickTime, which would have cost $30.

I wouldn't have cared if they gave me a full version and upped the price of the computer by $30. And I bought a top of the line PowerBook too. I understand on an iMac or Mac Mini or something. But I bought something in their professional line. I should have gotten QuickTime with my computer.

Re:It's obvious!

[peragrin]

There are several Free shows available to test your idea's out with.

As the other poster said this works fine.

Normal TV's are like 720x520 or something like that. soa a 320x240 video looks no worse than regular TV if it is of high enough quailty. I sometimes use my powerbook as a dvd player too. It works fine as long as you watch the various resolutions.

Re:It's obvious!

[Anonymous Coward]

QuickTime is entirely free for everyone. It is just the Player which requires a serial number for part of the functionality. You're free to use another application.
The reason the Pro version is not free is that codec licensors force this model onto Apple. They're not happy with it either.

There are of course other options. It is probably not illegal in most countries to use a serial number which was obtained through another method which is, well, less pricy than Apple's.

Re:It's obvious!

[grrrl]

Or click on the video playing in the bottom left corner, then press Cmd-F for full screen

Re:It's obvious!

[grrrl]

I've even started using iTunes as my default media player for all my video files, including the Doctor Who bootlegs I scored off the newsgroups. It works great, keeps my stuff organized, and is relatively remote-control friendly.

At first I did this as well, but I found that I couldn't keep track of what was ipod-friendly, and I'd always get error messages when syncing my pod for the movies/shows that were in DivX or whatever. Also I ran out of HDD space.

Even with a reasonably large movie/TV collection I find iTunes just isn't the best way to organise, esp since you need to change the "ID3" (are they still called that for movies?) tags in order to get some logical Finder storage and readable file names.

Re:It's obvious!

[Golias]

I have no video-playing iPod, so the issue you are talking about isn't present for me.

I've actually found it a FANTASTIC way to organize my shows. You know that you can edit multiple tags at once, right? Also, you can organize them within iTunes without moving them into your Music folder. All my video files are on external hard drives, with iTunes simply pointing at them. It works like a champ.

Re:It's obvious!

[Golias]

Oh, one more thing. There are any of a number of ways you can separate out the iPod friendly files from the rest. Perhaps the "Grouping" tag would be a good one for that. Or you could add a "genre" and call it "iPod movies." The column display in iTunes is flexible enough that it's actually very easy to break off a group of anything you like.

Spell check on isle CLUELESS

[Anonymous Coward]

Senseless but true

Re:Spell check on isle CLUELESS

[Anonymous Coward]

Spell check on isle CLUELESS

That's spelled "aisle" not "isle", you dickless cumguzzler!

Re:Spell check on isle CLUELESS

[Anonymous Coward]

Its possible the GP was referring to a small island and simply got his idioms mixed up. Perhaps english is not a first language for him/her.

If Only...

[Placebo Messiah]

...Fox would have pulled their collective heads out of their universal ass before they cancelled Arrested Development and podcasted it to supplement the ratings.

Re:If Only...

[damsa]

Fox does free podcasts, you can download your favorite episode of Arrested Development free of DRM.

http://www.fox.com/foxcast/

Re:If Only...

[Placebo Messiah]

um there's only 26 episodes there

Re:If Only...

[damsa]

I think, having the past 1.5 seasons on is pretty reasonable. It's free, there is no video. I don't understand the troll mod. You asked for Arrested Development podcasts, and I linked it. Oh well.

Re:If Only...

[IRNI]

yeah nice. audio only casts with a guy describing an episode to you. how entertaining.

Re:If Only...

[damsa]

I swear, they had audio of the TV show. I guess I was wrong. It's some dude describing the show.

Re:If Only...

[bloodstains]

If only Fox would have pulled their collective heads out of their universal ass before they cancelled Arrested Development and podcasted it to supplement the ratings.

Just because music or videos are sold through iTMS does not make them podcasts. A podcast is something very specific, and is not even related to Apple, Mac's, iPods, or iTunes, other than the fact that you have the option of using said technology to listen to them.

Re:If Only...

[IANAAC]

I can't remember where I read it, but 20th Century Fox figured they could make more money off the show by selling it to Showtime. And with it's 4.something million viewers it would be Showtime's number 1 hit.

Re:If Only...

[Placebo Messiah]

What are you talking about?

"very specific"

did you even read the definition of a podcast? What's your reply got to do with my post or the parent?
Are you confused about podcasts of video content?

Are you trying to turn this into some kind of fruity catfight about the semantics of a podcast?

enthrall me with your acumen

Re:If Only...

[Placebo Messiah]

yesterday's rumormill suggested that wasn't gonna happen

let's hope it was just a rumor

Re:If Only...

[bloodstains]

Specifically "A podcast is a web feed of audio or video files placed on the Internet for anyone to subscribe to."

The reason I replied was that you seemed to be confused about how videos are delivered through iTMS. Perhaps I was mistaken to assume that you meant Arrested Development should be made available through iTMS, but since TFA was referring to NBC's The Office, available though iTMS I don't think this is an unfair assumption, and since iTMS does not offer show subscriptions they do not fall under the realm of "podcasting"

Re:If Only...

[Placebo Messiah]

ok,

I see where you're coming from, however the TFA also used the word podcast

Re:If Only...

[Anonymous Coward]

Just interjecting here, but TFA was written by a journalist. It's very rare to encounter a journalist who doesn't use technical buzzwords incorrectly, because they're primarily a journalist - not a technophile.

Yes, TFA used the term incorrectly. And you repeated that incorrect statement. Now I'm not going to go off into a long flame on whether you knew it was the wrong term or not, but if you call a red wall "blue", and the next guy repeats what you say, it doesn't matter that the first guy said it was blue - they're still both wrong.

Re:If Only...

[Placebo Messiah]

if you get enough people to believe in the blue wall, I don't see the problem

d-_-b

Wait a while, the thrill will be gone and back to

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait a while, the thrill will be gone and back to the ratings slump go the networks. What do you really expect? Lousy shows with the most ridiculous looking people (the "actors" from LA are freaks!), will, as always, get viewers to do other things. Yeah, right, I want to watch freakin' TV $how on a midget-sized picture. Once was new. Twice was stupid. The third time I won't let happen.

Mass media entertainment to the rescue?

[wing03]

I suppose at its best, you could have a world where people get out of their cars, saving the air, and use the travel time on public transit to do their TV watching.

At its worst, there'll be alot of iPod video junkies strung out waiting for their next hit.

TV anywhere and everywhere, the new opiate for the masses.

Re:Mass media entertainment to the rescue?

[adawg]

Luddite! That's what people said about the original walkman.

Re:Mass media entertainment to the rescue?

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Let me put on my tinfoil hat... ah, there. Didn't you know that television is one of the best ways to control large numbers of people? Most people spend years of their lives doing nothing but watching TV. If you watch for two hours a day for forty years, and 2 hours is NOT a stretch for most people, you've literally wasted 3.3 years of your life....

When watching TV, you're barely thinking beyond reacting to the stimuli in front of you (laugh, cry, cheer, etc).

