Apple’s TV Rentals May Offer Month’s Worth Of Shows For $1 [Exclusive]

Leander Kahney ()

Apple’s TV Rentals May Offer Month’s Worth Of Shows For $1 [Exclusive]

Take this with a pinch of salt, but we’ve been tipped that Apple’s rumored $1 TV subscription service, due to be unveiled next week, is technically correct but missing an important detail.


Instead of renting individual TV shows for $1, customers will pay $1 a month for ALL EPISODES of that show. In other words, fans of CBS’ “Big Bang Theory” can get all episodes of the show as long as they continue to pay the $1-a-month access fee. It would cost $12 to watch the show for the whole year.

The tip comes from someone with connections inside Apple.

If true, the plan sounds like something Apple might do. It’s simple and easy to understand, and the extremely low price tag would likely attract large numbers of consumers. And it would be a big boost for the new, low-cost AppleTV that Apple is rumored to be revamping next week, renaming it iTV and having it run the iOS, the same operating system used on the iPhone and iPad. It will be priced at just $99.

In some ways, it makes more sense than a $1-a-show rental plan. Many of the shows are already free on sites like ABC.com or Hulu — albeit with ads.

Perhaps most importantly, the $1-a-month-plan is not a subscription plan, but it’s pretty close. Last year, Apple tried to offer a video subscription service, according to reports, but couldn’t get the networks to sign on because they wanted to protect rebroadcasting deals. The networks — CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox — make considerable revenue from allowing cable partners like Comcast and Time Warner Cable to rebroadcast shows.

Apple at the moment sells shows a la carte or by season, which studios and networks see as incremental income and not harmful to rebroadcasting deals. However, at $2.99 a show, and $20-$70 a season, consumers haven’t been rushing out to buy an AppleTV.

Apple’s $1-a-month-plan would be an interesting mix between a subscription rental service and an a la carte system. It may be an important stepping stone towards a more comprehensive subscription plan that would offer bundles of shows for a monthly fee.

On the other hand, $1 a month seems very cheap. This would be good for Apple, of course, but it’s not a lot of revenue for studios. But many are already giving away these shows for free on Hulu and their websites.

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Media analyst Van Baker of Gartner thought it sounded crazy: “It doesn’t sound reasonable,” he said. “I don’t ever see studios going for that.”

Baker said he thought it more likely that Apple will continue to offer TV shows for purchase and may add show rentals a la carte. Apple may also be allowed to offer archives of older shows for a monthly fee, but not as low as $1.

“It’s a safe choice,” he said. “It’s incremental revenue and it’s not going to upset (the studio’s) partners.”

UPDATE: This story has been revised slightly to better explain the $1-a-month plan. The story incorrectly stated that $1 gives access to all shows aired during a month. Instead, $1 gives access to all episodes of the show as long as the monthly access fee continues to be paid.

18 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Apple, AppleTV, iTunes, News, Rumors, Top stories |

  • Drew Caster

    This sounds a lot lower than what Hulu makes per viewer. I’m skeptical.

  • Alberto

    I think there will be no mention of AppleTV at the event. It seems completely iPod related.

  • Luc

    Could be viable if iAds are also rolled into this somehow.

  • http://www.pendleproducts.com martin_tf

    Now thats a good idea, £0.79 (I’ll assume) per show for rental seems a lot but for one month it would be great. You can pay for the shows that you watch on a monthly basis rather than with something like Sky where you pay £30 or so a month for a package of channels many of which you will never wathc or only watch for a couple of hours.

  • BMWTwisty

    Now your talkin’!!! This is a concept with serious potential, Let me move the shows between devices and I’m a happy consumer/camper.

  • OlsonBW

    I keep running this around in my head and I can say I could get around $1 per month per show.

    Even $1 per episode would be WAY too high for me. I watch too many different programs using TiVo to even consider anything higher than than $1 per month per show.

    Anything higher than that I would start looking elsewhere for programming.

    One of the things I do now, if I should ever find nothing to watch on TiVo, is skim through the channels until I either find something interesting to watch, or if not, I turn off my TV.

