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Apple Reportedly Set to Test Lowering Prices for Some Television Downloads to $1

Xibalba said:
I agree that it would be nice to have a device that fills that gap but until then I prefer the AppleTV to my other media extenders (even in its current state) because I can run XBMC and/or Boxee and view all of my entertainment easily and wirelessly if needed. My wife and I will also use the AppleTV to watch video podcasts, photo slideshows, and also internet radio.

Dropping the price of media would be nice, but will it be the newest and most desirable shows? If not, I doubt this price drop will have much impact.
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Agreed on the preference of the AppleTV. Dead simple to use and the quicker convenience of starting a show beats the mini. I have an :apple:TV on the 'family' tv. The mini's going to go downstairs on the new tv someday, but I bet I'll be the only one that uses it. Our parents who have seen the :apple:TV are much more likely to buy one than a mini due to the simplicity of use.
 
marksman said:
I don't think redbox does much in the way of tv disc rentals at this point.

As for people getting bent out of shape about these rumors, do you think somehow Mac Rumors are not being reported because of these rumors?

Do you think Arn is too busy posting about iTunes to hear about a Mac rumor?

Come on people, the site has evolved and expanded in its scope. If there was a mac rumor they would post about it.

What the site does not need is for you people to crap on every news story that you don't care about.

I think you would find it very cumbersome if all the people here who don't care about stories you are interested in did the same. I am sure it could be arranged if you don't believe me.
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Fair comment but I wonder if people are crapping on these stories because, like me, they are crapping on Apple for not being a computer company anymore.
I'm not dissing this situation or those who like the new Apple...but simply making an observation.
I really am getting tired of all the non computer stuff too, not on this site which should report all of this stuff, but with Apple in general...but hey, each to his own.
 
These rumors continue to confirm how great a marketing genius Steve Jobs is.

He announces the product two months in advance, and once the buzz gets going, the big players get in line: a) YouTube was first; b) then we see TV network / cable CEOs looking at cheaper prices ($0.99 vs $1.99; c) then Hula; d) then the rest fall in line.

Meanwhile, Apple is training their "brick-and-mortar" geniuses during these next six months to be prepared for the consumers when this thing begins to fly off the shelf.

The least capable model is released in two (2) months; better models to follow; and really, really cool models will come out next year.

Yup, this thing is going to fly off the shelf: $499; no contract; Wi-Fi, and unlimited 3G at $29.99.

Cool.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
I want the "best of" TV stuff, then I might actually be inclined to watch TV agaiN! :)
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If this is Apple's response to the networks pushing back on a subscription plan, that doesn't bode well for a subscription plan for Apple TV and iTS.

Reducing the episode pricing from $1.99 to $.99 may spur demand some, but Apple is not going to gain much traction with single episode sales as long as people have easy access to free (hulu, network web sites) and paid-for (cable, DVR) alternatives.
 
Hi Arn(or Eric or whoever). Can you please go back to the rumors get a question mark format? It used to be how I decided what was news and what was rumor while just skimming though stories.
 
How much would you be happy to get for the ~1964 Flying Tigers episode in B&W that has the the three plane configuration in the episode?

How much would you want for Good Times season 1 episode 12?

Answer: not much but $0.99 sounds good at this point.

Per viewer? Wow! What if something old became an internet fad? Let's roll!

Rocketman
 
I'm embarrassed to admit I used to buy every episode of the office as it came out, I think maybe seasons 1-3. Yikes. And now I have it, and I'll never watch it, and it's in horrible grainy quality compared to hulu or ninjavideo which now even has 720p streaming with no wait. I get owning music, as the quality is great as it is and you want to listen to it over and over. But not so with most TV shows, and it takes up so much space, and it's not formatted to fit all the different devices available.

