Thursday, March 09, 2006

Should TV Networks be worried?

There have been lots of articles floating around this week about the rise in (illegal) downloading of TV shows and whether it will impact the way TV networks do business. Even with a PVR I struggle to get to watch everything that I want a combination of moving time slots, running late (or early) or just showing things in some random order makes it all too hard.

How networks can expect to have a loyal fan base for a series when it's a challenge every week just to find when your show is on...

Another announcement by Apple on it's iTunes service for more Video download pricing plans - iTunes unveils "Multi-Pass" purchase option. Basically looking at changing the current pricing model from US$1.99 per episode to a more subscription based system.

Unfortunately I don't know if there are any plans for us downunder to score the video download service, but this is definately the way to go with your Mac Mini pluged into your TV Streaming down the latest episodes of your favourite shows.
"This Multi-Pass includes the most recent episode (if one is available) and the next 15 episodes of The Daily Show. The most recent episode (if available), will download immediately and future episodes will download as they become available," according to Apple's website.

It certainly can't be long before the current TV networks have to rethink their strategies on programming...


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I read an interesting article about this yesterday from the new CEO of Disney. He hits the nail on the head. Who knows when season 2 of BSG will air in Australia and I don't even think VM will continue to be showed here. Funny why Australia is on the top illegal download list. Because we are an English speaking country who always gets left out. Xbox 360 worldwide release. I didn't know the world was USA, Europe and Japan.



"Iger's wake-up call may be something of a first among big TV and movie industry execs, but it must be noted that the fundamental problem has been known for quite some time. As BigChampagne CEO Eric Garland noted back in 2003, the movie industry has to ask the hard questions: for instance, why do so many people "steal" content online? One reason is because the industry won't sell people what they want, when they want it. People who live in markets where Verionica Mars isn't available aren't going to wait until July 2006 to catch up on season 2, not if they know about other ways to get the content. "