Apple to offer 99-cent TV show downloads
September 10, 2007 – 3:39 amApple will cut the price of TV show downloads at its iTunes Store to 99 cents, media reported Monday.
With the exception of some PBS offerings, TV shows sell for 1.99 U.S. dollars per episode at iTunes. That’s been the price since Apple first added TV downloads to its online digital content store in 2005. Apple initially began with three shows ABC and two from the Disney Channel; these days, iTunes features 550 shows from 58 broadcast network.
Apple is arguing to entertainment companies that a lower price will help drive an increase in digital downloads of their programming, but that media companies don’t want to jeopardize sales of DVD box sets. The end result could be tiered-pricing for TV programming similar to what iTunes offers for movie downloads, where new releases sell for 14.99 dollars, or 5 dollars more than older titles.
Digital music still makes up the bulk of the business for iTunes, which ranks as the No. 3 music retailer behind only Wal-Mart and Best Buy. iTunes boasts a catalog of some 6 million songs for sale.
Apple announced last Friday that it would stop offering NBC shows—the entertainment giant says its shows will stay on iTunes through early December. Apple blamed the breakdown in negotiations on NBC’s desire to increase download prices; NBC countered that it wanted to offer more flexible pricing than Apple’s standard pricing. NBC Universal has begun offering its shows through Amazon’s Unbox service.