Right now blu-ray is the king of quality. Ideally there would be some technology where you buy a blu-ray and with it digital copies that conform to the particular device you want to use the movie/show with. Like it rips or gives you access to a download to a 1080 digital copy for your MacBook, or it gives you a 480 copy for your iPhone, etc. It's just a mess though right now with quality versus portability of media. They need to find a way to combine quality with portability and resizing media per device. I just bought a blu-ray and it came with a digital copy which I guess would be nice if I had an ipod/iphone (although not really as it's super anamorphic), but the quality of the digital copy is just atrocious--and it's a huge file.
 
iDisk said:
All I have to do is hover over your link and it tells me it's macrumors lol :p ... you may get a non tech savvy person with that ;)
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LOL- his link does really point to applerumors.com, which redirects here. You obviously aren't as tech savvy as you think.
 
happydude said:
great . . . but the apple tv is incredibly out of date given what it is able to do. i just can't imagine they're selling many new devices these days. when a ps3 or xbox has more functionality (other than buying and playing content from itunes), i have no reason to buy one.

i really want an apple t.v., but i want it to surf the internet. or i want a mac mini that can have the apple t.v. capabilities. eitherway, there's a gap between the apple t.v. and the mac mini that needs to be addressed. combining the two into a single product would be the perfect hybrid.
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I bought an AppleTV the first day they went on sale 3 years ago. It got a lot of use the first 6-12 months, but eventually the realization that a Mac Mini was a much better Home Theater solution resulted in the aTV being relegated to a bedroom and a Mini taking its place in the living room.

Even though my aTV was hacked with the Patchstick that lets it do all those things you want, in the end it's just too underpowered to drive HD video. The blacks are blocky greys, and the bitrate has to be low or it stutters.

Dead-end product in my opinion, UNLESS they offer something that makes it higher quality video that's not uber-compressed, and competes with a cable box/netflix or cable box/roku type combo.

Friscohoya said:
Subscription or bust!
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I don't agree, but I'd like it. I don't agree because I did the math, and if it were just me who watched the TV in my house, I could cut my TV viewing related costs by 60-70% by canceling my FIOS TV package and just subscribing to season passes in iTunes for the dozen or shows that I watch regularly. Throw in NetFlix and I'd be just about golden, except for the fact that my friends who come over to chill and watch the tube are channel surfers, and the iTunes/NetFlix combo alone will never meet a surfer's demands.
 
swingerofbirch said:
I'm embarrassed to admit I used to buy every episode of the office as it came out, I think maybe seasons 1-3. Yikes. And now I have it, and I'll never watch it, and it's in horrible grainy quality compared to hulu or ninjavideo which now even has 720p streaming with no wait. I get owning music, as the quality is great as it is and you want to listen to it over and over. But not so with most TV shows, and it takes up so much space, and it's not formatted to fit all the different devices available.
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Remember when you first got iTunes and converted your CD collection to it? Buy once, display wherever.

Steve envisions your past and present purchases to be a license to "long term lease", own for you luddites, all the content you have purchased. Bought the iPod V1.0 of Fleetwood Mac Rumours? Get the lossless version for iPad on demand.

Purchased a DVD of Galaxy Quest? Insert the DVD and get the digital version "unlocked" on the cloud server which you can view on your Apple TV, iPad, or iPod Nano as and when you want to.

Admittedly this is a vision of the future, but the near future Steve has been hard at work on.

For you.

Rocketman
 
Hum. Are we going to get any networks besides ABC? I’m going to bet NBC Universal will not be participating.

I hope it’s $1 for the HD version. :D
 
Rocketman said:
Dude, you are paying to watch it the FIRST time. After that how many ADDITIONAL times you watch it is your business and preference. Some people will become FIXATED on it. Should we charge fanbois more? I ask. :D

Rocketman

Just say yes.
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Then you can buy that episode(s) for a discounted price...

Or maybe... Rent for 50 cents....buy it for 50 more cents.?
 
Over the air tv is free. Just record hd shows to your mac and then stream it to your tv whenever you feel like.

1. you get it as soon as it is broadcast, no waiting for it to be released on itunes

2. you can skip over commercials.

3. if you really love the show you can edit the commercial out and keep it forever.

The only shows worth renting/buying are premium cable channel shows that you can not get for free.
 
pricing...

I always thought that TV shows should be priced thusly:

RENT shows:
* watch a one off episode:
typical 20-30 minute "half hour" show $0.35
typical 45-60 minute show $0.75-$0.99

* "subscribe" for a season: discounted episodes... depending on how many you pay for. Start around 25%-33% off... increasing the more you buy.

