Jason Dunn
10-14-2005, 11:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20051013.html' target='_blank'>http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20051013.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"But it isn't enough to shake the very foundations of network TV and bring Uncle Miltie back to life. And that's the point. Five TV shows are an EXPERIMENT, not a business. The experiment going on here is all on behalf of the major movie studios, the very outfits that haven't yet signed on to distribute their movies through iTunes. The studios want to see how the market accepts these TV series distributed in this format, whether the ability to download the shows has a material impact on their broadcast viewership (ratings), and most especially whether we see a surge of pirated copies of "Lost" - copies that can be traced back to iTunes distribution. If the experiment is successful -- if these five shows are able to demonstrate incremental revenue increases that don't harm their existing revenues or pose an unreasonably increased piracy threat -- then the studios and other TV networks will sign on and Apple will be in the movie and TV businesses, big time."</i><br /><br />Robert X. Cringely has some interesting thoughts about the business factors that brought about the video sales. Worth the read.