iTunes Now Selling Television Shows in Germany

[MacRumors]

Apple announced today that they have started selling television shows in Germany via iTunes. Shows from ProSieben, Sat.1, ZDF Enterprises, Brainpool and US broadcasters ABC Studios and MTV Networks are now available on the iTunes Store in Germany.

"iTunes is the world's most popular online music and TV store with over four billion songs and 125 million TV episodes sold," said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. "We're off to a great start with over 35 TV shows available on the iTunes Store in Germany."

Shows are priced at 1.99 euro and 2.49 euro per episode and are available immediately.

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[tobyx]

The quality is significantly "less than" DVDs, the shows from ABC do NOT contain an English audio track (unlike the DVDs), and the price is not even reasonable considering the DVD prices here and having to backup everything.

I'm not sure why it was done so half-heartedly. Especially since licensing models still make us wait more than a year for episodes with above mentioned restrictions.

Leaving out the original sound track makes them useless to a lot of people.

[Yuppi]

Nice to see that it is finally there..
But i think it is already to late for some of them. For example south park is available online for free with very little advertisement. The quality is indeed very half-assed. I hope they are going to fix that.

[tkermit]

Originally Posted by telf22

very cool

not really. Most of the stuff they put up isn't worth watching in the first place.

I was hoping for more American TV series - with multiple audio tracks including the orginal audio version(!).

German TV is crap right now!

Expensive, too. Oh well, it can only get better I guess.

[Demon]

i just wish that iTunes would not be separated into countries like that...
It should be iTune International. period. but i know... it's not always up to us or apple when it comes to these things.

[TheSpecialist]

Way to expensive, I can imagine this will be normal price for whole europe including the Netherlands!

[tominated]

germany before australia!!??!

[MacVader]

Originally Posted by TheSpecialist

Way to expensive, I can imagine this will be normal price for whole europe including the Netherlands!

I agree with that, and the US shows wil probably will already on the US-Itunes store when they come to Holland.

I live in Holland but buy shows on the US-Itunes store, you just need to buy a US-Itunes gift card on Ebay. And then set up an US account, i am doing this already for a long time.

And the shows are also allot cheaper with the dollar. And this is also when you buy music.

http://www.mikesay98.blogspot.com

This is a great site to buy Itunes gift cards, and you get the code in a few minutes.

[TheSpecialist]

Above poster, I would like to do that trough US buying, but i'd rather bully Apple and the studios and download them free in the meanwhile, until they stop acting stupid and give us movies and TV shows!

Take that! Har Har!

[bspence]

Touch My Monkey!!! Love Him!!

[abrooks]

Originally Posted by tominated

germany before australia!!??!

For obvious reasons.

[cecemf]

Originally Posted by tominated

germany before australia!!??!

Germany before France ?!?!

[LiterallySimon]

Originally Posted by tominated

germany before australia!!??!

Economically, it makes perfectly sense. 82.4 Mio vs. 20.5

[bobrik]

Originally Posted by Demon

i just wish that iTunes would not be separated into countries like that...
It should be iTune International. period.

I couldn't agree more. period.

[SignorRossi]

Germany before Austria? I am living in Austria, and I hope movie rentals will come soon! We can't even buy Pixar shorts!!

[3247]

At the moment, the German video store is nearly useless.

All of the German TV shows offered were already broadcasted in free TV. It might make sense if you've missed an episode (and you actually like these shows).

The offer of foreign shows is simply unreasonable. For example:

South Park is available online. Legal and for free.

Lost is too expensive at 49,99 € for the third season. If you buy it from Amazon.de, it's about the same price and you get the English audio track in addition to the German one. Furthermore, the quality is reportedly below DVD.

[TheCreator]

Originally Posted by bobrik

I couldn't agree more. period.

Same here, but you know how all that licensing **** works...

[twoodcc]

well, this is good for people in Germany. hopefully Apple will continue to improve the quality

[stagi]

Glad they are finally starting to expand tv shows

[hhaeschen]

Originally Posted by cecemf

Germany before France ?!?!

Of course! Germany is the largest market and biggest economy in Europe.

[swagi]

I'm currelntly at work, and the iTunes Store in Germany seems really messed.

I tried to browse TV content, but don't get it. But when I search for TV episodes (like Grey's Anatomy) I get content.

Nevertheless, prices suck really bad. And trying to download the free TV episode from Switch (though I don't like the show, but free is always good), iTunes crashed on Windows.

So much for my experience with it...

[Macciee]

No way I am German & I been waiting for this so long and now they have decided to go with syncronized Language Version ARE YOU KIDDING ME iTunes USERS in Germany understands English and will only pay for the Originals.

MAN I AM SO Dissapointed Please Apple do the right thing!!!

[Stike]

Originally Posted by Macciee

No way I am German & I been waiting for this so long and now they have decided to go with syncronized Language Version ARE YOU KIDDING ME iTunes USERS in Germany understands English and will only pay for the Originals.

MAN I AM SO Dissapointed Please Apple do the right thing!!!

Just get the DVD then. It´s much cheaper this way AND in better quality anyway.

Who needs this offer? People will buy some, but... nah, not me.

[spetznatz]

Well, given the desperate quality of German television output, this is nothing to get excited about.

Tatort, anyone?

[Macciee]

Originally Posted by Stike

Just get the DVD then. It´s much cheaper this way AND in better quality anyway.

Who needs this offer? People will buy some, but... nah, not me.

No iTunes would be perfect for most of us if they only offered in Original versions for crying out loud!