iTunes Lures Daily Show Fans with ‘Multi-Pass’; TiVo Shakes up Pricing
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Written By Reprise Media | March 9, 2006 | Share This
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iTunes has come to the startling conclusion that not every video needs to cost a buck ninety-nine. They’ve unveiled a subscription-style pricing plan (dubbed ‘Multi-Pass’ - somebody tell Leeloo Dallas) for two Comedy Central mainstays, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. According to Ken Fisher at Ars Technica, fans have the option of purchasing 16-episode blocks of either series for $9.99, which works out to about 62 cents a show.
Fisher rightly points out that a three-for-one deal for the likes of ephemeral fare such as the The Daily Show makes a lot more sense than iTunes’ traditional monetization model; imagine how much you’d enjoy re-watching the average broadcast a year from now when you can barely remember the news stories being pilloried. Figuring out how to make online video content profitable is obviously still an evolving art, and as Steve Rubel reminds us, advertisers are trying to find creative ways to horn in on the action.
Who can blame them? With an increasing number of offline viewers fleeing to the commercial-skipping comforts of DVRs like TiVo, advertisers have got to be feeling squeezed. But TiVo has famously faced its own problems; since the start, they’ve been a great idea stapled to a suicidal business plan. Yesterday, however, they announced an innovation that will finally bring them up to date with those ever-adaptible cable companies: subscribe to the service, get the box for free.
This BetaNews story reports that customers opting for the new plan would pay $16.95 to $19.95 a month, depending on the length of the contract (up from $12.95 a month), but wouldn’t have to shell out hundreds of dollars for the DVRs themselves (folks who’ve already bought a box shouldn’t worry, as they won’t see a rate hike). TiVo will also discontinue its cash-hemorrhaging ‘lifetime subscription’ plan, in which customers had paid a one-time set fee for service that would continue as long as the DVR functioned.
TiVo’s new offer is similar to many cable tv plans that include DVR rentals with the monthly bill. But even as TiVo emulates their competitors’ revenue models, they’re still attempting to differentiate themselves by offering a variety of cool services. Following recent updates that added features like podcast support, movie listings and ticket purchasing, this week Series2 boxes will receive the 7.2.2 software update; for the first time, users will be able to retrieve deleted programs from the depths of TiVo-bliteration. With any luck, TiVo will escape the same fate themselves.
Topics: Technology |