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Apple to Offer Seasons Pass for TV Shows
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This is a great next step.... I'm reading that Fios is going to be available soon in my apartment, and with this, I'll be one step closer to ditching all ties to cable 
Only things that remain... HBO Sunday programming, SportsCenter and Yankees games. MLB.tv will cover the third one (and it's live too), and The Steve should be able to get SportsCenter without too much trouble once he's officially on Disney's board. C'mon HBO give us the Sopranos on iTunes!!! Oh wait... I'd want programming from The Discovery Channel on iTunes too (or at least Mythbusters).
Only things that remain... HBO Sunday programming, SportsCenter and Yankees games. MLB.tv will cover the third one (and it's live too), and The Steve should be able to get SportsCenter without too much trouble once he's officially on Disney's board. C'mon HBO give us the Sopranos on iTunes!!! Oh wait... I'd want programming from The Discovery Channel on iTunes too (or at least Mythbusters).
March is on odd time to be talking about a season pass for TV shows. Most network TV shows are within the last six or eight episodes of the season, and there won't be many new shows until summer.
Maybe this is just a rebranded "Buy All Episodes" to capture some end-of-season business and set up a prospective purchase model for later this year when new seasons of shows start.
Maybe this is just a rebranded "Buy All Episodes" to capture some end-of-season business and set up a prospective purchase model for later this year when new seasons of shows start.
macintel4me said:
That's old news. It's for LAST seasons shows. This season is still showing as a full $2 per episode in the buy all area.
I'm hoping it's significantly less than that, say $20. And they need to get some higher res, widescreen content for me to bite as well.
Like the model ... not the choices
While I like the subscription model for TV shows and video ... the offerings that Apple (and the networks) are chosing for the subscription model ... should be free.
The Daily Show and Colbert Report ... while funny are not worth paying ANYTHING for.
Why can't the networks offer EVERYTHING in their programming and just subsidize shows such as this and offer them for free ... just go ahead and include commercials with the free ones.
While I like the subscription model for TV shows and video ... the offerings that Apple (and the networks) are chosing for the subscription model ... should be free.
The Daily Show and Colbert Report ... while funny are not worth paying ANYTHING for.
Why can't the networks offer EVERYTHING in their programming and just subsidize shows such as this and offer them for free ... just go ahead and include commercials with the free ones.
Deimo said:
As much as I'd love to see HBO programming on iTunes there is no way HBO would sell their shows at $1.99. Their 1 hour series DVDs sell for $70-90 and include ~12 episodes. I could see them selling for $4.99 a pop but at the price most people would think it too expensive. Prove me wrong HBO
treblah said:As much as I'd love to see HBO programming on iTunes there is no way HBO would sell their shows at $1.99. Their 1 hour series DVDs sell for $70-90 and include ~12 episodes. I could see them selling for $4.99 a pop but at the price most people would think it too expensive. Prove me wrong HBO
I can see it happening....
Look at the facts:
iTunes:
- Programs are VERY compressed (looks fine on iPod screens but...)
- Program is just that 'the program'
- Stereo audio track? (I think)
DVD's:
- Full progressive scan quality (looks good on projector sized screens)
- Full audio tracks - Surround sound - THX - Dolby Digital - etc
- Foreign language and sometimes even actor/director commentary tracks
- Subtitles (dunno about iTunes)
- Other 'extras' and/or special features
Oh... one more thing...
- NO DRM AT ALL - Play anywhere you can find a dvd player!
Don't get me wrong, I do think the iTunes TV stuff is 'pretty good' but it isn't gonna kill the DVD market with the quality Apple provides today.
Dave
treblah said:As much as I'd love to see HBO programming on iTunes there is no way HBO would sell their shows at $1.99. Their 1 hour series DVDs sell for $70-90 and include ~12 episodes. I could see them selling for $4.99 a pop but at the price most people would think it too expensive. Prove me wrong HBO
While I think you are right about not seeing HBO shows for $2, I think they will be less than $5 (if they get onto iTunes)... The DVD sets seem to top out at about $70 and go down with age to as low as $45 on Amazon (new of course). $5 would make the price $60 a season, and I', not sure they'd price downloads above DVD sets.
More likely is $2.99, if I had to guess. Although, what I find MUCH more likely is they start selling shows on a season PASS only basis. Like a subscription to HBO... which is only $12 or 14 a month for most people. Say a whole season of Deadwood, bought in advance, for $25, same for Sopranos, etc.
I think this might appeal to them because they could make some decent money from someone who may only want one or two shows and doesn't care about the movies, so isn't willing to cough up $144 a year for all of them. People like me.
Again, though, the only way I will spend a dime on iTMS shows/movies is if they get DVD quality (widescreen) and an affordable AE A/V! (I'm going to keep posting this in every message concerning iTMS video content in hopes it will spread and Apple will get the message
).
Wow, it's almost is if Apple ws reading the previous multi-pass thread where a bunch of uis were stating that this would be the next logical step. Very cool, now this is something I could see myself using more than the multi-pass (if I lived in the States, that is!). The big unknown right now is price point - that will make up a lot of people's minds right then and there whether or not they will use the service.
