Apple pushing for $1 TV shows in iTunes

John Brownlee ()

Apple pushing for $1 TV shows in iTunes

At least until Spotify lets me stream music in Germany again, I love iTunes as much as anybody, but as much music as I’ve slurped from its fiber-optical teat over the years, I still wouldn’t be caught dead buying television shows from Apple.

It’s just consumerism at work: most television shows on Apple cost $1.99 per episode, but if I wait for a DVD box set of a show, I’ll pay half that. More over, I can stream a lot of television shows for free over sites like Hulu. Apple’s prices simply aren’t competitive.

Apple seems to agree. According to The Financial Times, it is being reported that Apple is strongly pushing networks and media executives to halve the price of television shows from $1.99 to $1.

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The timing of this report suggests a Tablet connection to me. The Tablet is likely to be a very media-oriented device, and there has been some theorizing that it may actually finally deliver on the promises of the Apple TV, but in a portable form factor. For that to work, though, Apple needs their video content to be a lot more appetizing… especially since the Tablet will presumably only support MP4 video files, like the iPhone or iPod. Cheaper video content and season subscriptions to shows would go a long way towards shoring up the iTunes Video Store’s current weaknesses.

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About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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Posted in Apple Tablet, iTunes, News |

  • http://www.toxicspark.com Andrew Macdonald

    I have to admit, I have bought A LOT of TV shows through iTunes. Im talking in the region of $500 worth which has given me over 60 different shows, and 15 days worth of content.

    While i love the ability to buy a whole season and have it on cue through my Apple TV, I do agree that their prices arent at all competitive, and this is something that needs to be addressed.

    For me, im not fussed about the cost, but if Apple want’s to get serious about selling TV shows or pushing the Apple TV more, it seriously needs to look at its costs because as you said, consumers can get the same season box sets for half the price.

  • Cameron

    I won’t pay a single dime until TV shows on iTunes are closed captioned. Apple needs to pressure the studios to offer captioning. There’s really no excuse anymore since the ability to use CC is built into Quicktime now.

  • allan

    How are you able to stream Hulu in Germany? More to the point, how am I able to stream Hulu here in Germany?

  • Charli

    i agree about the CC and subtitles. 100%. i’m actually waiting for a lawsuit over the lack of CC.

    as for pricing. I could see dropping to a $1 for SD and $2 for HD (and perhaps if they ever get a way for 1080p that could be $2.50 or $3)

    what irks me is that networks don’t put up some shows until the DVDs come out. Showtime is horrible about this. but then the DVDs don’t really have any major new content so why bother buying that over the downloads.

    i hate the ads on hulu and such so I like the idea of a different option. the rumored tv subscription appeals to me in theory. i’d have to see the final results before I’d pay

  • Mattzook

    Sure it would be nice to lower the prices. Sure it’s nice of Apple to ATTEMPT to push for lower prices. But in the end, we know that the greedy networks (TV networks, movie studios, etc) will not budge if it means losing a little bit of profit on their part.