Warner Bros and Apple in iTunes TV deal

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 26 July 2006 17:03

Your IT - Home IT

Apple is starting to build a serious repertoire of TV shows for its US iTunes store with the addition of Warner Bros to its stable of suppliers. The Warner Bros deal includes sitcom Friends, classic cartoons The Flintstones and The Jetsons and science fiction series Babylon 5.

In addition, a pilot show of the comic strip character and comedy show MADtv will be for download.

In keeping with Apple's keep it simple one-price-fits all sales model, episode downloads for playback on a PC or an iPod video will be US$1.99.

Like other internet sites offering downloads, iTunes is being viewed increasingly by Hollywood studios as a way to make more money from otherwise unsaleable content. Young people especially are increasingly flocking to the web instead of TV and video stores for their entertainment.

Warner Bros is the sixth major content provider to sign a deal with Apple. There are some complaints from consumers about long download times and average viewing quality of some downloaded shows.

However, for US$1.99 an episode and, given that iPod videos are not exactly high definition plasma TVs, the complaints are fairly muted. It is also not clear when the TV shows will be available for download outside the US.