$2 each for Zune TV show downloads

p2pnet news | TV:- Would you be dumb enough to fork out around $2 for individual episodes of the likes of The Office, South Park or Battlestar Galactica so you could watch them on your Zune, assuming you had one?
But wait!
No worries. It’s only Microsoft money – 160 BillPennies.
But wait!
It is real money, or the equivalent thereof!
“Among the company’s partners for the new service is NBC Universal, which had a highly publicized falling out with Microsoft rival Apple last year,” says the Mercury News, adding the downloads are part of a larger Zune “update,” following which, “customers of the Zune subscription service will be able to download songs from their friends’ music playlists to their Zune devices,” it says adding:
“The device will also create automatic updated playlists.”
Yay!
.
.Stumble It!
BillPennies – Microsoft’s Zune scam, November 13, 2006
Mercury News – Microsoft to offer TV shows May 6, 2008
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May 7th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
$2 is not that bad for a tv episode.
the price should be based off of length though.
I think $0.50 for every 30 minutes would be very fair.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
$2 is not that bad for a tv episode.
u must be joking
May 7th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
$2 isn’t that bad, but can I port it over to my laptop, and watch it while I fly to NY?, or burn it to a CD and archive it to watch in another year when I feel like seeing it again?
Do I get Dolby 5.1 sound, and crystal clear picture quality on a high resolution LCD?
I’d pay $2 for a 45 min commercial free show, under these circumstances, and if the show is, by my personal opinion, exceptional.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
“$2 is not that bad for a tv episode.”
“$2 isn’t that bad, but can I port it over to my laptop, and watch it while I fly to NY?, or burn it to a CD and archive it to watch in another year when I feel like seeing it again?”
Read the following story and then tell me why you would ever trust buying DRM crippled crap from Microshaft (or anyone for that matter);
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/15722
May 7th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I’d have NOTHING to do with DRM even if “free”. Why give more money to MS anyway when they are free to air and electronic copies cost nothing to produce? $2 sounds cheap but say a show runs to 140 episodes? It adds up. This is all EXTRA on top of all other associated costs, including ISP account, electricity, storage costs, plus the time and effort needed in downloading.
July 26th, 2008 at 5:28 am
I am not inherently against paid downloads. Heck, I’ve bought quite a lot of music from PlayDigital, but the main problems for me are quality and the price in relation to what it costs them. You can download, for little more than the cost of your net connection, full 720p high def TV shows, sans adverts, if you know where to look. What is the industry doing to match this that doesn’t treat them like potential thieves? And at a cost which reflects what it costs to distribute, with appropriate royalties?
But I think DRM is the number one problem – and to see executives from, I think it was Universal, saying that DRM free media is ‘without merit’ (I read this back when Steve Jobs made that unbelievably phony open letter) makes me wonder whether anyone above the boy who makes the morning coffee is in touch with the real world.