Apple adds NBC shows to its video downloads
Apple quietly added new shows to its iTunes video store overnight, including Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Law & Order and Battlestar Galactica. The additions also include some vintage television such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Knight Rider and Dragnet. All are from either NBC or its specialty outlets Sci-Fi Channel and USA Network.
The selections smack very much of 'test the waters' from NBC and seem to have be chosen to cover a range of age groups. The industry magazine 'Hollywood Reporter' is reporting that NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics in February may also be made available.
Apple seems to be sticking religiously to its $1.99 minimum charge, even for very short extracts from shows lasting only 5 minutes. However Apple has introduced a $9.99 charge for a 10th Anniversary Special of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Again, this would definitely seem to be a test of response numbers to feed into any future sales projections.
All downloads remain limited to the USA version of the store, accessible only if you have a credit card with a US billing address.
If you've enjoyed this post you can receive future musings, as I write them, via email. I post about once a week on average. More techy folk might prefer to subscribe to my RSS feed and I'd be delighted if you do. I'm rather more active on Twitter, have a few pictures up on Flickr, and I tend to keep track of people on LinkedIn and increasingly-less-so Facebook. My day job is running WorldTV.com - a site for doing cool things with online video. Merci.
