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

[fpnc]

There are actually some fairly decent TV download deals on iTunes. Right now you can get a full season of Star Trek Enterprise in the iTunes HD format (720p, 4Mbps) for only $23. Since there are 26 episodes in season 2 that works out to $0.88 per show. The so-called standard definition season is only $13 ($0.50 per episode).

I'd only seen a few episodes of Star Trek Enterprise, so to me that seemed a fair price (because it was all "new" material). Of course, you need about 45GB of disk storage to hold season 2 in HD, so at current storage costs that's another $5 (or twice that if you want a backup).

Even the DVD boxed set on Amazon is over $50 per season, so the iTunes HD version is about half priced to the physical, SD-only discs.

 

[jaw04005]

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.

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.

You’re absolutely right. If you buy your Blu-ray discs from Amazon, their Blu-ray pricing is generally right at or below iTunes HD pricing.

In fact, if you pay attention to forums like SlickDeals you can often find manufacturer coupons for Disney Blu-rays like UP, Cars, Monster’s Inc, etc that Amazon will match if you’re a frequent customer.

I think I paid $10 for UP, $8 for Monster’s Inc and $8 for Cars on Blu-ray a few months ago. Currently, Apple places an enormous convenience charge on their TV shows and movies.

A non-Disney example, would be Season 1 and 2 of Weeds which runs $29.90 and $35.88 respectively on the iTunes Store in HD. However, the Blu-ray season sets were available for $9.99 each on Amazon just a few weeks ago and are currently priced at just $17.99 each.

What the digital distribution model is missing is retailer discounting.

I could see if you’re used to paying $100 per month for cable TV, where iTunes could be viable. But for most people I would think Hulu (free), network Web site streaming (free), Netflix ($9.99 per month) or even Blu-ray discs (average $14.99-$28.99) would be a better value.

Something has to give if the studios want this market to take off. Personally, now that Apple gave in to the record labels, I think all of iTunes pricing is out of control.

 

[nelmat]

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.

It is entirely the fault of the studio, they set their price, in the face of Apple trying to talk that price down.

You're wrong about the disc manufacturing process and putting them on store shelved being a significant cost, it's a tiny percentage of the overall cost, more or less cancelled out by the (2/3%?) reseller fee charged by apple.

 

[nelmat]

I think I paid $10 for UP, $8 for Monster’s Inc and $8 for Cars on Blu-ray a few months ago. Currently, Apple places an enormous convenience charge on their TV shows and movies.

No, they don't, Apples percentage is tiny - and that copy of UP that you purchased was illegal, it's not available to purchase yet. Don't confuse illegal sales channels with studio authorised resellers.

 

[jaw04005]

No, they don't, Apples percentage is tiny - and that copy of UP that you purchased was illegal, it's not available to purchase yet. Don't confuse illegal sales channels with studio authorised resellers.

What are you talking about? I wasn’t buying from an illegal sales channel (Amazon.com). It was a manufacturer’s coupon that Disney offered on top of retail pricing. For example, I believe UP at the time was $19.99 - $10.00 coupon, so $9.99 total for the Blu-ray.

Similar deal existed for Monster’s Inc and if you bought UP, Monster’s Inc and Cars together you got another $10 discount.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3692

Disney also recently did a manufacturer’s coupon for Snow White (bring it down to $9.99 for the Blu-ray) and G-Force (didn’t bother participating in that one).

No, they don't, Apples percentage is tiny - and that copy of UP that you purchased was illegal, it's not available to purchase yet. Don't confuse illegal sales channels with studio authorised resellers.

Don’t kid yourself. Apple came up with the pricing model for TV shows and movies. Otherwise, it would be all over the place (Universal would want $14.99, WB would want $16.99, Disney would want $17.99, etc).

The $19.99 for HD movies, $14.99 for SD new release movies, $9.99 for SD library releases, $2.99 for HD TV Shows and $1.99 for SD TV Shows was Apple’s idea. Just like $0.99 was Apple’s idea for pricing music downloads.

 

[distortedloop]

My brother has apple tv, he loves it. There's so much software out there that increases/replaces the devices functionality.

