Next Apple TV to offer 99 cent streaming episode rentals?
By Donald Melanson 
posted July 12th 2010 1:19PM
posted July 12th 2010 1:19PM
We've already had some indication that the next Apple TV might boast a low, low $99 price tag, and it looks like Apple might be working to make TV shows cheaper as well. According NewTeeVee, Apple is now trying to convince networks to let it offer rentals of episodes of TV shows for 99 cents. Like movie rentals, you would have 30 days to watch an episode after you purchase it, but the shows would reportedly be streaming-only, and not actually downloaded to the Apple TV, which would certainly line up with the cloud storage model we've heard about. Not many more details than that, unfortunately, nor is there any word that the rentals would extend beyond the Apple TV.
Looks good I guess.
@Ninetysix
Hulu is free for the same thing, gotta have Flash though - suckers.
@BerkleyBerkley2011
For me, the "killer app" is going to be Live sports in HD. This is the single reason I haven't gotten rid of my stupid cable TV yet. uggggh.
@Ninetysix
I would pay $30/month for on-demand streamed TV in HD and would probably pay an additional $20/month for commercial free. Unfortunately, when sort through all the clutter and paid progamming on satellite/cable TV, I don't think TV (with commercials) is worth anything more than $30/month.
Just my two cents.
@crawdad689 Really depends on which sports you're talking about. The MLB.TV service is outstanding and they're gone far to push it further than just browser-based viewing. Great video quality, live and integration with a whole bunch of 3rd Party devices (like Roku and iPad) and even a Boxee app. Pretty awesome, and the final straw that was required before cable got the boot in my household. It also works well on my hacked first gen AppleTV.
@BerkleyBerkley2011 The true reason Apple hates Flash comes out - they can't charge $1 per 1/2 hour for entertainment with it :P
@crawdad689
Get rid of cable tv and watch sports at your local sports bar. Not only will you get rid of that cable bill, but you'll have:
1 Lots of games available to choose from
2 Lots of beer
3 and lots of 20 year old girls.
@zerotwone Netflix is $9/month, ad free. Rent and stream Movies and TV Shows as much as your heart can desire.
@Ninetysix
Meh, once you start the show (or movie), you only have 24 hrs to watch it... which means you can't watch it again unless you want to pay again.
@Ninetysix Until Apple TV supports old-school 4:3 TVs it will continue to under-perform. I'd have bought one a long time ago but my old TV is still kicking and I'm not going to get an HD TV just for Apple's little toy.
@BerkleyBerkley2011
The Hulu app for the iPhone says differently.
@derekdevine
I use Netflix and love it, but 90% or more of the content is old as hell. I believe $30-50/month is a fair price to pay for a service which provides the newest television shows on the day (not the next day) of the release directly to my HD screen – not to my computer via Hulu.com.
Keep in mind that the cheaper it gets, the less money there is to invest into producing premium television shows. I'd like to see Apple and other future "Internet TV" companies come up with a flat cost per month – versus an a la carte pricing model.
One thing is clear, however, paying $100+/month for television through satellite/cable will likely become a thing of the past over the next few years.
@BerkleyBerkley2011 I thought Hulu was $10 a month for FULL content?
@zerotwone I don't think any TV is worth paying for.
what a ripoff, just like .99 music singles. (It would cost $30,000 to fill up a 120 gig ipod using itunes)
@MicrosoftOwns
I'm guessing you steal your music instead? Cool story bro.
Provided you listen to GOOD music, 99 cents per track (or $9.99 - $11.99 per full album) is more than fair. Apple has done away with ALL DRM in their music, and it is very good quality. They also allow you to seamlessly use 1 copy across a ton of different devices.
@MicrosoftOwns As long as HULU is free on the Web I'll NEVER PAY FOR A TV EPISODE...
But I would pay for full back catalogs for $10 a month with Hulu Plus... because I would make damn good use of it
@crawdad689 Please note that Apple isn't going to ask for 99 cents per episode to buy, but rather 99 cents to rent a TV episode. I think that is ridiculous. Maybe if it was 1/4 the price to rent I would think about it but only maybe.
I'd never pay 99 cents for a TV episode.
@GeneralThade, exactly. With hulu subscription coming out everything else seems highly over priced.
@GeneralThade
Even if it was commercial-free? If so, 99 cents seems pretty fair.
The real trick would be to have a FREE episode model that was chock full o' commericals, ALONGSIDE a paid model without commercials, so the user gets to choose for every piece of content they consume.
@crawdad689 Comcast on Demand, any DVR, Hulu... Why is $.99 fair again?
