Comments on: Report: TV execs dislike idea of price cuts at iTunes

Apple wants to slash prices of TV shows available for download at iTunes but Hollywood is cool on the idea, according to report.

[cheezr]

to the tv execs

instead of a shoving match w/apple why not pick one or two shows
and try it (you have nothing to lose).
I can tell you that while i would never pay $1.99 to see a missed
episode, i would probably pay $.99 to see an episode of one of my
favorite shows without thinking much about it.

CZR

[DrtyDogg]

they can't

This is why they left apple will not have flexible pricing, even to try it on one or two shows.

[chuck_whealton]

I agree with you...

I might consider .99 cents, as well. What I don't get is that these guys have already made the money off these shows. If they hadn't, they would already be off the air (in most/many cases).

The rest is extra. I guess that's not good enough.

Charles R. Whealton
Charles Whealton @ pleasedontspam.com

[airwalkery2k]

Go ahead, give flexible prices

Go ahead, Apple. Give companies more leeway in changing their prices. Then they can watch their sales plummet while companies that go with the 99 cent model will see their sales soar.

[DraconumPB]

Interesting thought...

Here's what I bet the TV networks are afraid of - the Internets are going to start replacing TV viewing (personally, I almost never watch TV myself anymore, the internet provides pretty much all the entertainment and whatnot that I could really ask for), and TV ad revenue will fall, etc. So really, in NBC's view, they have to monetize as much internet usage of television content as possible (hence the DMCA'ing of their content off of Youtube).

Not that I think they should be able to charge $5 an EPISODE (that's simply ridiculous, and on the whole is much higher cost than simply buying the DVDs, or perhaps that's the point), but they should probably be able to make some money on their IP. On the other hand, Apple shouldn't be able to tell them how much money they should make on their content, as that's really up to them whether or not their choice is fair to the consumer. And besides, if NBC wants to charge exorbitant amounts of money for its content, people will be that much more likely to pirate it anyway. (I know that I will definately buy things that are reasonably priced, and I've bought hundreds of dollars of 320 kbps DRM-free music at Beatport at about $1.49 a pop, but things that are ridiculously priced or unavailible legally I tend to pirate).

So I say, let them run Hulu. I'm all for it. If they don't give consumers a good deal, they won't buy it, plain and simple. But if they DO (okay, not saying that's likely), they may just prefer this new deal over buying through iTunes. I know that personally, I hope to never buy anything else from iTunes in my life, so it could be a good thing :)