I bought aTV the day it came out. Didn't regret it for a while, but it definitely needed hacks to add necessary (IMO) functionality. That's the issue with all of Apple's products except the original iPod and the Mac - they need to be hacked/jailbroken/patchsticked to be all that they have the potential to be. It's why I'm moving away from the iPhone, and not recommending aTV to anyone.

AppleTV's not a dead product, though. A friend of mine just bought one because he thinks it's fantastic. He did not appreciate my criticism of his decision to get one, and thinks it's a fine product for what he intends to do with it. Unlike me, he did not buy it sight unseen, he saw it in use at another friend's house.

Go figure.

 

[distortedloop]

There are actually some fairly decent TV download deals on iTunes. Right now you can get a full season of Star Trek Enterprise in the iTunes HD format (720p, 4Mbps) for only $23. Since there are 26 episodes in season 2 that works out to $0.88 per show. The so-called standard definition season is only $13 ($0.50 per episode).

I'd only seen a few episodes of Star Trek Enterprise, so to me that seemed a fair price (because it was all "new" material). Of course, you need about 45GB of disk storage to hold season 2 in HD, so at current storage costs that's another $5 (or twice that if you want a backup).

Even the DVD boxed set on Amazon is over $50 per season, so the iTunes HD version is about half priced to the physical, SD-only discs.

Or you could just get all the seasons on DVD as part of your $8.99 per month NetFlix service...

 

[NightStorm]

Or you could just get all the seasons on DVD as part of your $8.99 per month NetFlix service...

But then you don't own them...

 

[distortedloop]

But then you don't own them...

But you can always get them from NetFlix again if you really have the urge to watch again.

You're going to watch Star Trek Enterprise enough repeat times to make it worth $100s of dollars and a couple of hundred gigabytes of disk storage to keep copies on hand for at-a-whim viewing? Really? - myself

Besides, you don't really own any iTunes TV/movies content. You are sort of leasing it (without payments) due to that whole DRM thing. You can't loan it to a friend, you can't sell it, therefore you don't own it.

 

[NightStorm]

But you can always get them from NetFlix again if you really have the urge to watch again.

You're going to watch Star Trek Enterprise enough repeat times to make it worth $100s of dollars and a couple of hundred gigabytes of disk storage to keep copies on hand for at-a-whim viewing? Really? - myself

Besides, you don't really own any iTunes TV/movies content. You are sort of leasing it (without payments) due to that whole DRM thing. You can't loan it to a friend, you can't sell it, therefore you don't own it.

People buy lots of TV shows on DVD... its a pretty big market. Buying them from iTunes is no different (I'm not getting into the DRM is leasing argument); you just have to have an adequate place to store the files.

 

[distortedloop]

People buy lots of TV shows on DVD... its a pretty big market. Buying them from iTunes is no different (I'm not getting into the DRM is leasing argument); you just have to have an adequate place to store the files.

Whether you want to get into the DRM argument or not, you are absolutely incorrect to say that buying DVDs and buying TV shows on iTunes "is no different."

It is different, precisely because of the DRM. That's an indisputable fact:

With an iTunes purchase you can only watch the content on up to 5 computers, and their associated syncable devices (iPods, iPhones, iPads, AppleTVs). You can't loan them, sell them, donate them to the library, etc.

With a DVD set you can loan them, sell them, donate them to the library, etc.

Beyond comprehension how you can say the two models are "no different."

I see little value in purchasing iTunes video content, but I will acknowledge that others might, but you need to acknowledge that it is far from the most economical or practical option.

 

[zweigand]

Until Apple moves away from the download model and allows TV shows to be streamed I won't be buying much video from the iTunes store. Right now I've got Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand streaming through my Roku and none of it is taking up any HD space. Surely this is what Apple is building that giant data center for. Downloading multiple versions of the same movie at different resolutions for different devices is a PITA. Apple should be following Netflix and Amazon's model and just hosting the files and serving up the correct stream to whatever device you happen to be on at the time.

 

[fpnc]

Or you could just get all the seasons on DVD as part of your $8.99 per month NetFlix service...

Except that the current Star Trek Enterprise DVDs from Netflix aren't HD and the season purchase from iTunes is 720p. I'm not saying that Netflix isn't a good deal (it is and I also subscribe to that service); however, the current Enterprise downloads from iTunes are a pretty good deal.