Apple wants to drive iPad sales by offering downloads of television shows for just 99 cents, half the price of most shows currently being sold on Apple’s iTunes Store, news reports indicate.
Apple now charges $1.99 per episode for standard resolution and $2.99 for a high-definition episode. Those are very high prices for content that is free over the air or with a cable subscription and that can be viewed only on PCs, iPods and iPhones.
But with the March release of the iPad, Apple is hoping that reasonably priced content plus the iPad’s huge, high-resolution screen will make paying for TV content more compelling.
The Apple Store Experience
The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple met with at least one network last week to discuss the 99-cent pricing model. Apple is trying to “ignite the video part of iTunes,” a source said. Apple had originally been trying to strike subscription deals with TV networks and producers, but those efforts have stalled.
Will 99-cent TV shows drive adoption of the iPad? “That in itself probably won’t drive a lot of sales,” said Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Intelligence. Sterling believes the conventional wisdom that consumer disinterest in the iPad will dissipate when the device actually appears.
“My belief is that once it gets into the stores [in late March] and people can touch it and play with it — especially if they drop the price a little bit — I think it is going to sell,” Sterling said. Despite a rash of negative coverage after the incredible pre-announcement hype, Sterling asserts that “sales will be fine.” Apple’s retail strategy will be “key to popularizing the device. I just believe that once people can touch it they’ll be interested.”
A New Device Category
And it is high-definition video on an impressively sized mobile screen that…