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iTunes TV Show price drop anytime soon?

Y

yancey47

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 21, 2008
186
0
I'm just about ready to dump cable and all that but the only thing holding me back is the insane prices of season passes. If they cut the prices in half, I'd jump on board and I think many other people would too. I'm guessing the studios are what's holding things up. While searching the forum hoping to not create a duplicate thread, I found a news item from a couple years ago about a video price drop but it obviously didn't happen. So there's at least been a desire on Apples part to change things up.

So, whaddya think? Could it happen or am I just daydreaming?
 
I think the prices could go down a bit. A season pass for a new show (in HD) seems to run about 60 bucks. sometimes higher. Drop it to 40 and I'm in.
 
Personally, I think $2.99 per episode for a HD version is too high. Most people only watch episodes once anyway. Hulu and each station's online streaming service (CBS, ABC, etc) is probally a better choice for most people.

The biggest problem I have with the few seasons I've purchased is how to store them. Unlike Amazon Unbox, iTunes doesn't allow you to redownload your episodes when you want. Therefore, storage and backup becomes an issue --- especially with the HD files, as you need to store two seperate files (SD and HD).

I guess it depends on where Apple wants to take this. If they want to be an alternative to cable or satellite, they're going to have offer better pricing and/or a subscription service. The current model is very expensive provided you watch more than a few shows per week.
 
yancey47 said:
I'm just about ready to dump cable and all that but the only thing holding me back is the insane prices of season passes. If they cut the prices in half, I'd jump on board and I think many other people would too. I'm guessing the studios are what's holding things up. While searching the forum hoping to not create a duplicate thread, I found a news item from a couple years ago about a video price drop but it obviously didn't happen. So there's at least been a desire on Apples part to change things up.

So, whaddya think? Could it happen or am I just daydreaming?
Click to expand...

You should find out if you can watch the shows you want streaming. If you're like me and mostly use cable for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, all you need is Hulu and patience until the next day.

As far as the season passes, yes, they are insane considering how much less cost goes in to video downloads. Yes, they are about the same as DVD sets, but DVD sets actually go on sale. Apple might run TV show sales once a week on 2 or 3 seasons of stuff that's a few years old, while brick & mortar stores + Amazon run massive sales all the time. Oh yeah, you don't get some uber-compressed video with limited sound and playability options.

In other words, Apple figured out music downloads. But video downloads leave a LOT to be desired.
 
I would prefer to continue buying my movies and TV shows from iTunes. I don't want to sit through commercials just to get the show for free.
Click to expand...
You can't sit through one minute of commercials? Each minute of your time is worth $2 or $3?

Apparently a sucker IS born every minute.
Also, I'm guessing it took several minutes for you to be born.
 
I think the price structure is fine. What I want is them to do a better job of getting the shows online on a timely fashion.

And for f*ck's sake why can't we upgrade our old TV season's to HD? Come on making you buy the entire season again when they decide to add the HD version is really lame. How about an upgrade path similar to iTunes Plus with you paying say $1.00 per show to upgrade to HD?
 
Atomike said:
You can't sit through one minute of commercials? Each minute of your time is worth $2 or $3?

Apparently a sucker IS born every minute.
Also, I'm guessing it took several minutes for you to be born.
Click to expand...

NO I don't want to sit there and watch a commercial break every ten minutes. Is that so hard for you to get through your brain? YES, all those commercial breaks they make you sit through ARE worth $3 of my money. Sucker.

I also have XM satellite radio so I can listen to commercial free music.
 
Cynicalone said:
I think the price structure is fine. What I want is them to do a better job of getting the shows online on a timely fashion.

And for f*ck's sake why can't we upgrade our old TV season's to HD? Come on making you buy the entire season again when they decide to add the HD version is really lame. How about an upgrade path similar to iTunes Plus with you paying say $1.00 per show to upgrade to HD?
Click to expand...

I would go for that. I bought the first four seasons of Lost before they were in HD and then had to buy them again when they were released on HD. I don't mind buying the HD versions at all but they gotta allow an upgrade. I'm doing the same thing with Desperate Housewives. I already bought the first four seasons in SD and the fifth on HD.
 
yancey47 said:
I'm just about ready to dump cable and all that but the only thing holding me back is the insane prices of season passes. If they cut the prices in half, I'd jump on board and I think many other people would too. I'm guessing the studios are what's holding things up. While searching the forum hoping to not create a duplicate thread, I found a news item from a couple years ago about a video price drop but it obviously didn't happen. So there's at least been a desire on Apples part to change things up.

