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Apple In Talks To Bring $0.99 TV Rentals To iTunes
An anonymous reader writes "On September first, Apple will reportedly announce a new iPod Touch with a front facing camera, a refreshed Apple TV, and more interestingly, the arrival of $0.99 TV episode rentals on iTunes."
TFA seems to have the date wrong, at least: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/08/25/apple_sends_out_invitations_for_sept_1_special_event.html
Netflix.
With a two to three-day turnaround time, I can get a dozen DVDs a month of TV shows (entire seasons' worth) for the basic Netflix subscription. If I step up the subscription, I can have several dozen DVDs come through my house, which I can then load on to my iPod Touch.
Plus, I can watch as many of the online TV seasons as I want. It comes to much, much, much less than $0.99 per episode.
You are welcome on my lawn.
How about using its position to prevent other online retailers from getting exclusive content? Not the same thing, I'll grant you, but certainly a step in that direction.
I explicitly release the above into the public domain.
The article fails to mention anything about the annoying problem that all of these services (iTunes included) don't allow those of us outside the U.S. to view any of these shows. Stupid exclusive deals for possible future foreign releases prevent worldwide distribution and force many expats to turn to bit torrents.
If it's greed that drives the producers (and copyright holders), I do hope that they someday realize that they can earn more by allowing people outside of the U.S. timely access to their shows through legitimate channels (like iTunes, Hulu, etc.) than through exclusive tie-ups with other dinosaur companies that think the same way they do.