Re:Mass media entertainment to the rescue?

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"TV anywhere and everywhere, the new opiate for the masses."

That's amusing coming from a guy posting on Slashdot.

Re:Mass media entertainment to the rescue?

[wing03]

That's amusing coming from a guy posting on Slashdot.

Indeed...

But damnnit! I've got mod points but can't use 'em here since I'm the OP.

a good start

[BobWeiner]

If more shows migrate towards iTunes I may just wind up cancelling my basic cable. I don't watch much television - I'd prefer paying for shows I like (without ads) a la carte. The Office "Christmas Party" episode was my first video purchase online. Quality overall is pretty good, too.

Good for The Office, good (?) for NBC

[fighthairloss]

I'm glad to see the success of The Office online. Overall, I suppose NBC (or whoever made the decision within NBC to iTunes-enable their primetime) should be congratulated for their forsight.

A few things I wonder about though:

1. now that NBC's taken this (presumably risky, in their minds) step in new-fangled distribution, and now that they've seen some early signs of success, will they now believe they invented this new medium and start demanding higher pricing, forced purchase of "blocks" of episodes, or -gasp- more DRM restrictions from Jobs & co?

2. Does anyone know the story behind NBC's decision to go iTunes in the first place? I'm just guessing here, but I'm thinking there was a rebel executive somewhere who had to do jump through hoops to convince management that this was a good choice. Of course, that just might be jaded old me predisposed to think the worst of labels and studios based on their traditional less-than-progressive stances on anything that challenges their conventional wisdom.

3. I wonder at what point is it financially worth it for a studio to produce a "TV" show and sell it exclusively off-air. For example, Arrested Development is one of the most brilliant shows to come on in years, but it's doing rather poorly in viewer ratings. Conceivably, if it sold on iTunes, and DVD & iTunes sales were strong enough, would a studio ever have enough balls to make a TV show that wasn't distributed on TV?

Re:Good for The Office, good (?) for NBC

[Anonymous Coward]

2. Does anyone know the story behind NBC's decision to go iTunes in the first place? I'm just guessing here, but I'm thinking there was a rebel executive somewhere who had to do jump through hoops to convince management that this was a good choice.

I don't know about NBC, but at the TV company I work for the executives do see the writing on the wall (BitTorrent et al. scarred the hell out of them) and are looking at ways of tapping into the onine market. So I doubt NBC management need much convincing - if anything the directive to find the best way to tackle the online world came from them.

Re:Good for The Office, good (?) for NBC

[TobascoKid]

Conceivably, if it sold on iTunes, and DVD & iTunes sales were strong enough, would a studio ever have enough balls to make a TV show that wasn't distributed on TV?

Seeing as the studios make straight to syndication series, then one could assume that if the iTunes & DVD market grew large enough, then they probably would start taking the risks. I suppose it would follow a similar format to what happens now - if enough people watch the pilot (which I bet for dramas would be more like made for tv movies), then they'd make the series.

Re:Good for The Office, good (?) for NBC

[adamcr]

ABC (owned by Disney, who through Pixar has a relationship with Steve Jobs) was the first to offer TV video content on the iTMS. This is pure speculation, but I'm guessing either:

a) during negotiations--before the video store was unvieled--Apple told NBC that they were talking to other networks, and they might want to get onboard early.

b) after NBC saw what ABC/Disney had done, they figured they'd better get into the ballgame.

However it happened, I'm sure they're glad they took the leap.

Re:Good for The Office, good (?) for NBC

[warsql]

will they now believe they invented this new medium and start demanding higher pricing

Call me naive, but if the distribution is helping ratings, wouldn't they be more likey to lower prices. After all, they make their money based on ratings.

Re:Good for The Office, good (?) for NBC

[naoursla]

No. They will charge as much as the market will bear.

and it's HORRIBLE

[Anonymous Coward]

have you actually listened to this big steaming pile of crap? It's horrible. Ricky and two of his mates sitting in a studio and saying whatever comes into their minds. It's not funny and it's not insightful. It's HORRIBLE. He's cashing in (it's sponsored by the Guardian) and you can tell he has absolutely no enthusiasm for it.

Re:and it's HORRIBLE

[Placebo Messiah]

You're clearly as deep as a gob of spit Karl is a comedic genius I've listened to each one of their episodes, and it's fairly evident only one of them was slightly weaker than the others and that probably had something to do with the podcast being recorded on Jan 1st after the party. Seriously you post anonymously because you know your sterilized obsession with Fraser and Astroboy reruns is pure donkylingus that obscures your judgement towards quality entertainment *kisses*

Re:and it's HORRIBLE

[Pyf]

Being that you asked I feel I should as well....Have you even listened to it? Cashing in, ie getting paid for doing it? Its a very similar style to his old radio show which he did for 4 years. If thats says he's got no enthusiasm for it, the fact he acts in a very similar way to how he did when he interviewed Larry David might. During which he could only be described as acting like a giddy school girl. The one question I have though, is why is it the Ricky Gervais Podcast, not the Karl Pilkington Podcast.... :)

Re:and it's HORRIBLE

[stoney27]

oh Chimpanzee that Monkey News....

Well if it is so horrible why does it have such a high rating. I don't think the anonymous Coward gets the humor. The stuff that comes out of Karl, one of Ricky's friends, is unbelievable.

Too bad it seems that Ricky is only going to do 12 podcasts.

-S

Re:and it's HORRIBLE

[Anonymous Coward]

Well if it is so horrible why does it have such a high rating.

Well, Windows is popular...

Other examples of horrible things that are or have been popular:
Wrestling
Soap Operas
Lotteries
Married with Children
George Bush
TeleTubbies
Family Circus
Penny Arcade
Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Re:and it's HORRIBLE

[nemski]

Add to you list, Slashdot ;-)

Re:and it's HORRIBLE

[Kenshin]

He's cashing in (it's sponsored by the Guardian) and you can tell he has absolutely no enthusiasm for it.

Umm... if you'd actually LISTENED to it, you'd hear him mention he was doing it for FREE.

ie: Not getting paid. Not cashing-in.

He's doing it because he wants to.

Re:and it's HORRIBLE

[hunterx11]

I think it's the most hilarious thing I've heard in ages. And so, I suppose, must the millions of other people who listen.

It's happened before

[spectrumCoder]

It should be obvious that distribution of a show, legal or otherwise, is going to get more people watching it. But no network exec would write a press release saying, "thanks to internet piracy, more people have heard of and are watching our show".

But now that iTunes is offering their shows (and paying them for every download) they're suddenly very keen to advertise the positive role that the internet can play in increasing exposure to their programmes.

Overall, though, it's definitely a good thing. Any press that demonstrates that internet downloads can benefit tv corporations as well as harming them increases the chance of a decent compromise between illegal file-sharing and drm'ed-to-the-gills restrictive legal downloads.

The irony

[Stan Vassilev]

"TV Week reports on NBC's claims that iTunes downloads are boosting ratings for their primetime shows."

This comes after weeks long scandals by the TV networks that the iPod videos would ruin their ratings.