@crawdad689 I don't think that that model will ever work. If I'm an advertiser, why would I buy commercials on a show or network that, at the same time, is trying to undercut my eyeball count by selling a "premium" version? The paid Hulu will, unfortunately, still have commercials. Actually, the thing that bugs me the MOST about Hulu commercials is not that they exist, it's that they show the SAME damn spot in every break.
@Edobe Cause Comcast On Demand requires you to have a huge bill to have access to a ton of crap you'll never bother watching. Guaranteed if you cut out the $75 a month cable bill you'd save money by just watching what you wanted to for $.99 a pop.
@GeneralThade
I won't pay if it is a show I can get over the air for free. I would pay for Top Gear (BBC), The Daily Show (Comedy Central), and quite a few Discovery Channel programs. But, I would like to see it pre-download the shows for me, not just stream it live.
They also need to list a bunch of the free podcasts by channel and make it easy for people to have TV ready to watch that is up-to-date.
@GeneralThade Cant wait for Google to join and make Television Free Again! You Fanboys are happy making Apple rich while Apple is Happy making you poor!
@GeneralThade the one thing that I don't get is- most seasons on dvd of a tv show (as long as it isn't an HBO or showtime series) are anywhere from $20-30 for anywhere from 16-30 episodes- so why would you ever want to pay $.99 an eposode when it is not much more to wait, buy the season and have the physical backup, special features and cool packaging for not a whole lot more... the other way you just watch it an 30-45 minutes later you have nothing
Hate Apple or not, you know that whatever this is in the end, will be freaking cool.
@rmbrown09
Yes I do hate Apple. And no, I do not know that to be true.
@GeneralThade ...yet
Oh come on! That's a fanboy statement and you know it! I still own a Newton... and it's not freaking cool.
@buoy guilty.
Right now I am in fanboy mode because of this
http://cl.ly/24c82be31a0f1f7b796b/content
iPhone 4 = very soon
@rmbrown09
Calls being dropped = very soon
@loadoftoad If you say Consumer Reports + Engadgets review you will see that they say calls are rarely ever dropped.
How is it a purchase if you have 30 days to watch it? Wouldn't that be a rental?
A buck is too high for an episode. They need to look at the 10 dollar price points than Hulu + and Netflix is currently camping.
I'd pay .99 for a brand new movie in 1080p. Not a TV episode though.
Seriously? $1 per episode. And here I thought Hulu + was ridiculous. They are really losing their mind now.
God forbid I can watch these same shows and episodes on Hulu for free on my PC, but charging $1? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING?! OMFG IM FUCKING RAGING NOW THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT!
WHAT
THE
FLYING
FUCK?!
And People will pay for it. That's the sad shit. People will actually pay for it.
Oh shit, I gotta get offline before I hurt myself with how fucking stupid this is and Apple is and Apple fans.
@pintonion This is probably not good for your heart.
@pintonion
Did you consider the fact that these paid rentals will probably not have any commericals? (I'll eat my hat if this turns out to not be the case). :-)
@pintonion
You sir, made my day, lmao.
@pintonion Lol you made my day sir.
@crawdad689
Take cable, pass it through a PVR and you've already got your commercial-free experience right there. Cable will have everything that Apple has and everything that Hulu has and probably most of what Netflix has.
How cheap does Apple have to be in order to undercut all of the alternatives.
The Apple solution is "cool" so long as you ignore the other options.
@pintonion
+1 for awesome rant
Oh my God, I just peed my pants.
That was epic.
@jedi except the fact Comcast et al have done their best to block cablecard support and have encrypted their QAM channels for most everything worth watching
@pintonion
You are going to hurt yourself with stupidity, but it's yours, not ours. What in the flying fuck makes you think that because I own Apple products I'm going to pay for hulu? What kind of brain damaged leap of logic is that?
Didn't anybody ever tell you that generalization is bad?
You people complaining about price are nuts. Its cheap. Considering theres no commercials, and if you watch, say 10 different TV shows that have 1 episode a week, thats $40 a month for your favorite TV shows, commercial free, in HD. Now, how much do you pay for those shows over cable, in HD? More than $40 a month.
@icase81
DING DING DING!!!!!!!!
The only people who are crying foul here are people who either steal all their content, or people whose parents are the ones currently paying the cable bill anyway.
@icase81
10 shows @0.99 an episode is $40/week or $160 a month.
@JamesR Might want to redo your math there. 10 shows X 4 episodes per month X $.99 per episode = $40 per month.