CBS, NBC to Offer TV Shows for 99 Cents

According to an AP report. "CBS and NBC have announced deals to offer replays of prime-time programs for 99 cents per episode, shifting television toward a sales model that gained popularity with downloaded music." But the shows will only be available over Comcast on Demand, not for download.

Let's acutally read the article before submitting.

[hal2814]

NBC's offering will be through DirecTV. CBS will be through Comcast.

Re:Let's acutally read the article before submitti

[LostCluster]

Which means, to make ourselves clear, neither of these are IP downloads.

Re:iPOD comparison

[Dav3K]

I misread your question. The cost difference is $1.00. Comcast is offering their product (with commercials) for $0.99 while Apple is offering their product (without commercials) for $1.99. Again, the Apple download can be viewed multiple times, whereas Comcast is essentially rebroadcasting for your viewing pleasure at a time more convenient for you. You are paying for the service of the rebroadcasting, not a downloadable product.

Re:iPOD comparison

[generic-man]

With the Comcast deal, you buy an episode for $0.99 and you can watch it as much as you want until the next episode airs, at which point it becomes inaccessible. This is the same VOD model they use for most of their programs: build in an expiration date, much like a video rental.

Re:OnDemand doesn't work with DSL

[Palos]

Our comcast on-demand doesn't require anything other than a cable connection. I have on-demand and nothing is hooked up to the box other then the cable line, defintely no phone line/etc.

These boys are a bit slow

[bigberk]

You can watch excellent content even through the Winamp media library, using a simple mix of efficient audio and video codecs for streaming. Alo, an interesting mailing list post [digital-copyright.ca] in this respect (companies being slow to deliver real time video)

Re:iPOD comparison

[tokenhillbilly]

Actually this is not true. The article says Comcast on Demand customers can use the service. Cable on demand is not like satellite on demand. They truly have servers in the headend like a big TiVo machine. The viewer can watch the show whenever and as often as they want and have pause, fast forward, and rewind capability. Having said all of this, I believe that I would still opt for the TiVo option.

Re:Now watch what they do in DC

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

To respond to two points you made; removing the DRM from a DVD is not, technically illegal. Distributing tools that let you rip the DRM from DVDs is illegal. Also, this only applies if they move all TV to digital, through their proprietary boxes, broadcast, not if they keep pushing it over the air and through analogue cable. I have no doubt they fully intend to move to such a model, but it is really hard to move that large of an install base, many of whom refuse to make their current equipment useless and many of whom do not want to accept the downgraded feature set digital cable gives them. This is just an attempt to offer new features that will make it more attractive. Give up being able to have your own PVR and we will store the content for you and show it when we want. Of course their strategy is undermined by immediate greed and committee decision making. We can't threaten DVD sales so we'll make the episodes expire quickly. Gee lets charge money for these shows they have already paid for and can see for free with a PVR. Etc.

Re:Quitting broadcast TV

[scbysnx]

if it were legal I'd do it.. but honestly.. illegally downloading the stuff just supports the old business model that the industry clings to.. the only ONLY way to change it is to boycott

Re:For the cost of fifty shows

[rmcrob]

Or buy another tuner like the Plextor 402, pay $79 for Sage TV, and you are good to go without any further charges.

Re:OnDemand doesn't work with DSL

[DragonPup]

We had our Comcast person hooking up a phone line to let the cable box talk to their service. At the last minute he asked, "do you have DSL?" We did, and now it looks like we have to use the actual phone to order OnDemand shows. We never have, since it's such a pain, though we constantly watch the free ones, expecially the kid shows.

I work for Comcast out of the New England region. None of our services require a phone line. All of our stuff(Digital cable, VoD, internet, VoIP) use cable lines.

Also, for the CBS deals, CSI and NCiS are in HD format(for people using a HiDef or DVR box). Something to consider. :)

Re:iPOD comparison

[Cat_Byte]

I know you're kidding but am I the only one who feels this way?

The pure irony with me is that when I see ads on tv, if I'm truly offended by the most idiotic/annoying thing I've ever seen, I boycott the company personally. People make more $$ when I don't see advertisements. Old Navy and used car commercials are great examples of showing me something similar to a teletubbies episode or someone screaming at me. Bud Light has some of the best commercials and I do my part to keep them all employed.

Also, I usually end up buying box sets of a season of something if I like it. I never know if I like it if I don't watch it and I have no way of being at home at a specific time on certain days. I would have never watched 'Lost' due to the time and day it airs but liked it enough to buy the first season on dvd.

Re:iPOD comparison

[084883447]

"
NBC makes $0.00 if you record with MythTV
NBC makes $0.99 if you buy/rent/beg for it the next day
"
Actually, NBC makes ~$0.39 if you record with mythtv, through advertising, which is who should be paying for the content, NOT consumers.