Well this is great, because MPAA and RIAA will finally acknowledge the need for legal instant internet movie downloads, and stop claiming that piracy costs them in the billions ignoring the promotion value! Not.

Re:The irony

[shark72]

"This comes after weeks long scandals by the TV networks that the iPod videos would ruin their ratings."

That's interesting... I hadn't heard that. Do you have a link to an article in which the networks are complaining about their shows being on iTunes?

Since the networks sell the shows to iTunes willingly, and are presumably making money on the deal, I do not see why they would then turn around and complain.

Re:The irony

[Stan Vassilev]

Thing is that Disney's new CEO, Robert Iger, announced the ABC deal without bothering to tell their network affiliates about it.

What mostly worried them was the "for sale the day after air" policy, which the affiliates argued will ruin their prime time ratings, since who'll watch TV when they can go buy it the next day (ya sounds absurd, especially in the context of this slashdot article).

Check this article on Slashdot, talking about how Disney's new CEO "managed to piss most of Hollywood", regarding the iPod video sales:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20051014/1856227_ F.shtml

"While he restored Disney's relationship with Steve Jobs by agreeing to offer downloadable TV shows, we noted that this caught all the ABC affiliates by surprise, and they freaked out at the thought people might just download the shows instead of watching them on TV (despite, of course, the cost advantage to watching them or recording them off the TV). Turns out it wasn't just the affiliates that Iger forgot to let in on the secret. Actors, writers and directors are all up in arms and are collectively demanding that they get a piece of every $1.99 for every TV show sold through iTunes. In other words, even if Apple is actually making any money at $2/show, it's unlikely to last very long."

Re:The irony

[shark72]

Thank you! Looks like ABC is doing a poor job on right hand/left hand management.

Testimonial..

[aychamo]

Well, I can give my testimonial. I'm in a professional school in a different country than the US, so I can't really watch US TV shows. However, I downloaded shows like Lost and The Office from iTunes and have fell in love with them. I wish Apple would put you on an auto-purchase thing where it would download the next show as soon as its ready. I don't even know what night or day of the week these shows play.

Re:Testimonial..

[Scootin159]

The Office is on @ 9:30pm Thursdays Lost is on @ 9pm Wednesdays

So basically...

[thatoneguy_jm]

...someone needs to add "Firefly" to iTunes, pronto.

Re:So basically...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's just 14 episodes or so. Just buy the DVD-set and rip them yourself :)

Re:So basically...

[Anonymous Coward]

We're looking for exposure and thus another season, not the actual episodes.

Eyeballs

[Stan Vassilev]

"ITunes is one way to bring fresh eyeballs to the network, he said, in particular the younger demo that uses video iPods."

Don't you find it especially intimidating TV execs when they refer to people as eyeballs?

Re:Eyeballs

[Anonymous Coward]

"Don't you find it especially intimidating TV execs when they refer to people as eyeballs?"

No, I don't find it any more itimidating then computer geeks referring to a "slave" hard drive. It's jargon, get over it.

Re:Eyeballs

[supersocialist]

Nah. Eyeballs are what count--otherwise you're just sitting near the set, letting the terrorists win.

Re:Eyeballs

[Stan Vassilev]

"No, I don't find it any more itimidating then computer geeks referring to a "slave" hard drive. "

Why do you think SATA was invented? The slave disk were ready to go on a strike any moment now.

Re:Eyeballs

[Blakey Rat]

What sounds more impressive?

This show has 10 million viewers.

This show has 20 million eyeballs.

See? One's twice as many as the other. Go with the eyeballs.

Re:Eyeballs

[Infamous Tim]

Along the same lines as saying "getting butts in seats." Do movie execs really think we're all a bunch of asses? ... ...
Don't answer that.

Re:Eyeballs

[Stan Vassilev]

"Don't answer that."

Ok, I won't.

Grow up fanboy

[lxs]

Could you repeat that in English please? I think I disagree with you, but I can't make out what you're saying.

Clearly you are mr.Gervais' target audience, as people who can string a coherent sentence together find his whining annoying beyond belief. The guy has made one decent series (extras was horrible IMNSHO) and he thinks he is god. He isn't.

(And no, I'm not the AC who commented above, I haven't heard the podcast, but I have heard plenty of interviews with RG, so I really don't feel the need to expose myself to any more to his hugely inflated ego)

You hear that Bluth family!

[toupsie]

Get Arrested Development in the iTunes store! I am sure George Michael can figure out how to rip episodes and upload them. He's a smart kid. Otherwise, Fox is going to cancel your show and you will be listening to "Christmas Time Is Here" all the time.

I am so sick of Fox being the network where great shows go to die.

Re:You hear that Bluth family!

[TCQuad]

I am sure George Michael can figure out how to rip episodes and upload them.

Yeah, but then every episode would start off with that time he filmed himself having a mock light-saber battle in the garage.

When will they get the Daily Show?!

[antifoidulus]

I have yet to buy an iPod video yet, and I won't till they get the Daily Show on iTunes. However, I won't pay $1.99 per episode to get it, but I would LOVE for some type of subscription service, ie for somewhere less than $100 per year I could get that show delivered to me automatically on my iPod. It would be awesome for commuters if they could get up in the morning, grab their iPod from it's dock and take the train/bus/whatever and watch the previous nights Daily Show.
Pipedreams I guess....

Re:When will they get the Daily Show?!

[forgotten_my_nick]

> I won't till they get the Daily Show on iTunes.

You can get the daily show for free on Comedy Central already?

Re:When will they get the Daily Show?!

[antifoidulus]

That would imply:
a: Having cable(not free!)
b: living in the US(I don't right now, and the Daily Show is one of the things I miss most)
I could probably try tracking it down on bittorrent, but it's just too much of a pain.

Re:When will they get the Daily Show?!

[superandy47]

mininova.org has iPod MP4 versions of the Daily Show.

http://www.mininova.org/sub/114/added

Re:When will they get the Daily Show?!

[Professor_UNIX]

Can you put regular mpeg-2 video on an iPod or does it have to be in a special format? Why not just record the shows with MythTV and then upload it to your iPod for free? You could even have scripts to cut out the commercials automatically for you. $2 per episode seems pretty steep.

Re:When will they get the Daily Show?!

[sjwaste]

I think you need to transcode into H.264. I'm a Windows person myself, but I'm setting up a dedicated MythTV box right now to move my PVR functionality off of my main PC.

For Windows, ATI's new transcoding utility is really fast. For linux, I'm not sure what I'd use yet since I'm still working on getting my wireless card (Atheros-based) working under Fedora Core 4 using WPA.

Really, though, buying episodes from the itunes store is for the 99.9999% of the population that DOESN'T have a homebrew PVR. Most folks would look at you crooked if you said "capture it with your tuner card and transcode it into half res NTSC H.264" :)

Then again, I remember being 16 and the word "MP3" not being a buzzword. Nobody knew what the hell I was talking about then. Now I'm in my mid 20's and my dad has an ipod. I'm off on a tangent, but man, Apple sure did make a mass accessible product.

