iTunes is a strong service for music and apps, but it’s video offerings are far shakier, especially when it comes to television shows.
The biggest issue is the price: the average show costs $1.99 on iTunes.That seems to be more than most people want to pay for something that can watch for free on television, or wait a few months to buy on DVD for 25-50% less.
Apple’s been hinting they want to drop the average price of television shows on iTunes for awhile now, but it looks like they’ve finally convinced a network to go along with the plan. According to All Things D, CBS is planning on marking down the price of some of its show (but not all) to $0.99.
It’s a smart move, but the wording makes it clear that CBS still intends to charge full price for their more popular shows. With partners like this, Apple’s got a long way to go towards threatening the cable industry.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
