Danny Gorog24 June 2008, 5:19 PM
TV show downloads in iTunes Australia from today, with attractive pricing.
If you've had an Apple TV or a video-capable iPod at home since March 2007 and have struggled
to find genuine local content for it you'll be pleased to hear that
Apple Australia today introduced TV shows to the Australian iTunes
store.
We've yet to receive a press release from Apple but if you log on to
iTunes you'll notice a big yellow sign that says 'TV Shows Just Added'.
Clicking the link takes you to the new TV Shows section, where I found
29 different TV shows ranging from international hits like 'Lost' to popular local shows like 'We Can Be Heroes'. Pricing
for all TV Shows is $2.99 (compared to US$1.99) and seasons range in
price from $65.78 for 22 episodes of 'Scrubs, Season 6' to $15.99 for 6
episodes of 'Sleek Geeks, Season 1'. You'll note that you get a slight
discount when buying some season packs, but not on all.
As of this writing, information about DRM restrictions on iTunes TV
shows in Australia are still unknown (we've contacted Apple but haven't
had a response). However, if the restrictions are the same as the US store expect to be able to
transfer your TV Show purchases to as many iPods or Apple TVs as you
like, and like music, you can watch your TV Shows on up to five
authorised computers. That means you can legally share your purchased
content with up to five friends or family members who have iTunes, but you won't be
able to burn them to DVD. According to Apple, all TV shows are
available in 640 x 480 resolution -- roughly DVD quality. You can preview them for free to see the quality of each series.
Except for iiNet (which offers uncapped iTunes downloads on all their
plans) other ISPs include iTunes downloads in your data quota, so you
need to be careful when downloading TV Shows. For example, with shows
running around 500MB for an hour show, downloading fourteen episodes of
Lost will cost you around 7GB of data - more then most basic plans offer.
TV Shows might just be the stimulation that Apple need to reduce local pricing on Apple TV - which is currently costs nearly $200 more in Australia than in the US.
If you're interested in downloading TV shows from iTunes, now is definitely the time to stock up on iTunes credits. Apple is currently engaged in a price war with BigPond Music and is selling
iTunes vouchers at 40% off through Big W -- you can pick up $50 vouchers for $30,
but the offer ends tomorrow. We'll be heading out tonight and stocking up on ten or so of these vouchers so we can get $500 worth of TV downloads for $300. Should last the year! (And if we happen to get strapped for cash, we can always "give" them to friends for $40 each down the track!)