Re:When will they get the Daily Show?!

[Secrity]

"You can get the daily show for free on Comedy Central already?"

The same Daily Show is ran several times a day - and TiVO doesn't recognise the duplicate showings as being reruns.

Re:When will they get the Daily Show?!

[jocknerd]

Here's the specs for the iPod:

H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats
MPEG-4 video: up to 2.5 mbps, 480 x 480, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

Re:When will they get the Daily Show?!

[supersocialist]

It's a special format (H.264 or mpeg4, at certain bitrates and resolutions), but more and more content shows up on the torrent aggregators preformatted for the iPod. I couldn't get Clone Wars any other way. What doesn't is trivial to convert with free utilities.

Re:When will they get the Daily Show?!

[Hadlock]

On the mac there's already a great "1 button app" that converts specifically to "ipod video format" called iSquint. Just drag any divx xvid avi mpeg etc file on to the app, select "optimize for ipod" or TV, and move the slider bar from "tiny" to "go crazy!". An episode of southpark optimized for the ipod at regular compression is 27 megs, and is totally acceptable to watch on a TV. You can always use the sony PSP converter on windows, since the video ipod will just downsample those h.264 files for you.

Not to mention there's already "ipod video-ized" torrents avalible now.

Re:When will they get the Daily Show?!

[forgotten_my_nick]

Go to www.comedycentral.com and then go to the videos section. They show the full daily show (broken into chunks). You can also watch the colbert report there.

I watch it there daily.

Re:When will they get the Daily Show?!

[e2d2]

I was thinking, if apple makes the mac mini PVR as rumored then I'll get one of those and do just this, cradling the ipod and taking it to work on the train. If they don't soon I'm just gonna use mythTV or even maybe a windows media center pc!, some type of pvr. Just as long as I can start moving it all to digital and have it saved and displayed to selected formats. Should be relatively easy, it's been done before. But if apple did it I could save that time setting one up.

Huh?

[MadJo]

Okay now this makes absolutely no sense at all. Downloading tv-shows from Bittorrent declined the ratings, but downloading from iTunes actually increases ratings?
How are those two different? (aside from the money factor)

Re:Huh?

[Carthag]

Obviously bittorrent users are not interested in watching the show, they simply download them to stick it to the man. Good point, though :)

Re:Huh?

[wx327]

Could be that iTunes viewers usually watch the live show, but use iTunes to get the ones they missed, but torrent viewers always watch the torrents, so they will never contribute to the live viewing share statistic.

Re:Huh?

[smelroy]

Lies! All lies!

When Lost first started I thought, "That looks interesting, but I don't want to get hooked on yet another TV show." (I am trying to cut down on TV watching and spend that time doing more fulfilling things such as spending time with my wife and reading.) So I didn't watch Lost for the first 6 episodes or so. One of my friends watched it all the time and encouraged me to watch so I caved in and downloaded all the episodes I had missed and ended up watching them all one Saturday. Now I am hooked. I think that my experience is very common (as the article points out) and I am glad to see that some entertainment executives get it. Now if only the RIAA would understand this concept works for what they are peddling too.

Re:Huh?

[yardbird]

Just a guess, but the iTunes video store is "mainstream" while BitTorrent is not. So it's not that BitTorrent decreased the ratings, but rather that it had no effect (or caused a non-measurable increase).

The more cynical answer is that the change in ratings in both cases is irrelevant; iTunes results in profit for NBC so they tout it; BitTorrent doesn't so they slam it.

Re:Huh?

[2nd Post!]

I can think of three things actually:
1) Convenience; the learning curve for bittorrent, to an average Joe, is slightly higher than the learning curve for the iTMS
2) Speed; the download from the iTMS is much shorter, at 10 to 15 minutes, than the average bittorrent. Of course YMMV
3) Presentation; If you download The Office, you know it's NBC. Bittorrent does not have this feature.

Re:Huh?

[LadyLucky]

Uhhh, the money factor is how they are different. Why do you care if someone is watching something when they have neither paid for it or are watching advertisements? People in that park don't add to the ratings.

That's...

[StudlyDego73]

...what she said

Re:That's...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hahaha. Well done. Mod points, where are you when I need you?

Re:That's...

[StudlyDego73]

Not only do I love the show(as you could've guessed from my first post since it's Michael's catch phrase), but I also live in Scranton which helps me like it even more(even more inside jokes on the show if you know Scranton)!

Downloading is a hit!

[digitaldc]

"Citing one example 'NBC's "The Office" delivered a 5.1-its highest ratings ever-last Thursday among adults 18 to 49, a bump the network credits in large part to the show's popularity as an iPod download."

I would also like to give credit to Steve Carrell's wife for making this iTunes download so popular.

There is NOTHING wrong with this article

[Anonymous Coward]

As I understood it - the podcast viewership was included in the primetime ratings. This is the next logical step for the internet - television is free via radio signal, why should internet broadcast be considered 'pirate?'

The programming is paid by the advertisers which still show their adds on the podcast...

No one is losing out here - especially NBC and its advertisers.

Re:There is NOTHING wrong with this article

[TobascoKid]

As I understood it - the podcast viewership was included in the primetime ratings.

I thougth the iTunes downloads are commercial free - so you would think they wouldn't count (why would an advertiser pay a lot of money to advertise on a high rated show if most of those ratings come from commercial free downloads?)

Been on my mind recently.

[NXprime]

I keep pinching myself in utter disbelief that the furture has come where a-la-carte programming would be real. Now it is and I can watch my favorite shows anywhere I want. iTunes is a direct download service with no viruses, dead torrent links, tracker downtime, RIAA threats, slow downloads, or any bothersome thing like that. Video quality is so nice on my 17" CRT monitor that it's just like watching a TV rip but better quality since there's no logo's anywhere or scrolling text, or weather updates or any crap like that. I tell ya, I wouldn't have it any other way. Freedom from commericals, folks. It's the read deal and I couldn't be any happier. NBC/ABC has all the good shows anyway like Lost, BSG, Monk, and The Office so we're not missing much from the other loser networks that refuse to join up with iTunes. That free Monk episode and SNL skit was just the icing on the cake.

As for buying all episodes on iTunes, that would be a mistake. I plan on buying Monk on DVD & ripping it so I can watch it again (some for the first time) on my PC. Too much glare watching it on an iPod but for long road trips life without it would be unbarable. But from time to time, like an SNL skit for example, it can't be beat. /hugs Steve Jobs. =)....

Re:Been on my mind recently.

[GigsVT]

Yeah, and it only costs a ton of money. $2 for a whole month of a premium channel vs one episode. Apple stuff is for people with more money than sense.

Re:Been on my mind recently.

[Anonymous Coward]

I plan on buying Monk on DVD & ripping it so I can watch it again (some for the first time) on my PC.

After you rip the DVD to your PC could you put it on bit torrent so I can download it? I would love to watch it again. ;-P

Re:Been on my mind recently.

[Yahweh Doesn't Exist]

>Apple stuff is for people with more money than sense.

no, it's for people who value convenience and experience over money.

watching TV in "real-time" is for people with more couch than life.

Re:Been on my mind recently.

[helmutvs]

"That free [...] SNL skit was just icing on the cake"

A comment on the SNL skit: Last week, in an appearance on Conan O'Brien's show, SNL actor Chris Parnell mentioned that he was surprised how popular the skit had become. There was, however, no mention that it was font and center on the iTunes Store homepage for several weeks. Of course it was successful. Many people, such as myself, have iTunes accounts and only download free stuff using those Pepsi downloads or look for the free download of the week.

Re:Been on my mind recently.

[toddestan]

Depends. If you watch a lot of TV, then "buying in bulk" with cable or satellite is cheaper. But if you are only interested in just 1-2 shows, then iTunes will come out ahead. Though if you are really cheap, nothing is going to beat Bittorrent.

Re:Been on my mind recently.

[Mr2001]

Video quality is so nice on my 17" CRT monitor that it's just like watching a TV rip

You can't be serious. Last I heard, iTunes video downloads were 320x240. NTSC video resolution is approximately four times that (640x480), and even the rips of The Office that you can download after they've been shrunk and converted to XviD have nearly 3 times the pixel count.

What is a 5.1?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm missing something here. Can someone please explain what a 5.1 is?

Re:What is a 5.1?

[TobascoKid]

It's the rating - 5.1% of households watched the show.

Re:What is a 5.1?

[TobascoKid]

Oops, actually that's the rating in the 18-49 demographic - so 5.1% of 18 - 49 year olds watched the show. You also get household ratings, which just tell you what percentage of households watched a show. So while a show may get a household rating of 3, it might get a 18-49 of 5 - meaning that the show is more popular among people 18 - 49 than against the population in general.

18-49 is considered a good demographic to target - as they do most of the spending.

Re:What is a 5.1?

[Anonymous Coward]

I see. In the UK we have viewing figures in millions, and a 5.1% viewing figure would not even make the chart. The top show here in the UK (Eastenders) was watched by 12.33 million people last week. The highest ratings I've seen were in excess of 21 million.

Re:What is a 5.1?

[Anonymous Coward]

The top show here in the UK (Eastenders) was watched by 12.33 million people last week.
That show is still on the air? How long has that show been going?

Oh please...

[Reignking]

You mean it has nothing to do with being in a better time slot? I think putting it on Thursday nights has more to do with the ratings increase than anything...

Re:Oh please...

[dogmatixpsych]

Shhh... Don't bring up trivialities (even if it might be the real reason for the ratings increase). :) We like this news because it will hopefully encourage more *inexpensive* on-demand access to TV content.

win-win?

[AndersOSU]

So now that the networks are seing a benifit to their core buisness my making content available online perhaps they should consider offereing it for online for free...

Yeah I know it will never happen, but I doubt that the revenue generated from iTunes outweighs the potental revenue bump associated with a ratings hike like this.

BBC THE OFFICE - better

[TheDoctorWho]

Ricky Gervais is god, thankfully he's getting paid quite well for the bastardized version in the USA.

Re:BBC THE OFFICE - better

[fighthairloss]

Yeah, I like the original more. It's more understated and Ricky is a genius.

However, I also like Steve Carrell and the "American" Office. To me they're not just the same show with two versions - Steve Carrell is also fairly funny in his own right, and The Office here is, well, very boistrous and less understated, but IMO it still works.

But you're right... Ricky is a comedy god.

A serious question

[tkrotchko]

"it could be that some people believe in paying for something that isn't theirs"

If I tape something from the air and watch it on my iPod video, am I stealing?

If I get the tape from someone else (because I forgot to record it that night), and put it on my iPod, am I stealing?

Seems hard to steal something that the network is giving away for free (that is, they broadcast it).

Really, I'm not just being academic with these questions; I just don't see how you can "steal" stuff that's broadcast free for anybody to see.

Watching shows around the water cooler

[dim5]

I love The Office (US version, never seen the UK version). I've been watching it since day 1 and telling everyone I know about it. But here's the thing. Have you ever listened to someone describe a funny TV show? It's awful. Not only is it impossible to reproduce the timing and context of the show that made it funny, but now the person forced to listen to you imitating Homer Simpson must guess as to whether you just can't do a good Homer, or if the writing for the Simpsons really isn't funny.

PMPs finally make it possible for me to come in the next day and say, "hey, you've got to watch this clip from last night's Office." I would certainly get more people to start watching the show by actually showing them part of the show than by possibly injuring someone with my horrible Dwight impersonation.

Re:Watching shows around the water cooler

[Ngwenya]

PMPs finally make it possible for me to come in the next day and say, "hey, you've got to watch this clip from last night's Office." I would certainly get more people to start watching the show by actually showing them part of the show than by possibly injuring someone with my horrible Dwight impersonation.

That's the man, officer! Plain as day admitted to a public, non-domestic performance intention. Lock the bastard up, and throw away the key...

What do you mean "fair use" rights? Don't you know they were abolished under the "Digital Millenium Copyright and Hollywood-gets-whatever-it-wants Act"?

--Ng

Re:Watching shows around the water cooler

[Anonymous Coward]

The U.S. version is great, but you should really check out the British version. Gervais plays a boss that is more pathetic, and bit less mean spirited. He's much more realistic as a boss, and it helps sell the documentrary feel of the show. It's much better thqn Gervais' current project, the disappointing "Extras" on HBO.

Re:Watching shows around the water cooler

[Squirrelgirl]

Opposite for me. I've seen the british, not american, show. I could imagine they'd be different though. The brits get away with more rude words ;) Here's the "evil boss" inventor of the original The Office that the american show is based on, dressed up as politician: http://www.rickygervais.com/images/politician02_sm .jpg And on his website are some clips of him in action and information on his other show, Extras, that ran on HBO in the US in september 05 I think.

Re:Makes sense

[clifyt]

" Although I'm fairly disappointed in the way Apple delivers their TV content (too small, can't burn to DVD, etc)"

While I'm not going to disagree with you about the DVD aspect (this bit me in the ass yesterday as I was trying to get a few friends to watch BSG on my Mac -- my screen is almost as big as my TV -- but in the wrong room).

BUT it actually seems pretty decent to me. While watching the Resurrection Ship PtII episode -- I ended up seeing details that I didn't earlier (such as the cy-clones floating into space as their ship was disintegrating around them -- in the hotel room I originally watched it I just saw debris). Yeah it's Lossy (and so is DVD...but less so), but it scales pretty well. Personally I'm amazed at how much quality they can pack into a 'too small' package...then again, I just ordered BSG Season 1 on DVD and will probably do so for 2 as soon as that's over.

mod @do3n

[Anonymous Coward]

Raadt'5 stubborXn

can't credit iTunes with this

[kesteloot]

I'm not so sure that you can credit iTunes with the recent success of The Office. NBC recently moved the show to Thursday, which is usually a bigger tv night. There is also less competition now that CBS's Survivor is not airing, and other shows are in repeats.