So, whaddya think? Could it happen or am I just daydreaming?
Click to expand...

I think the sweet spot would be .99 for SD and $1.99 for HD so they need to drop a buck, HD Movies should only be $14.95, Season passes need to be more than a buck off to make it worth while.
 
DVDs (SD or Blu) are a superior format in basically every way. Plus they're cheaper. Plus, you'd still own your DVDs even after Apple decides to unplug their DRM servers. If you take care of your discs, they'll last longer than you. With iTunes, you're completely trusting a corporation with your entire video library. Feeling less than bright? You really should.
 
Atomike said:
DVDs (SD or Blu) are a superior format in basically every way. Plus they're cheaper. Plus, you'd still own your DVDs even after Apple decides to unplug their DRM servers. If you take care of your discs, they'll last longer than you. With iTunes, you're completely trusting a corporation with your entire video library. Feeling less than bright? You really should.
Click to expand...

Wow, you are so much smarter than me. I can't believe how big of an idiot I am. I have seen the light now, thanks 100% due to your post. :rolleyes:

The iTunes DRM servers aren't going anywhere... and by the time they do, we'll be two or three technology generations ahead. Who is going to care about a 720x480p video when that super HD stuff Tallest Skil keeps talking about here comes around?

EDIT: Just thought of an occasion where an iTunes movie purchase is better than the DVD. I can download a movie from iTunes in less time than it takes me to rip and encode a DVD via AnyDVD HD/Handbrake. So if I need something in a hurry, the iTunes purchase would be better.
 
Atomike said:
DVDs (SD or Blu) are a superior format in basically every way. Plus they're cheaper. Plus, you'd still own your DVDs even after Apple decides to unplug their DRM servers. If you take care of your discs, they'll last longer than you. With iTunes, you're completely trusting a corporation with your entire video library. Feeling less than bright? You really should.
Click to expand...

Some of use just don't want the bother or hassle of having to store all these DVDs. I am a very lazy person and hate to have to put a disc in a case after I am through playing it. If I had a case for every TV show and movie purchased on iTunes, I would need a very big storage cabinet.

With as many millions of TV show episodes sold, I don't think we have to worry about iTunes and Apple going anywhere.
 
Here is one thing that bothers me when people complain about prices on the iTunes store. If you went to Best Buy today to buy the new Bond movie on BluRay it would cost you $25.99. Now Best Buy is not going to throw in a free copy of it on a regular DVD so you'll need to buy that also to match what you get from Apple, another $16.99.

So $42.98 for what you could buy from the iTunes Store for $19.99. Sure you have to take a minor hit in HD quality 720p instead of 1080p but you do get an SD version that will work on your iPod included with your HD purchase. To me the Movie prices are very reasonable.
 
I'm bitching more about the prices of TV shows than movies. While it's not always the case, (Mad Men is a good example of fair pricing) full seasons on iTunes are usually at least 10 dollars more than if I just bought the dvd set. And on iTunes, as Michael CM1 alluded to earlier, the networks don't have to press it, package it, ship it, and hope to sell X amount in order to make a profit, so it should cost less. I think some of this may have to do with the lack of public excitement over the appletv, but that's a a whole different thread.

I've had very little experience with movies through iTunes, but I do think that 20 bucks for a brand new HD movie to own is fair. Though the rental prices could go down at least a dollar.
 
yancey47 said:
I'm bitching more about the prices of TV shows than movies. While it's not always the case, (Mad Men is a good example of fair pricing) full seasons on iTunes are usually at least 10 dollars more than if I just bought the dvd set. And on iTunes, as Michael CM1 alluded to earlier, the networks don't have to press it, package it, ship it, and hope to sell X amount in order to make a profit, so it should cost less. I think some of this may have to do with the lack of public excitement over the appletv, but that's a a whole different thread.

I've had very little experience with movies through iTunes, but I do think that 20 bucks for a brand new HD movie to own is fair. Though the rental prices could go down at least a dollar.
Click to expand...

The problem with season passes for tv shows is that Apple bases their prices ultimately for the season pass on the number of shows produced for that season, for cable shows thats usually 10-13 , for network shows usually 22, so they are multiplying those numbers by $2.99 and then knocking off a buck or two, so a 22 ep series will be quite pricy. There has to be some benift for me to give them upfront the price of a season, rather than just purchase the episodes weekly, which is economically more feasible, than droppping $60 a show.

Also how does Itunes know that a series has a full season commitment from the network? If I prepaid for 22 shows and they air 13 when do i get the money back if the show gets cancelled?
 
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