Ranee, that's the retail price. Apple is making a hunk of change on each download too. In fact, unless NBC is actually tripling it's asking price, Apple is calculating retail on a % mark-up and they'd make more per episode too. (But they'd probably make less overall since there would be fewer sales.) For example, if the networks currently get $1.50 per sale and Apple charges $1.99, they mark up the $1.50 they pay by 33%. If NBC is asking double the $1.50 ($3.00), Apple would be getting a 66% mark up if they sell at $4.99. If NBC is asking 2.5 times the current price, that would be $3.75 and a $4.99 retail price would be a 33% mark up. But Apple's profit per sale would go from $0.49 to $1.24. Actually, the fairest thing would be to calculate the advertising revenue for a show and divide by the number of viewers. That would give them the income per viewer (but they'd also have to factor in what the local stations should get.)

$5 an episode? No freaking way. If I *really* want an episode on my ipp-odd, I can copy it from TV and save it to my computer in an iPod friendly format.

Remember, too, that the oddly named hulu.com, which is NBC Universal & News Corp's joint video venture is supposed to be launching in October. Presumably House will be available there and on other portals licensed to carry hulu content. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the last TV Guide article about House had a little tag about episodes being available on tvguide.com. It's really unclear who the bad guy is in the NBC/Apple tiff. It makes sense to me that there should be more pricing options than free or $1.99 for different kinds of shows. But that doesn't seem to be an option as far as Apple is concerned.

Does anyone know if downloads from that site will be iPod compatible?

No idea what the content on hulu.com will look like, whether it will just be streaming or downloadable or what. I can't remember if they've ever said. Their terms of use cover both possibilities. Based on the list of partner sites (AOL, Comcast, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo), I'd guess they will use (streaming) WMV.

I'm willing to pay 2 dollars an episode and to get my favorite shows like SVU and House I would be willing to pay 2.50 but 4 or 5 dollars is crazy. It practically encourages booklegging. Like I said, I was looking to go legal this viewing season since in addition to House and Bones I am also getting SVU and CI, but I refuse to pay 5 dollars an episode, thats over 100 dollars for the season. For that I can wait for the DVDs.

If I can't get House season 4 on iTunes then I am SO SCREWED and might as well cut my throat come 25th Sept. We had a six month delay before season 3 got aired in this country. :mad: Damnit all to hell. :cry:

well HWshipper there are ways to get it, beleive me, they are just now showing Season 3 in Japan and Korea. I would have gone crazy if I didn't have the means to get it. But if House SVU and CI are gone from ITunes, then video wise I really have no reason to use the service.

If House falls off iTunes I might have to PM you about that, TrooperCam...

Anyone post this yet? http://blogs.smh.com.au/entertainment/archives/the_tribal_mind/006131.html Strange and interesting. And Australians are nothing like Americans.... :wink:

Poeia, I didn't phrase my indignation well :oops: - my problem is (as TC points out) me having to pay $5 an ep translates into over $100 for a season & you don't even get the DVD extras. You don't at the current $45 season pass pricing either, but atleast its more palatable. I just can't see how this change in pricing won't drive up illegal downloads - IMO this is one thing Jobs got right, make it really cheap & easy, people will buy legally & you'll make money on volume, not high margins. Haven't seen that article - I'm a bit skeptical because weight is a proxy for age & socioeconomic group & I bet there's a closer correlation between those & who views what than weight. It does surprise me a bit though - I though House's viewership skewed younger, but apparently not.

Most of the "obese" shows are more popular than the "skinny" shows. I would think the more popular the show, the more likely the average viewer's weight would reflect the national average. According to USA Today, the average sized American woman is not quite 5'4" tall and weighs 163lbs - which puts her solidly in the overweight category according to the BMI.

Good point, marykir - so does that list of shows correlate with popularity? i suspect it does, with adjustments for skewing for age (where lower age brings down the BMI).

Hmm, weird, I have a BMI of 29 and with the exception of House I like more of the shows on the skinny list.

Today I've felt like my body had been taken over by a big fat troll, but according to the BMI calculator I picked at random I am normal weight. According to that study marykir linked I am a skinny little thing. (HA!) Whatever I am-I'd much rather watch House, Cold Case and the Simpsons than Charmed (is that still on?) or G-d forbid, Dr. Phil. That's a crap study. I have spoken. :ban: