Corante

About this Author
Sandy Sandy McMurray is a long-time technology journalist whose work has appeared in Time, the Globe & Mail, the Toronto Sun, Report on Business, Profit, and other sources. Between 1995 - 2002, Sandy wrote a weekly column about technology for the Toronto Sun, and served as Technology Editor for five Sun Media newspapers. He has been publishing on the Web since 1996.
Contact: readme@mac.com
In the Pipeline: Don't miss Derek Lowe's excellent commentary on drug discovery and the pharma industry in general at In the Pipeline

Apple

« NBC Universal TV shows added to iTunes | Main | More NBC shows coming to iTunes »

December 06, 2005

Conan the Contrarian

Email This Entry

Posted by Sandy

Dear Conan, Please forgive me for the terrible Conan the Contrarian pun.The new NBC lineup on iTunes includes some interesting price flexibility. Although most of the full-length episodes sell for $1.99 each -- just like the Disney/ABC shows -- there are some exceptions.

The award for highest price goes to Conan O'Brien, for the two hour-long specials that sell for $9.99 each: the 10th Anniversary Special and The Best of Triumph the Insult Dog.

(If something is already available on DVD, shouldn't the lower quality iTunes video version cost less? But I digress...)

First season episodes of Battlestar Gallactica are $1.99 each, but episodes from the current season are available for $15.99 as an "album" (hey, it's still the iTunes Music Store). That's nearly $4 per episode. (Update: My mistake. The $15.99 price was for the four episode BG mini-series, not for the current season, which sells for $1.99 per episode.)

Finally, consider the Tonight Show clips, which are priced at $1.99 but last about six minutes each. The Pixar short films look like an incredible deal next to the best of Jay Walking.

(Then again, that's the same price as the music videos, so I guess value is in the eye of the downloader.)

I guess we'll soon know which product is hot and which is overpriced. At least, Apple will know -- they'll be able to count the downloads and recommend pricing sweet spots to NBC, ABC and future partners.

Comments (1) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Analysis


COMMENTS

1. Dude on December 7, 2005 10:20 PM writes...

Apparently you have this wrong. The $15.99 Battlestar Galactica album is the 2003 miniseries, not the current season. The current season is still $1.99 per episode.

Permalink to Comment


EMAIL THIS ENTRY TO A FRIEND

Email this entry to:

Your email address:

Message (optional):




RELATED ENTRIES
More NBC shows coming to iTunes
More NBC shows coming to iTunes
Conan the Contrarian
NBC Universal TV shows added to iTunes
Sony DRM has built-in Apple DRM?
Intel delay predicted
iPod sales up 400%
Samsung guity of price fixing