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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."
$0.99 is way too much for a single episode rental. With the same price you can buy the whole season from store and get a physical product with extras too.
Why not a subscription based service like Spotify, but for TV episodes? I would gladly pay $10 a month if I could stream any tv show and episode I wanted to. I already do for Spotify and seriously, I haven't felt the need to get mp3's since I started using it because frankly, it's just so convenient and easy. Hell, you can even offer an ad-based service too. Just have it huge library, don't delete old episodes or shows and add the new episodes there right after or when they're showing on TV.
I don't care if people want to waste $1 per episode to watch TV.
What I will care about is when Apple starts to exclusively lock down certain shows making them impossible to get through other services like In Demand, Netflix, etc
All the shows? From all the carriers? They all asked for exactly 99 cents? Weird! It's almost like they all got together and colluded to keep the price high or something... nah.
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
In the case of broadcast television...
A fool and his time are soon parted.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Here's a quote from something Jobs said, but with s/music/media/.
Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the media companies to sell their media DRM-free....Convincing them to license their media to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable media marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.
Like any big company, I think that Apple will run with a plan if it can make them money. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't have the power to get big media to distribute their content DRM-free. (And even if Apple could, would they bother?)
coding is life
Why the hell would you pay for it again?
Because you have an iProduct, a dollar, and a need for instant gratification.
Let q be a radix > 1. I am in ur base-q, killing 10 d00ds.
Netflix, all the streaming you want(if you can tolerate the drm) for $10 and dvds in the mail. I will have watched all of dexter season 4 in 1 week. That means I paid about $5 for the whole shebang as I pay around $20 a month for my 3 disc plan. Thus that is the price I am willing to pay. At ~12 episodes that works out to ~$0.42, less than half what they are suggesting. Mind you this is a Showtime show, a normal cable show might be worth half of that.
Unless of course, they don't pay for cable. A lot of people, myself included, are tired of the cable companies bundling/pricing schemes. I only watch 4-5 shows every season...why should I pay for the hundreds I have no interest watching? I for one love the idea of renting shows online. I think the pricing is still too high, but it's a step in the right direction. Finally some real competition in TV offerings. Maybe this will force cable companies to offer plans that favour the consumer rather than the provider.
I'm sure i'm the 100th person to say this, but with services like Hulu (for new episodes) and Netflix Streaming (for back seasons) this seems silly. I cut my cable off 2 years ago and still manage to watch any tv program I want. If it's streaming next day, I watch it there, the commercials don't bug me. If the network is too stubborn to stream it with commercials and risk a little revenue loss, I pirate it. It's all about ease for me. The networks need to wise up quick. I'd gladly pay discovery channel direct for on demand streaming access to there most recent shows, but I don't want to buy it as part of a package full of 100 channels i'm not interested in, and I don't want to have to bend my schedule around when they think the programs should air, and I know i'm not alone on this.
Everyday You see me is the worst day of my life -Office Space
Actually I think it's a great move. Probably isn't going to attract anyone who wants a whole season of House, but as a mom, I've been stuck countless time in traffic, on a check-out line, or at the doctor's office with a bored cranky kid. At those times I'd gladly shell out a buck for an episode of something- ANYTHING- that will keep Junior entertained and quiet. They are probably also banking, quite literally, on the crowd that hasn't quite figured out that spending one dollar twenty times costs MORE than shelling out ten bucks. Pamhttp://www.talksocialnews.com
I cancelled my sat-tv about 2 or 3 yrs ago. been on netflix since then.
now, I only pay for shows I want and I'm not stuck with ANY bundling. yay!
I'm not ever going back to cable to sat-tv. their business model is all wet.
apples is also wrong, though. I don't blame them for trying, but a dollar for a watching of a tv show is insane! think about it: its already been 100.0% paid for via commercials on first run and even more than 100% on re-runs.
in fact, the content should be 'free' by now, after its gone thru that process. how many times are they allowed to dip into the profit pool?
THIS is why people are sick and tired of the media companies. this is why many people just give up trying to 'do the right thing' and end up at some kind of bay or something....
apple, you're always good for a chuckle, though.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
my point was that it's ridiculous how many Americans pay $80/month to see these shows when you can see them for free.
There are millions (and I mean millions) of cable subscribers in apartment building that cannot have 'free' TV of any quality. Rabbit ears != decent reception in most urban areas (I can't speak for suburban areas). On top of that there are condominiums and home owner associations that ban visible antennae. Free isn't an option for everyone.
How do you Tivo something for free? There's the cost of the Tivo, and, unless it's over the air, some form of subscription service.
Your Tivo and subscription to the premium channels these shows are on are both free? Cool, where can I get that hooked up?
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.