Appointment Viewing is Dead

[Marillion]

I remember when viewers basically "made an appointment" with a TV show. The VCR was a novelty that only the Rich could afford. You either watched it on its appointed time or you hoped to catch it on re-runs. Writers couldn't create series with long, intricate story arcs that spanned multiple episodes, because if a viewer missed an episode, they'd be confused. So every week, the problem that threatened the world was neatly tidied up in the last ten minutes.

Finally, Appointment Viewing is Dead! iTunes and Tivo and PVR's have killed it.

Part of the reason series like BSG are so good, is because the writers know that the don't have clean up the story in the last ten minutes. In fact the last ten minutes become a good time to "frack-up" everything we've come to know and trust.

Happen with BSG too

[aka_big_wurm]

Battlestar was almost the same thing but it was priate copies that make it rateings go up. MPAA, RIAA and who ever does TV just dont get it.

The Daily Show is already available, free

[spideyct]

You can already get most segments of the daily show on comedycentral.com. For free.
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/ index.jhtml (click Videos in the menu on the left)

Once I discovered that, I canceled my cable subscription.

My guess

[evilninjax]

My only guess is that paying $2 per ep for an entire season run is prohibitive for most, but paying $2 for an ep to see what people are talking about is not. Once you pay the $2 for the ep and like it, then you can note to watch it live for free.

The 3 factors that are different from iTunes and usenet/BT are:

1. Cost. Xvids are free. iPod format (what are they, Quicktime?) are $2 per ep
2. Quality. Xvids are 480p or 720p. iPod format is like 240p?
3. Choice. usenet/BT has just about anything on it includign HBO and SHOWTIME shows. iTunes has limited selection of NBC and ABC shows.

If iTunes wre cheaper, say, $20/month flat fee unltd downloads (a la Netflix) and had a wide range of shows, would anyone bother to watch live?

Hell, why do people watch live NOW? Why not just DVR it?

Re:My guess

[Lars T.]

Hell, why do people watch live NOW? Why not just DVR it?

Because

1. They don't have a DVR.
2. They don't get the network.
3. The episode was pre-empted/censored/canceled here they live.
4. They had a TV/Power outage.
5. Their DVR is/was broken ATM.

I could go on.

Re:My guess

[dr.badass]

The 3 factors that are different from iTunes and usenet/BT are...

You forgot to mention that iTunes downloads are legal.

Baen Free Library

[argent]

This works for books as well. Eric Flint and other authors reported increased sales after they had some books released for free on the Baen Free Library.

Including paper copies of the same novels they'd released as free eBooks!

iTunes got me hooked on Battlestar

[geddes]

I downloaded the Battlestar miniseries from iTunes for a plane ride, and I was immediately hooked. Over the next two weeks I downloaded from iTunes every episode, and I am now eagerly anticipating Friday night''s new episode.

There have been several comments here I want to address:

1. Video Quality: The resolution is only 320x240, but that is the resolution of standard television! Apple's encoding is very very good. Saturday morning I was losing patience waiting for the latest B*G to show up on iTunes so I turned to BitTorrent. The quality was awfull! I got the "big" 320 MB version. The colors were washed and faded, it was clearly a video capture from a broadcast, and it just looked crappy. I couldn't take it and I downloaded the iTunes version, and the colors were strong and the contrast was sharp. I have never had a problem getting the movies to play full screen in iTunes, you just click a button, and since my Powerbook has built in S-Video or TV Out, I just plug the laptop right into the television and it looks better than a cable broadcast (Note: I do not have an HDTV)
2. Price: The Battlestar season 2.0 DVD is 10 episodes for $30. Through iTunes I pay only $20 for those 10 episodes. I pay $10 less and lose the convenience of portability, I can't loan the DVD to a friend (and I want everyone I know to watch B*G, it is that good) and I geuss I lose a little quality as well, but since I have no HDTV, I don't feel like I am losing quality.
3. 1. Services like iTunes are the future, pretty soon advertisers will be cut out of Television, and the ad agencies will have to get creative for delivering ads. The Internet, but also things like little screens on Gas Pumps or other "captive audience" situations will become big hits in that industry.

Re:iTunes got me hooked on Battlestar

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently you got the video of someone camcordering their TV. Try the professional rips; they're usually 349MB or so, and they've usually straight from the Sat. feeds that the network affiliates get the show from themselves. Look for ones that advertise themselves as DSR or DSRip.

Captcha is "shared" :)

Re:iTunes got me hooked on Battlestar

[Anonymous Coward]

1) It is unfair to compare a capture of standard broadcast tv, to a transcoded copy from the master. Download a HDTV capture and make the same comparison.

2) 10 dollars more for almost twice the resolution. Seems like a fair deal, I doubt very highly you're 4:3 cropped version will display well on an HDTV panel. DVD all the way... no contest. Without regard to BSG, a standard season is 24 episodes. 24x2 = $48. Pretty much the same price as a DVD set.

3) All this means is product placement in television shows. More rampant than it already is right now. They'll be drinking Coke one season on BSG and then next season Pepsi because they came up with a higher offer.

50 bucks a month?

[Andy Dodd]

For customers of Cablevision in New Jersey, getting Sci-Fi costs you $80-90/month, as for some reason it's in Cablevision's "silver" premium digital tier.

I'm not talking a package deal ($80-90 for cable modem plus cable service), I'm talking $80-90 for the TV service ALONE. Cable modem is another $40ish (plus/minus 5-10 dollars, I don't remember the exact amount.)

Cablevision sucks. A channel with commercials should NEVER be put into a top premium tier. Sci-Fi is the ONLY channel in the silver/gold premium tiers from CV that has commercials.

Re:50 bucks a month?

[Scyber]

Well I'm in Jersey and get Sci-Fi on the basic family teir for $48/month. I have lived in multiple locations in Jersey and Sci-Fi was always availible in the Family Cable tier. Remember, despite what the CSRs tell you, you don't need to get Digital Cable. You can still hook a cable wire directly up to your TV to get most channels.

Re:50 bucks a month?

[justinkim]

Different cable companies service different parts of NJ. I live in Jersey City, too but have Comcast cable.

I'm paying a mint, too but I am opting for digital for HD and a firewire enabled cable box I can hook up to my MythTV machine. I don't recall if Comcast's basic service or other low tier service plans come with Scifi or not.

Re:50 bucks a month?

[Scyber]

Well the person I was responding to said they had cablevision. Also looking at comcasts website, they list SciFi as part of their Basic Package in Jersey City.

Re:50 bucks a month?

[Andy Dodd]

Cable companies are different in different parts of NJ, as another user said.

I'm in a Cablevision service area that was formerly served by a small company called TKR Cable. (Cablevision bought them out.) Let's just say that TKR sucked, to say the least. CV has been a massive improvement, but there's some legacy TKR cruft in Cablevision's pricing and tier organization in our area.

While digital cable may not be required for most channels, Sci-Fi is now only transmitted in encrypted digital in my aree. Well, my former area. I now live in upstate NY, and Time Warner kicks Cablevision's ass right and left.

Re:50 bucks a month?

