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CBS Working to Join iTunes [Update]

Friday, February 3rd, 2006 at 9:45 AM - by Staff

CBS Digital Media president, Larry Kramer, confirmed that the television network is negotiating to bring its programming to the iTunes Music Store (iTMS). According to MarketWatch, CBS is negotiating several distribution deals right now, and Apple is among them. It has already signed deals with Comcast, which is offering some shows on-demand, and Google's upcoming video service.

[Update: John C. Dvorak said in his blog Friday that CBS has already dumped Google as a distribution partner. - Editor]

The network is also making some programming available through its own Web site. Episodes of the reality TV show Survivor will be available for US$1.99 each, matching the iTMS pricing. Also like the iTMS, the episodes will be commercial free.

Unlike Apple's model where you download videos and watch them as often as you like, however, purchased episodes of Survivor can only be watched on line up to 24 hours after they are ordered.

There is no time frame yet on when to expect CBS and Apple to finalize a deal.

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burrito said:

member since 07 Aug 2005 with 177 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:39 am

24 hours?! what the #@!$... why would i pay 2 bucks to watch a single airing of something online when i could just watch it on tv for free. the other shows, like nbc's "the office" make a lot more sense, because i can buy an episode, watch it, watch it again, put it on my sister's ipod so that she can watch it, and look back at things i may have forgotten, later in the season. if cbs goes through with that business model, then my business, they will not recieve.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:49 am

burrito wrote:
24 hours?! what the #@!$... why would i pay 2 bucks to watch a single airing of something online when i could just watch it on tv for free. the other shows, like nbc's "the office" make a lot more sense, because i can buy an episode, watch it, watch it again, put it on my sister's ipod so that she can watch it, and look back at things i may have forgotten, later in the season. if cbs goes through with that business model, then my business, they will not recieve.

burrito, go get some coffee and repost when you're awake. You just contradicted yourself. The NBC show is also on "for free", remember?

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Feb 03, 2006 1:28 pm

Guest neads to learn to read!

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Feb 03, 2006 1:54 pm

I believe the article states that the 24 hour time limit is for video purchased from CBS directly, it does not indicate that iTunes will change its pricing stategy.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:08 pm

While it's true that if you "open" the file you can only view it for 24 hours, but if you "save" the file to your PC you can view it indefinitely. However, it is not burnable to disc nor downloadable to portable devices.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:15 pm

"Free" is also not really free - since 90% of people watching TV watch via satellite or cable, you're paying anyway - though not $2 a show. Presuming you also have at least a VCR or some other recording (if not more than one) device, how is that "free" show really when you add it all up? Paying indirectly or directly is still paying - it's not free (unless your TV was also free). So, if you watch a show once WITH COMMERCIALS on your TV now, how much does it cost you? Versus paying $2 for a no commercial version?

I'm not saying it's a great value or it's for everyone but given a choice between having that choice or not having that choice, it's pretty clear especially since it costs you ZERO if you choose not to buy it.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Feb 03, 2006 4:26 pm

well, if you own a television and vcr and cable service and whatever price you're choosing ALREADY, and you own a computer and and internet connection and iPod ALREADY, then the cost of watching it on television is $0 and the cost of watching it online is $2.

I mean...

we're assuming that noone's rushing out to buy a TV and whatever just to watch this show.

(when i say episodes i'm referring to a VIEWING of an episode)

Depending on how long you've had your TV, the Per-Episode cost of viewing can most likely be measured in thousandths of a cent.

An okay TV is roughly 100 bucks. (check froogle, you can actually get much cheaper if you dont care about having a large screen)

You watch two episodes of broadcast TV 3 days a week ( a modest amount), thats 6 episodes per week, and after a year, you've seen about 313 episodes of television, which translates to about 31 cents per episode.

and the longer you own the TV, the cheaper it gets

wheras in this online scheme, you can watch it for 24 hours for 2 bucks?

the unit price stays at pretty much exactly 2 bucks an episode, considering you're not that likely to rewatch episodes in the time period.

If the other guy was right and you can save it to your hard drive, it changes a bit, but not much, considering that you're only likely to rewatch episodes of a drama once or twice (I can't stand to rewatch episodes that i've already seen unless its been YEARS, in which case we're gonna have to wait a long time to get the unit price to drop to 1 dollar per episode.

And as for commercials, do they bother you that much? i mute them and read a magazine or something. Sometimes the 1 or 2 minute break in a show can help build tension (but thats neither here nor there)

Maybe i should've done my analysis with per hour, rather than per episode?

WHATEVZ

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Feb 03, 2006 10:21 pm

Guest wrote:
While it's true that if you "open" the file you can only view it for 24 hours, but if you "save" the file to your PC you can view it indefinitely. However, it is not burnable to disc nor downloadable to portable devices.

You are mistaken. According to the CBS site if you open the file you can only see it ONCE, if you save it to disk you can see it several times WITHIN the 24-hour period. After 24-hours your windows media player license expires and you have to buy it again to see it.

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A guest said: (hide)

Sat Feb 04, 2006 2:46 am

"Unlike Apple's model where you download videos and watch them as often as you like, however, purchased episodes of Survivor can only be watched online up to 24 hours after they are ordered."

Congrats, CBS, you just screwed the pooch completely on that one.

I guess they didn't want to succeed or something, lol.

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A guest said: (hide)

Sat Feb 04, 2006 7:55 pm

CSI, HERE I COME!!!!

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