Television on iTunes

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

iTunes has slowly been adding TV content since Decemeber, with individual episodes costing around $1.99. ABC and NBC are two of the largest contributors (though NBC offers more and better content) and new networks like MTV, Soapnet, USA, the Disney Channel. Nickleodeon, and Comedy Central have been putting their toes in the water.

For NBC apparently the kid at the pool who likes to jump in head first, the gamble has worked and NBC shows on iTunes experienced a nice ratings jump (probably as new viewers were able to catch up on the Office and Surface) NBC also added a lot of classic SNL stuff as well and Classic television like Hitchcock, Adam-12, Knight Rider the A-Team and the Munsters.

Since I like to watch movies on my computer the idea of quality downloads of television (torrents are notoriously varied in quality) for my computer intrigues me even though I dont have an iPod capable of playing video. 1.99 seems like a good price to pay networks (yes the content should be free, but there arent any adds and download bandwidth is expensive. Whole seasons end up costing about half of what a DVD would.

So is it a good idea, a fluke, or just a method to sell more iPods, and does it Herald content made expressly for the internet?

[42]

You know, I've met people who have already gotten rid of their TVs and just watch TV programs via internet.

[fuzzyoctopus]

We did that last year, August 2004 to August 2005, baby.  Not such a bad way to live.  You can still watch what you want and you don't waste your life away in front of the tv after getting sucked in my Law & Order or Mythbusters, or whatever.

To answer the original question, I think it's a fabulous idea.

[Shrain]

I definitely enjoyed watching the Lost episode I missed--without commercials. Sure, taping shows is free (minus the cost of a VHS tape) but you still have to cue the tape and FFWD thru ads. And I don't have a huge computer screen, just my 14" ibook screen. Still, I'm a fan of the iTunes video content. The price is pretty affordable, I think. It's also great to get one or two shows that aren't available by themselves but as a group or a set.

[stacer]

The only thing I don't like about Itunes is that they don't really blow up on your computer screen well--I think they only design it for the iPod. Thus, watching Lost on my 17-inch widescreen computer screen full-size is all blurry. So I watch it little, and hope I catch all the details.

[Entsuropi]

That sucks stacer. If they make you pay, you should get a choice of an immense filesize.

Also, Veronica Mars restarted last night. Episode is up.

[stacer]

Yay!

[Peter Ahlstrom]

you can sit further away from the screen...

the resolution is about as good as VHS. Not what I'd feel good about paying $2 for, huge Apple fan though I am.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

My thing is my TV, which is a cheap one, is *still* twice as big as my monitor, which wasn't terribly cheap. So, no, I'm not likely to give up watching Star Wars, or any other visually interesting show, on my TV just because my computer can do it now.

Plus, dialup is *still* the most common internet access method. Can you imagine trying to pull your daily TV watching on a 56k (which is most likely actually pulling at 36-42k)?

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Broadband passed dialup in the US...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5750968/

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

The milestone was crossed in terms of users, but the actual number of U.S. households with broadband Internet connections remains significantly less, according to Bruce Leichtman, the principal analyst for market research firm Leichtman Research. This reflects the difference between users and subscribers, he said.

"We shouldn't really think that half of America is subscribing to broadband yet, but we may be there in a year," he said.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

And that was from 2004...

http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Broadband.TPRC_Sept05.pdf

53% of home internet users have broadband as of May 2005. That doesn't mean that 53% of HOMES have broadband, but it does mean that broadband has passed up dialup.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Still 53% is a low percentage, and closer to half than it is anything else, which I suspect was E's point.
I get your point which is that soon high speed internet will be ubiquitous and not a detriment to downloading. Ive been mulling it over the past few days and I think that internet television broadcasting will become the norm but not for a while. There are still serious hurdles to handling that huge flow of information. Take downloading TV shows, we are currently phasing out analog Television, in 4 years you wont be able to buy one. Digital TV's and their content are much more information intensive than the old analog set. Right now it takes about 10 minutes to download a 30 minute program on iTunes with high speed internet. Popular shows regularly overwhelm Apples iTunes network (one of the best distribution networks in the world). The problem is that high speed internet needs to get much faster and cheaper to allow us to get programs almost instantly before Nettv can take off.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

You're correct, of course. I'm sorry...I wasn't really responding to something I cared about...it's just this urge to dispute facts I've heard differently...an urge it would very often be best to resist.

I like downloading anime, but the main issue in downloading TV shows or whatever is money. I've been reading about this stuff on arstechnica.com whenever they cover it...with the broadcast flag and the DRM and all, it's the contention of many people that the content providers are out to milk us all for every cent we've got, so that we pay for things every time we watch them and have no control over the media we buy, etc.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

how we hates the broadcast flag... we hates it forever! Still I think there will be a point when we get fed up with the media and force the government to deal with their greed.
Or not.

I seriously hope so though. Step one would be to prevent single corperations from owning as many stations and step two would be forcing cable to demonopolize.