[Scyber]

Weird, I specifically checked a former TKR area (Green Brook) b/c I thought that might be the case. According to that zip code on cablevisions site, SciFi is part of the Family Cable package. Not that I doubt you, it is very possible that cablevision's site is wrong.

Re:50 bucks a month?

[Anonymous Coward]

Look into DirectTV. $50 or so a month for the basic package, which includes SciFi.

Re:50 bucks a month?

[Andy Dodd]

Hmm, maybe they changed it due to (negative) customer feedback.

It was only in the "silver" digital tier 1-2 years ago. We didn't look since then and just stuck with OTA broadcast + BitTorrent.

Like...

[sabit666]

... Conan O'brien would say, "This will bring NBC out of the tiolet".

America's gift to you, citizens of the world

[elrous0]

Why can't people just accept that when the U.S. steals your television show and does a knockoff, it's out of love?

It's like when we steal Olympic atheletes from other countries. It's not because we are sore losers and would crawl over our dead grandmothers to win a gold medal that we don't deserve. It's because we want to give these poor down-trodden athletes the beautiful gift of freedom.

Remember, we here in America have a responsbility to show the light of freedom to the world. So send us your quality TV shows, Olympic-level athletes, and illegal immigrants willing to work for $2 an hour! We will show them the light of love--until we can't exploit them anymore, of course.

-Eric

Re:America's gift to you, citizens of the world

[ksheff]

I don't really mind TV execs making US versions of TV shows from other nations. I just wish they didn't make sucky versions of them. Having watched the BBC version of The Office, I can't watch NBC's.

Re:America's gift to you, citizens of the world

[DroppedPacket]

"Why can't people just accept that when the U.S. steals your television show and does a knockoff, it's out of love?"

No we steal it because people in the TV industry are brain dead and can't come up with a new show more than once a decade.

If you ever get a chance to see a clip of the (pilot only thank God) American version of Red Dwarf, you will die laughing at how horrible it is. (American actors trying to deliver British wriing, wearing the same costumes... The clip I saw was absolutely horrid.)

Re:America's gift to you, citizens of the world

[nixkuroi]

It's funny, I feel exactly the opposite. I fell in love with the US show, then got the original from Blockbuster online and I just can't watch it. I normally LOVE British TV, but I guess once you choose a flavor, it's hard to get into the other. I found myself missing Jim and Pam and the rest from the American show so I just plugged in my video out jack from my ipod video and watched the American version instead. :)

On that note, I too got into the Office because of my video ipod. I was taking a flight and was tired of trying to get enough space on the tray for my laptop, so I downloaded a couple office episodes and watched them on the plane. Now I just let the show run when I'm at work instead of listening to music. I watch the show when it comes on too...and it's also gotten me into My Name is Earl because I caught the ending of that one week and realized it was Jason Lee, one of my favorite actors from the Kevin Smith movies.

Bless you iPod.

Quality

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the idea of prime time shows on iTMS is fantastic, but the quality of the playback is pretty terrible. Am I the only one who gets jerky/start-stop/lostvideo/unsynchronized a-v on a win2k machine? I have no problem with other video formats, but for some reason using QT7.0.3 with the iTMS videos causes me to wonder how they charge 2 bucks for this stuff.

I would, and did

[snowwrestler]

We taped The Office last week but the tape ran out halfway through. So the next day I check on iTunes and sure enough, there was the episode. $2 and a few minutes later it was playing on my TV (and it looked great).

I guess I could have searched for a clean copy of it on IRC or BT, but I value my time pretty highly. To be a better value than $2, I would pretty much have to find it the instant I started looking. That's both a) pretty unlikely and b) exactly what happened on iTunes anyway.

TV shows on iTunes were definitely worth it for me. I can't say I'll be buying every show--more likely I'll just use it when I miss a show I wanted to see. For the cost of a Coke and candy bar I'll now be able to get it easily.

Just a few notes...

[cmpalmer]

ABC has done "catch up" episodes for Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, and Lost. These should be free downloads on iTunes to snag more viewers.

I kicked myself for a year because I never started watching Lost. When I subscribed to NetFlix, the first thing I got was Lost season 1. I finished around Christmas, got a video iPod for Christmas, then the first thing I bought on iTunes was all of the season 2 episodes so far ($18?). I actually watched them all on my 42" HDTV with my iPod. Quality wasn't much worse than my analog TV channels (a little artifacting in dark scenes). I finally caught up, so now I can watch the first run episodes in HD, so I won't be buying them on iTunes (unless I forget to DVR them).

ABC (and Disney and ESPN) and NBC are aligned with Apple/iTunes. CBS has gone with Google. Fox is just sitting around twiddling their thumbs. Where is 24, Arrested Development, etc.?

I DVR everything I watch (dual tuner Motorola HDTV DVR box with Comcast digital cable). I also have a TV tuner on my computer and the software where I can record TV shows then convert them to iPod video format. I haven't tried the DVD rippers/re-encoders yet.

I don't have a problem with $2 per episode because I don't intend to ever use iTunes as my primary way of watching a TV series -- I see using it to (a) catch up with shows I haven't been watching, (b) try out new shows by picking popular episodes, (c) be able to buy a show that I missed for some reason.

IMO, iTunes would be selling movies if it wasn't for the fact that an iPod will only show about 2 hours of video on a fresh charge. People would be pissed if they bought a movie that they couldn't watch on a single charge. Unfortunately, this just means my 30GB video iPod will be obsolete when they release one with a longer battery life.

You can use a $10 camcorder video cable to watch iPod videos on TV, but you have to ignore the cable's color coding.

For $300, Apple should include a video cable and a wall charger.

Kudos for Google to support iPod downloads on Google Video (the free ones at least).

"standard television"

[raygundan]

The resolution of standard NTSC television is more easily approximated as 640x480. 320x240 is much closer to a home-recorded VHS tape.

The shows are well encoded for their size, but they are less than 1/4 the resolution of a DVD-- which plays back on standard televisions without scaling.

So far, the only reason I've considered purchasing a tv show from iTunes is for the occasional missed episode of a show that has multi-episode plotlines. They're too expensive and too low quality for me to use as anything but a stopgap measure.

The REAL Reason The Office Is Taking Off...

[Anonymous Coward]

... is that we all watched the 40-Year Old Virgin, thought it was funny, and tuned into The Office when we heard it was the same guy.

That's how I started watching, and two or three other guys in our office tell the same story. I would bet this is the overwhelming reason the show's taking off. If iTunes had this magical power, Saturday Night Live and all the other shows they sell would also take off wildly. But they haven't. The Office is an aberration, and this whole story is nothing but more Apple propaganda.

The "success" of The Office (is it a top 10 show? I don't think so) has nothing to do with iTunes, sorry.

Well, I was shocked

[jfengel]

When this deal first came out, local affiliates were all kinds of nervous. They expected that people would switch from commercial-ridden TV to legal downloads, losing ad revenue. The network wins because it gets paid, but the local affiliates lose because nobody's watching their ads.

So a rise in TV viewership came as a surprise to them. And since their logic seemed sound, it seemed so to me, too.

