iPad launch: iTunes Store to sell $1 TV shows
Last month, the Financial Times published a report that Apple was in negotiations with suppliers of entertainment content standard definition sales of $ 1 per episode, half the regular price of $ 2.
I don’t watch TV. I like to keep my apartment bills low, and the Internet has so much to offer with free, streaming video alone. But you know what might get me to start purchasing shows again? Cheaper prices.
It turns out that these negotiations may have been a success. Thursday’s Financial Times claims that Apple agrees with an undetermined number of these suppliers to sell shows for a dollar.This new price point will take effect around the same time as the iPad’s launch—likely to be in late March—no doubt to help keep those TV viewing habits alive on a whole new screen.
Unfortunately, no mention was made of a new price for the media in high definition.The Financial Times speculates that, based on its own prior talks with media executives, this is to keep interest from spreading to the Apple TV. Old media is a bit shaky about ceding control of the television to anyone else, including Apple. Just ask the fine folks behind Boxee.
There’s also no word on if this $1 price will eventually be as widespread as DRM-free iTunes music, or if it’ll be as elusive as songs that sell for 79 cents.
Regardless, what seems like a small step today towards more affordable TV on iTunes may quickly snowball into something more. In that same article, the Financial Times tells of how Apple still hasn’t given up on the idea of a monthly, $30 subscription service that broadcasts only the best of TV on iTunes.
With the rental services allow customers to rent movies for $ 1 each, the decline in DVD sales, the low uptake of Blu-Ray and increased pressure transmission media services like YouTube, Vimeo, and blip.tv, Apple has some bargaining power on their side.
It’s all content providers, and how they feel comfortable with Apple. Traditional media have no other options for more. Hulu has been slow to make the jump to mobile devices (despite plans to branch out), and it’s hard to imagine that the rental-friendly Google will be willing to cut a better deal. If the providers of traditional, televised media can’t adapt to mobile devices and new media soon, NBC/Comcast won’t be the last ill-fitting acquisition that we’ll see.
