Apple's video moves in the big picture

Now that the rush from discovering what new goodies Apple has in store for us dies down, we can step back and take a look at the larger picture painted by Apple's moves in the video arena. Apple hasn't just given us a snazzier iPod and access to a few entertaining videos. Arguably, Apple is changing the face of media distribution in a big way.

Tim Bajarin at Technology Pundits calls Apple's deal with Disney, making ABC TV shows available for download, "a stroke of genius," because "this alone will cause the Hollywood TV studios to beat a path to Apple's door to get their offerings on the new iTunes video store as fast as possible. Since Apple uses Fair Play DRM, they can use this new TV iTunes store to show the Movie Moguls their environment is safe...With this move, Apple is actually showing the Hollywood producers that digital distribution of any content is safe and secure and that Apple gives them a new way to distribute their content to the entire marketplace."

If Bajarin is right, that will mean more legally downloadable video content for you and I to enjoy on our iPods, Macs, or even PCs. By keeping the price down to $1.99 per episode, Apple makes that content attractive to consumers. That is likely to keep demand up, which in turn should bring television and movie producers to the table with new downloadable content. And that changes the face of major media distribution significantly. The more I think about it, the more I agree that this is another big, groundbreaking move on Apple's part. What do you think?