Very cool, now this is something I could see myself using more than the multi-pass (if I lived in the States, that is!). The big unknown right now is price point - that will make up a lot of people's minds right then and there whether or not they will use the service.
mrgreen4242 said:
Yeah, I think this is a big point of contention with many people, myself included. If Apple keeps the quality the same, that's a tougher sale, especially if movies are on the horizon, and especially if that widescreen video iPod comes out. People are willing to pay for this type of service and content, but the quality has to be there in the first place. That being said, I understand that higher quality = larger files, which leads to greater bandwidth requirements, longer download times, more server space, more infrastructure for Apple, yadda yadda...
For me, in Canada, I don't have this option (yet), so it's a moot point, but I know I would have a hard time paying for lower quality copies of TV shows, etc. when I can grab them oh-so easily from the torrents in significantly better quality for free.
~Shard~ said:Yeah, I think this is a big point of contention with many people, myself included. If Apple keeps the quality the same, that's a tougher sale, especially if movies are on the horizon, and especially if that widescreen video iPod comes out. People are willing to pay for this type of service and content, but the quality has to be there in the first place. That being said, I understand that higher quality = larger files, which leads to greater bandwidth requirements, longer download times, more server space, more infrastructure for Apple, yadda yadda...
For me, in Canada, I don't have this option (yet), so it's a moot point, but I know I would have a hard time paying for lower quality copies of TV shows, etc. when I can grab them oh-so easily from the torrents in significantly better quality for free.
Issues with larger files could be easily be handled by integrating a BT client into iTunes. Blizzard does it with WoW updates, and there are other legit companies using it for large file distribution. This is the perfect scenario for BT, with lots of large, single files which will come into points of high demand at alternating schedules... The new episode of Lost will be very popular on the day and day after it's release, then Desperate Housewives, etc. As more people try to get it rather than slowing down the swarm will speed up, and everyone wins.
Apple would have to have a hefty amount of bandwidth for seeding, but they already do for simply broadcasting the (smaller) files out to everyone individually.
That's not true (of DVDs) at all. There is fairly significant DRM at work on a DVD. The fact that the license and system to decode it is pretty ubiquitous, and the DRM has been cracked, may make it seem like there's no DRM but the fact is that you can't legally copy your DVD to your iPod, or your laptops harddrive for easy travel. That's one spot that iTMS videos have an advantage on DVDs...
Now, the iTMS DRM is pretty fair, it's just that there isn't a convenient way to get the file to your TV at this point... I figure the Airport Express AV can't be too far off at this point...
Further to my above post, I agree, this is indeed just setting things up for full blown movies on iTunes. Although, I think the Hollywood studios still do not like the idea of having people own the content, so we'll have to see how all that plays out. Apple may brand this as a "subscription service", however, it is more of a "bulk discount" than anything. This model works just fine for TV series, however how would it work for movies, when there is only one of them? My thinking is that Apple would then have to tweak their model for movies to incorporate some type of NetFlix arrangement, or something along those lines. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out (no pun intended).
mrgreen4242 said:
Yes, that’s quite true – this would definitely be an ideal situation in which to implement torrent technology. As you say, due to the immediate demand for certain shows immediately after they have been broadcast, this will lend itself nicely to the service.
And although it would require more bandwidth, and may not be feasible as a result, I like the idea of having a TV show/movie stream to the customer while it is downloading. This solves the “immediate gratification” issue which would affect this service. Music customers are used to having their music immediately after purchasing it, and may not like the idea of waiting a long time for a movie to download. While it’s downloading, have it stream to the user so they can watch it in essentially real-time, if they so choose, and then ultimately they will have the file itself once it is completed downloading for future veiwings. This would make even more sense for movies in general, due to their length, or also if Apple increased the quality (and therefore file size) of its TV content, as this would result in even longer download times.
Unit the quality goes up to at least DVD resolution AND sports events (at least Redskins and weekly highlights of all the football games and basketball playoffs) are offered immediately after, then I'm still keeping my $180/year cable provider.
macintel4me said:
I could definitely see that coming in the near future. This Season Pass could easily be translated into "Season Tickets" for sporting events, and the same model would apply. You could pay for a complete package of football, hockey, baseball, basketball, etc. games for either a set period of time, for a complete season, specific to certain teams, whatever.
This model lends itself perfectly to this scenario, so I defintely think it is something we'll be seeing from Apple in the future.
DMann said:
Thank god, lets hope so. At first i was against the subscription service. but now i don't think i'll ever use anything but iTunes, unless i stop using a mac, but i don't see that happening anytime soon. Maybe not so much for the music, but for the videos, there should def. be sub. based services, even better than the multipass.
You only watch one TV show? Or, in other words, you only care to pay to watch one TV show? I don't watch much TV, but I watch more than that. I probably watch around 5-10 hours of TV a month. Mostly sports stuff though.beverson said:
DaveGee said:
True, but apparently you haven't heard the plans for Blu-ray and hd-dvd - it's not really the expanded capacity that studios are craving ... it's the fact that the Discs have DRM and the burners encode DRM onto each disc.
What's with the "must be DVD quality" crowd? Do you all own 60-inch plasma HDTVs or something? I download and watch BSG every week with my fiance on my old fashioned 27-inch tv and it looks fine. Do you really need to see Starbuck's sweat glands and Apollo's nose hairs to enjoy the show?
macintel4me said:
Where the heck are you getting cable TV w/ higher channels for $15 a month?
Thanatoast said:
I completely agree. If you want the DVD ... buy it ... or buy both. I don't see the quality changing and MOST people don't care.