Apple will offer $1 TV shows on the iPad when the new tablet device goes on sale later this year, according to a Thursday report. Several unnamed studios are going along with the pilot program designed to determine whether cutting current pricing in half stimulates sales.
“If you move five times the volume [of sales] at half the price, it’s a good deal,” one U.S. media conglomerate told the FT. Although studios had previously hesitated to sign-onto such an arrangement with Apple, falling DVD sales and low-cost $1 movie rentals from Redbox, are prompting the turn-around, according to the report.
Although ebooks have been the focus of much debate on the iPad’s usefulness, Apple quickly saw the iPad as a platform for expanding into TV. “Since iPad was unveiled in January, Apple has focused on improving its business of selling TV shows,” the FT said, citing an unnamed media executive.
Adobe hinted early on that Apple might see the iPad as ripe for revenue from TV sales. The software company was responding to criticism that the iPad lacked Flash support, a technology left out of the new tablet to ensure Apple doesn’t lose revenue, Adobe suggested.
Wednesday, Disney said the iPad could be a ‘game-changer’ for television. “The interactivity it will allow on a portable device with such a high quality screen is going to enable us to really start developing products that are different than the product that you typically see on an Internet-connected computer, or on a television screen,” Disney CEO Bob Iger told analysts.
Disney was one of the few TV studios that responded positively to Apple’s discussions in 2009 about a $1 per-show iTunes pricing model.
Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffet also views the iPad as a perfect platform for TV programming. “Navigation of programming guides and iTunes listings would occur on the iPad, using an intuitive touch interface. Output would go directly to the widescreen TV on the wall,” the analyst told investors Monday.
