TVSquad

Seems like the pricing scheme is to our benefit. I guess the only downside is that the Amazon episodes aren't as easily downloaded to an iPod, but I imagine they might work as is on the Zune and Creative Zen. However, in talking with my friends most of them would watch downloaded episodes on their PCs, not a portable a/v device, so perhaps for the majority of purchasers this is a good thing indeed?

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Season Passes are sold on iTunes all the time for a lower price than $1.99 an episode.

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It gets interesting.

I'll stick to Bittorrent though :)

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Sorry Amazon. I like your store, but you have to get more Mac friendly before I'll start using Unbox

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Just like netflix, you're out of luck if you have a mac.

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I don't really see how its pricing is different if it offers discounts up to 30% since iTunes also had discounts for purchase of a full season. There is still a chance for NBC and Apple to work out a deal but Apple already provides most of the money from a sale and actually makes very little on the sale of anything from iTunes. What it sounds like is that NBC Universal wants to try for an upsale strategy. Where they say since your buying x why don't you add y for an extra charge. One thing I do agree with NBC about is that a consumer should be able to apply purchases already made towards the purchase of a season.

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This whole thing is lame, I don't see why anyone would ever pay $2 per episode, just wait a few months and buy the whole season for about the same price and you get extras and discs as backups.

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this is really frustrating to me as a mac owner. unless they update amazon unbox to support mac os also, it seems like nbc will end up limiting their audience. :(

1) i don't pay for cable service now because there's so much on-demand content online, which i'm fine with paying for since it's per-show.
2) there's no point in getting dvr/tivo if you don't have cable, and i can't watch tv every night, so i can't record (short of getting a vcr... seriously?)
3) so, now i'm going to miss out on some good nbc shows?

anyone have any suggestions?

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Who needs to buy an episode? How about a 24-hour rental for 99 cents? That's what I pay for movies on Unbox (assuming there are any at the discount price that I like). And a TV episode should NOT cost as much as a movie, especially for a 20-minute (without commercials) sitcom. I think 99 cents per 40-minute show, or 75 cents for 20 minutes is fair.

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@nancyofthepants: it's certainly true that if you only want to watch a few shows a year, buying them online is the cheaper option.

If you want to try a lot of shows, watch movies, doc's, limited series, reruns & etc, it's worth using cable plus a DVR to grab all the shows.

I am using these numbers: Cable+DVR $75/month ($900/year), and season passes on iTunes averaging $30/season.

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The thing that is better with Unbox, is that it is supported by TiVo. So, you can watch them right on your T.V. Then if you wanted you could transfer them to your pc or mac.

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Dear Mac Owners:
We graciously suffer your claims of enlightenment (solely by virtue of Mac ownership).

Learn to live with the consequences of your snobbery/choice.

Steve Jobs is no more a friend of "the little guy" than Bill Gates. Indeed, his history suggests the opposite. Apple blows.

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I love Unbox! And I was so happy to hear this; I never use iTunes and have never had a single problem with using Unbox. I can store and watch tv shows and movies on my computer or on my Creative Zen - great for my long commute! Yay NBC!!

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Mike - Some of us find anti-Apple zealots just as irritating and snobby as you find us Apple fans.

When you think about the spending power and demographics of Apple owners, it's kind of stupid for companies to intentionally snub apple users.

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Jobs my be no friend of "the little guy," but at least his company attempts to offer new and exciting technologies to the public -- and not just one-size-fits-all workplace stations. Sure, they're both out to make a buck, but when's the last time someone said they couldn't wait to see what Windows will release next?!

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wow, didn't take long for the apple trolls (both love and hate) to turn yet another topic into a discussion about apple. Good job guys.

Anyways, I refuse to pay money the same amount of money for a digital copy as I would a hard copy. As long as episodes cost the same or more than what it would cost on DVD, count me out. It's even more of a rip off if you consider the extra features and commentaries that you get with DVD that you don't get on a download.

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Um... the article is about Apple and iTunes and tv shows.

It's not surprising that people who own Apples will be grumpy about having some of their favorite tv shows move over to a restrictive service that locks them out and forces them to torrent or wait for the DVD if they don't want to watch it broadcast. This doesn't make them trolls or fanboys... just irritated consumers who are responding on topic.

I notice that on any forum that you go to where macs or apple is mentioned you always get a certain percentage of people spewing abuse about the company and its fans... much as Mike did... so I responded... politely. Mike, if you want to mock Apple fans go back to Digg where that sort of behavior is rewarded. :P

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The problem with unbox, itunes, and NBC for that matter is that they're all trying to create proprietary systems, where you can get only a portion of what you want. Unfortunately, the only aggregators are linking sites like http://www.graboid.com.

Why can't NBC offer its shows on iTunes AND Unbox? Capitalist pig-dogs.

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I am annoyed because I do like to watch and rewatch TV shows, such as Battlestar, on my iPod when I am traveling. My computer is not as convenient and it does not have the memory space that my iPod has. If I can't put the Amazon product on my iPod, then it just is not worth it. So, NBC, you just lost a customer.

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