Not that I was crying for them. I'd much rather see local affiliates go away and have the bandwidth replaced by something more useful.

Moreover, I'm not certain that the trend will continue. I wonder if people are being driven to watch it on TV because of the very poor quality of the downloads; it's enough to get addicted to the series but also annoying to watch. So if/when Apple raises the resolution, will the viewers leave TV again? Or is there more to it?

What about Linux?

[ami-in-hamburg]

Ok, I've been considering buying an iPod. My only concern is that I'm not sure if it will work with Linux or not. I've googled the subject to death, and even though it seems possible, I'm still not sure if it will work WELL or not.

Is there anyone out there that could shed some light on Linux and iPod functionality from personal experience? Is there a loss in quality in converting the iPod formats to be usable on Linux systems? Or do you have to do something like run the iPod stuff under Wine or Cross-Over-Office?

I don't have a Windows box available, nor will I in the future, so any advice would be appreciated.

Re:What about Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have not used a video ipod with linux but have used a music only ipod. Some applications in linux work with the ipod, some do not. Amarok works sometimes, Rhythmbox locks up (for me anyways). You can't play music purchased with itunes. Some distros do not work with the ipod. It is much easier to just use my macs than to try and use it with my linux box (pclinuxos/kubuntu).

Re:What about Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have an iPod mini and Linux Ubuntu/ppc Breezy. When I plug in the iPod it auto-mounts and launches gtkpod, which is a pretty decent substitute for iTunes, provided you don't want the iTunes store. I rip CDs to MP3 using either grip or abcde, then import them to gtkpod and sync. No probs, no special setup needed.

More of this to come

[rukidding]

Well if Disney (ABC) buys Pixar that would make Steve Jobs the largest share holder of Disney and give Steve Jobs a seat on Disney's board. I bet there will be more content on iTunes if that is to happen. I also wonder how that will play into Apples home entertainment system. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&si d=a9UW8SKESpVU&refer=us

My 2 cents on why the Office does so well

[3770]

The success of the Office on iTunes is probably because it can be enjoyed even if you watch only a few minutes at at time. You don't need to sit through the entire show to enjoy it. You can just watch a few minutes.

And that probably suits the mobile nature of iPod viewing.

And it might be a good show to buy if you want to show off your new iPod to friends because you can always find a good little short scene that you can show whenever someone is asking about the video capabilities of your new iPod. And this probably matters quite a bit at the moment. Most of the 8 million videos that Steve Jobs claimed were sold are probably bought by people who bought just one episode to check out what it's all about.

WANTED: ONE DOCTOR WHO PLEASE

[$nyper]

I'll tell you what I just want some "Doctor Who." I get sick and tired of downloading them from through Bit Torrent. I am an American and I want me some real BBC content and not this watered down BBC America rubbish!!!!

You're joking, right?

[nobodyman]

Fox does free podcasts, you can download your favorite episode of Arrested Development free of DRM.

You've never downloaded one of these, have you? These "foxcasts" are a 15 minutes synopsis of the show read by some Fox staffer. It's not an audio-edition of Arrested Development.

Amen brother

[nobodyman]

Arrested Development is(er, was) easily one of the best shows on television. But it was quirky, and didn't have an immediate "hook" (e.g. "It's Pamela Anderson, and she works in a bookstore!!". Goddamn I hate you Fox).

Very similar to Seinfeld in that respect. But NBC was able to cultivate it into a hit. Fox would have killed Seinfeld halfway into the 2nd season.

Re:Makes sense

[raddan]

I am one of those people. No cable TV. I watch Lost (the greatest show, ever) through iTMS. There would be no other way for me to see it. On top of that, now that I don't have to worry about tuning in every Wednesday night at 8PM, I never miss a single episode.

Is iTunes really responsible?

[rmiley]

How can NBC claim the ratings jump primarily on iTunes downloads? Yes, it's the most popular video podcast available on iTunes, but I would think moving the series from Tuesday night to the more popular (at least for NBC's 'Must See TV') Thursday night had a bigger influence than iTunes. I think it's great they are offering the series on iTunes, but I'm curious if they would still have had those 5.1 million viewers if the show was airing on Tuesday nights instead of Thursday? Not to mention their advertising budget promoting the show and it's new night?

Re:Is iTunes really responsible?

[Bandraginus]

You're absolutely right. But there's one important thing that everyone's who's made that point is missing. Moving timeslot probably accounts for higher ratings, but the good news is that the iTunes avenue didn't detract from the expected ratings hike. iTunes revenue was the icing on the cake, ergo the experiment was still a success.

Mind you, as extra shows come online, any advantage gained by any one particular show (such as The Office currently) will decrease. The iTunes "effect" will be watered down, and it will simply become the defacto. So even if there were a ratings hike due to the iTunes effect, this is only a temporary shift of eyeballs for any one show. This is not a long-term win.

This might be slightly off-topic...

[kadathseeker]

but as expensive as videogames are now and are expected to become, I'd welcome some subtle advertising in games. Like anywhere where a generic ad would be to add realism to the games, a real ad would be, but no more then that. If that'll shave $10 off of a game, I'm all for it.

Re:This might be slightly off-topic...

[Bandraginus]

They've been doing this in the movies for years, but do you see movie theatre prices coming down? Games will be no different. The game studios will pocket the neat chuck of change they get from in-game advertising and pay their execs more bonuses for being so clever.

Re:Makes sense

[fiannaFailMan]

Simple solution to the size problem: Watch it in iTunes rather than just your iPod. Hit the maximise button and watch it in full screen mode. It's a bit lossy as you say, but only on blank parts of the screen that you're not focussed on. Besides, BSG is such a good show that you soon get into it and forget about the picture quality.

Why do you think it's just iPod viewers using this

[SuperKendall]

I've bought a number of shows from ITMS and do not have a video iPod to play them on.

I buy them because I want to see something that is not on anymore or I've missed. I don't watch a lot of things, so I'm better off doing things this way than getting a TiVO.

Re:Makes sense

[clifyt]

Thats almost as good as the instructions I read over here:

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=174376&cid=145 08692 :-)

Correlation is not Causation

[_pi-away]

Here's an idea, how about the normal Office viewers saw the hilarious Christmas episode ("Yankee Swap!"), then saw all their family and friends around the holidays and told them how funny the show is and how they have to watch it, and then ratings increased.

Is that really less likely than what they are suggesting?

Re:Correlation is not Causation

[SpeedyG5]

No that is exactly what I did, I bought the 2 series, put them on my new video ipod and then took them to mom's for christmas. They were a huge hit, we watched all 16 episodes. About 5 hours of video. Then they all wanted ipods too, cause it was so beautiful to cart it around and watch them on the go or on the 36" TV.

I used it to catch up on Battlestar Galactica

[Enrique1218]

I found downlaoding tv shows very useful. I love the fact that it is commercial free, SciFi commercials are long and annoying. I can watch the shows when I want. I can't really justify spending my Friday nights at home just to watch BG and SG1. I really need to find a girlfriend. So, it has been very helpful. They should add more shows like SG1.