The Future is NOW: Apple begins selling entire seasons of shows on iTunes before they air on Network TV
Posted by Helper Monkey
Perhaps the greatest allure of the iTunes store (or ANY digital media store, for that matter) is the idea of instant gratification. If you want to watch a movie, you no longer have to put on your “outside pants” and actually drive to your local video store, you can park your keister in front of your computer (where it probably was anyway) and with a few clicks, you can begin downloading yourself a movie from the iTunes store. Yes, in just 20 times longer than it would take you to drive 5 minutes to the local Blockbuster, you can be watching a 2-year old movie from the comfort of your computer chair.
OK, so maybe all the bugs aren’t worked out yet, but we’re getting there. The point I was starting to make here was people love instant gratification, and the more instant, the better.
Well, if the idea of “instantly” being able to download your favorite movies, music and TV shows wasn’t fast enough for you, what if you could download TV shows so fast that they got to you weeks before even the networks got them?
Well, the future is now. Literally. You can now purchase entire seasons of shows before they air, and begin watching them NOW. Unlike Apple’s “Season Passes” of old, where you pre-purchase an entire season of a television show but have to wait each week for a new episode to arrive, some networks are now offering the entire run of their latest mid-season shows on iTunes NOW, before the episodes air.
Case in point, NBC’s optimistically titled “Andy Barker, P.I. Season 1” starring Andy Richter. The first 6 episodes of the former Conan O’Brien sidekick’s show can be purchased and viewed NOW on iTunes, even though we are only a week into its actual airing. While there is a chance NBC is offering the full season NOW because it doesn’t expect to actually AIR the full season, we’d like to give the show the benefit of the doubt as we are big fans of Richter. (He reminds us of “TV’s Frank” from Mystery Science Theater 3000).
So get clicking and purchase Andy Barker, P.I. now. It’s the closest thing to time-travel we’re likely to experience until Apple unleashes OS X 10.5’s Time Machine.
Very cool. This and Apple TV will start the revolution.
What’s even odder is that NBC has announced only 5 episodes will air and the 6th will only be available online. I think all the eps are actually free to stream on NBC.com -with ads …
Though your point is well taken regarding the “download vs. Blockbuster” comment, it was not exactly correct. You said:
“Yes, in just 20 times longer than it would take you to drive 5 minutes to the local Blockbuster, you can be watching a 2-year old movie from the comfort of your computer chair.”
But iTunes provides for viewing purchased movies before they are finished downloading. From Apple states:
“Can’t wait to start the show? You can even watch your movie as it downloads.”
The only limitation would be you will need a good broadband connection to keep up with the stream.
Cheers –
That takes the fun out of waiting for the next episode of your favorite show to be “aired” each week.
Yeah I stopped reading and skipped to the comments as soon as utter cluelessness about the iTunes download process was demonstrated.