Well done, Steve Jobs. Another brilliant plan. Sigh.
Kudos: It’s great that you announced to all the world that everyone will be able to download the latest episodes of all their favourite TV shows to the new video iPods. It’s even better that they can buy them from the iTunes Music Store.
Unfortunately, and it’s a big unfortunately, there’s only 12 episodes or so of anything on there and only in the US store. Over here, there’s not even a TV show icon in the store, let alone content to download.
Quick pointers, Steve: most people who use Bittorrent et al to ‘steal’ TV shows are based outside the US. There is no way for them to watch these shows except wait, sometimes a year, sometimes longer, for the shows to air in their home countries. In the US, people can watch the tele and all those adverts that pay for the shows. Overseas markets, according to Apple’s last financials, are responsible for 40% of the company’s revenues.
So a simple question: why didn’t you open the TV stores outside the US first to avoid cannibalising network audiences and sell into a new market? Hell, you’re asking for £1.85 for the other video content in the UK store and only $1.99 in the US store, so it’s not like you’d be losing money with that hyper-inflated exchange rate.
Still, he’s the industry genius, I’m not. Plus those TV networks can be right buggers sometimes.
