Lights, camera, traction

It's a laudable effort to see online stores finally lurch in to gear a few weeks ago, making TV shows available for download to paying punters. Lots is the first of such shows. Not long after iTunes had issued a press release had ABC's partners who syndicate the show grumbled about an affront to their revenue stream since people would zap the show from the iTunes Music Store rather than sitting through 23 minutes of programming and 7 minutes of ads. Obviously they didn't get the TiVo memo. Of course everyone has a patch to protect, but such an exciting opportunity in the market place should hopefully prove that there's more to selling TV shows than placing them at a stand at a traditional bricks and mortar store.

Obviously AOL / Time Warner studios think so. Beginning January next year, they will be offering downloads of reruns of TV shows, that the executives think still have some viewer mileage left. Hopefully this won't be restricted to the States, like the Apple version is, otherwise we'll be lost ourselves looking for alternatives.

My vested interest in this whole business is really the convenience (ironic to some). I think I'm certainly in the minority of wanting to watch TV on my PC or iPod, and Apple agrees with me (they've recently downplayed the video capabilities of the new iPod). There are still some market jitters to ease before the market finally catches up to where things are really heading.