Are TV Downloads The New Music Downloads?

from the missing-the-point dept

Plenty of sites have started selling music downloads in an attempt to either look cool, or cash in on their popularity — even when selling music has nothing to do with the site or its purpose at all. Today brings word that MySpace is going to begin selling downloads of 24, following news last week that Fox would join other networks in selling its content through iTunes. So, are TV show downloads poised to overtake music downloads as the hot Web offering du jour? What’s striking about the MySpace deal, like so many of the music-download services on random sites, is that they just throw the downloads up without even making an effort to integrate them into the site or its existing services. The whole point of MySpace is communication — after all, it’s a social-networking site — not sitting there to passively watch some TV show. At the very least, you’d expect there to be some facility to let MySpace users engage the content somehow, like the ability to stream the show from their page, or add clips in to their blog — just something, anything, to make the show add some value to users’ experience on the site. Blindly adding music or TV downloads in an attempt to get some Web cred really doesn’t make sense for these sites, particularly when they don’t do anything to make the offering relevant to what they do. Without adding any benefit to make buying downloads from them better for their users than buying downloads from established sources like iTunes, their efforts are little more than futile.


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Comments on “Are TV Downloads The New Music Downloads?”

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25 Comments
ibeetle says:

The connection to MySpace and 24

Several have posted that they do not see the connection as to why MySpace is selling T.V. episodes. Starting with the program 24.

Well let us see… 24 is on the Fox television network. Who owns MySpace? News Corp; and who owns who owns Fox? News Corp.

Folks, MySpace is about to become the iTunes of News Corp.

sharqman (user link) says:

MySpace Content

While I agree that some sites do simply add items for sale just for the sole purpose of generating revenue even though the site has nothing to do with the content being sold, MySpace selling TV downloads does make some sense. Take a look at the MySpace music section. Now, I am a total MySpace neophyte and actually have little interest in non-mainstream music. MySpace, though, affords me the opportunity to sample garage bands that my friends recommend to me. I could easily see MySpace people making a case for TV shows also being “found” by an audience that might not otherwise have known about the offering from the networks.

UGG says:

Don't like it

Just seem like if they start to sell it, there will be 25 minutes of the show, 35 of shameless advertising and 60 minutes of subliminal messages asking to not fast forward through the advertising.

If the shows are something I can catch over the air (antenna) waves then I would consider this time shifting and there should be no charge!

JSN1138 (user link) says:

saving digital face

Until they integrate the amazon “payback” scheme or “associates” scheme, it will never really be of any direct intrest to the general audience of myspace. No self respecting user (?) of myspace would be caught dead with a cheesy sellout ‘geek link’ on thier site.

But it will be a perfect mechaism for FOX to put the show on it’s own myspace page, which is probably something like myspace.com/24… and also put this in other show spaces to cross promote other shows (or even movies) that are not doing as well (does anyone really watch 24?).

It’s a clever digital media marketing tool, but will not really drive any sales. But then the digital game for most conglomerates is more about face then money, with the tiny volumes of sales they are moving.

Bryan Henry (user link) says:

Why Pay For TV?

With many sites getting involved in streaming the shows on their site, why would you pay for the episode?
Any time I miss Lost I simply go to ABC.com and watch it there. It still has the ads but for free who cares? I don’t see this becomming as popular as music has been. You can only watch a show so many time before it gets really old.
The next big hit will be movies. Like music, moves can stay as a classic for many years to come.

Bryan Henry
http://techntoons.blogspot.com

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