For daily shows like the news and programs like The Daily Show and Colbert, you would have special pricing with even deeper discounts.

Lets say you subscribe to the daily show... 4 episodes a week, something like 250 episodes a season. You'd get 70% off for that. ( $.35* 250 *(1-.7)= $26.25

$26.25 for a whole year of TDS sounds reasonable to me. Far more reasonable than the current 16 episodes / $9.99


So then you could also decide, any time before or after you watched the show ( even if it gets deleted ) that you want to keep it. Then you pay a "keep it" premium... say an extra $0.50 per episode regardless of length.
This would be a bone to throw for the studios as an incentive.


What do you guys think? I'm open to criticism!
 
techfreak85 said:
Then you can buy that episode(s) for a discounted price...

Or maybe... Rent for 50 cents....buy it for 50 more cents.?
Click to expand...

OR MAYBE NOT. Look at all the rental services and pirate download services that have gone out of business or offline, that after promising all-access to the world's library for $9.95 per month (or whatever), the offer has been withdrawn for insolvency of the offeror.

When you own a copy and have a device that recognizes the DRM and can switch devices on command, you have forward compliance with a license not dependent on a supplier.

As unlikely as it might be, if Apple went out of business tomorrow morning you would still be able to enjoy all the content on the Apple ecosystem.

That "feature" has value beyond whatever features you tout, real, imagined or historical.

Rocketman
 
This is a step in the right direction. The current pricing is way too high for episodes (among other things).
 
goobot said:
this would make me want to buy tv more. now if they just lower the movies :rolleyes:
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Most HD movies on iTunes cost at least $20. Most Blu-ray Disc new releases are about $23, and the older stuff is sold for less than $20 all the time in weekly sales. iTunes HD = 720p, BD = 1080p. AppleTV = $229, decent BD player = $150.

I know a lot of this is the fault of the studios. But it's a major league fail on the part of digital video. Downloadable video has to cost studios less than manufacturing so many discs and putting them on store shelves, but somehow they and Apple fail to put a competitive price on it, especially with an inferior product.
 
Bruce Oksol said:
These rumors continue to confirm how great a marketing genius Steve Jobs is.

He announces the product two months in advance, and once the buzz gets going, the big players get in line: a) YouTube was first; b) then we see TV network / cable CEOs looking at cheaper prices ($0.99 vs $1.99; c) then Hula; d) then the rest fall in line.

Meanwhile, Apple is training their "brick-and-mortar" geniuses during these next six months to be prepared for the consumers when this thing begins to fly off the shelf.

The least capable model is released in two (2) months; better models to follow; and really, really cool models will come out next year.

Yup, this thing is going to fly off the shelf: $499; no contract; Wi-Fi, and unlimited 3G at $29.99.

Cool.
Click to expand...

Yeah! And when the ipad is a super success the naysayers will be bit***** that Apple is monopolizing the tablet market and all that crazy talk. Right now Jobs is bouncing all over the place sewing up sweet deals to make sure his baby works to the fullest. Is Acer or HP doing the rounds with the leaders in print and media to help out their tablets? NOOOOOOOO! They are just sitting on their tired laurels as always waiting for Apple to show them the way
 
Michael CM1 said:
Most HD movies on iTunes cost at least $20. Most Blu-ray Disc new releases are about $23, and the older stuff is sold for less than $20 all the time in weekly sales. iTunes HD = 720p, BD = 1080p. AppleTV = $229, decent BD player = $150.

I know a lot of this is the fault of the studios. But it's a major league fail on the part of digital video. Downloadable video has to cost studios less than manufacturing so many discs and putting them on store shelves, but somehow they and Apple fail to put a competitive price on it, especially with an inferior product.
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Thank you!!!
 
Rocketman said:
Dude, you are paying to watch it the FIRST time. After that how many ADDITIONAL times you watch it is your business and preference. Some people will become FIXATED on it. Should we charge fanbois more? I ask. :D
Click to expand...

Somebody's been reading Zippy the Pinhead.
 
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