    Imagine me dumping cable TV with TiVo (I’m talking FULL TiVo, not that BS 25% TiVo stuff) to go with iTV. I will have used up my $50 to $60 a month for shows plus what it costs me for whatever internet service provider I need to even use iTV and I’m over $100 a month and propably closer to $120 per month.

    Now what about program/channel surfing. Exactly how do you do that in a timely manner. Meaning something approaching how fast you do it on TV now.

    Disclaimer: I do not work for any cable company or make even one cent from them nor do any of my known friends or relatives. Nor do I or anyone I know work for TiVo.

  • charli

    $1 a show (rather than episode) does make some sense. Networks could finally be coming around to the online game and would hopefully had said fees, along with straight buys, to the budget make good and having it set up in this way would be a means to give them reports of exactly which shows are making how much money and how many dropped subscribers over time or how many added them.

    plus if it was done ‘rental’ style via downloads rather than streams, you can load up stuff and watch offline. a win for users. And you are getting no ads etc, another win.

    Most folks probably won’t replace all their viewing this way but it would be handy for say cable shows. Particularly if HBO, Showtime etc get over themselves and start posting episodes right away instead of waiting until the DVDs come out.

  • Joseph

    I would much rather own the episodes than just get access to them. But it would be great if they brought in $1 tv episodes and 25 cent rentals. i mean who would pay $1 for a rental when there is hulu and netflix on all idevices.

  • JJ

    Why would there be a need for ios apps on a tv because you couldn’t use half of them unless they were adapted for it.

  • Gilbert Wormac

    If this is true, I’m done with cable. This is the Holy Grail of Ala Carte viewing. My whole family watches 15 shows a month at most, and even if it’s 1.99 per show; that’s still only $30 per month. And that’s $50 a month savings for me on my cable bill (Yes I pay $80 per month. And it’s the only way in my area to get Sci-Fi, and the channels for the kids). I’d even sacrifice live sports for $50 bucks.

  • porkchop1234

    I doubt this would ever see the light of day in Canada. Over here all content on cable must have a certain amount of Canadian content plus the big players in the country such as Global and the CBC are protected from international competition. Even if it was a online subscription service I can guarantee you the Canadian cable watchdog service the CRTC would block any attempt by Apple to provide this in Canada which translates as a major loss for Canadian consumers and a win for the greedy Canadian cable companies. Of coarse I could be wrong but I doubt it, there’s a reason why netflix still hasn’t been offered in the Canadian Itunes store.

  • Gerry

    Yes you can get a lot of content free on Hulu now. NOW.
    If the studios see they can get a revenue stream (even a small percentage of the $1 per month) FOREVER, they’ll yank all the free content and then you’ll have to pay to access anything. Any thing.

    …. these people are not stupid, just greedy…..

  • J Jennings

    This sounds like a great concept! I seldom watch TV amd family viewing frquency

  • J Jennings

    This sounds like a great concept! It may not end up priced exactly as planned after all the studio negotiations get done, but it will certainly bring some more competition to the market place that should adjust prices down. I have longed for service that was affordable & yet allowed my family the programming we wanted. Not getting stuck w/channels we don’t watch or need.

    Besides Cable is overpriced and gouges prices because “they can”. I do not know if it is actually greedy when the market & customers can bear the price & pay it. But I can say that new opportunities like this is a natural economic correction that makes the pricing more realistic & affordable to customers! I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled on this one!

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  • Laura B

    I watch free tv shows on hulu and fancast all the time on my laptop. However my favorite shows are usually on Showtime and HBO and I can not find access to the new releases on line for these shows: “The Big C, Weeds, Nurse Jackie, Californication, Hung, United States of Tara, Dexter, and Criminal Minds. Do you know if it is rumored that Apple will sign on the Showtime and HBO networks for the $99.00 new Apple TV box and the $1.00 a month show plan or not?
    Also wondering if a subscriber to the $1.00 a show month plan can pull the show off the Apple TV box for multiple users (everyone in our family enjoy same shows and yet have our own laptops.) Please reply.

  • http://www.tvonweb.org Tv on web

    Sounds like a good deal, but I do truly wonder if the prize is actually worth it? I mean a months worth a show … come on guys let’s be serious …