Informal Brain

Fringe is the newest offering from JJ Abrams famous for Lost and Cloverfield.  With Fringe, JJ Abrams redefines X-Files with a darker feel with a greater level of action and intrigue.  Doctor Bishop is clearly defining himself as the new House.  He is quirky, smart but has a short temper.  All the qualities that make his onscreen character fun to watch.

Does it annoy any other Apple TV owners that there isn’t some kind of alert when something you add a favorites list (podcast, or TV show) has a new entry. I swear it is like Christmas each time I bust open the PBS frontline favorite I have and find out a new show has been added. It sure would be nice if there was some kind of “new” items menu option where it would show you a full screen list of new items added to things in your favorites list.

Wow, almost missed this big news over on Apple Insider last night!!

In what may be a sign of further reparations between two media giants, NBC Universal has put some of its shows back on the iTunes Store through its UK branch, according to reports.

Although limited to just a handful of shows such as Heroes and House, the move marks the seeming return of NBC to Apple’s service after a heavily-publicized feud that saw Apple pull all NBC shows after the companies were unable to reach an agreement over the flexibility of TV show pricing.

[From AppleInsider | NBC at iTunes UK; Caris and Piper outlooks; new '3G iPhone' photo]

This is great news! As much as NBC is still in the doghouse in my mind for being crazy about DRM and making unreasonable demands of Apple compared to the rest of the studios it sure would be nice to see House back in the iTunes store.

Louis Gray published this great idea tonight…

The movie theater industry has already lost me as a customer, for the most part. But they can get some of my revenue back if they strike a deal with Apple, and make new releases available on iTunes the day they debut in the theater.

I propose the following pricing for a 24-hour new movie rental:
$9.99 for viewing in the first two weeks.
$7.99 for viewing in weeks three through six.
$5.99 for viewing in weeks six through twelve.
Standard iTunes pricing for all weeks afterward.

[From louisgray.com: Think Apple Would Dare To Take On the Movie Theaters?]

I was thinking of this exact solution the other night as I was sitting there thinking “how can I see Iron Man”, when I have two small kids to take care of. I suspect if the movie studios could cut a deal to create a model where theater releases were priced at roughly the same cost as 2 people going to a movie (perhaps more then the 9.99 suggested by Louis), then they would still get the same kind of revenue but give the consumer choice.

As I mentioned I suspect the first 2 week cost could be even more. Maybe $16 even. Movie tickets now cost in the $8 range each. New releases would typically be watched by two members of a family so perhaps $18 is not outrageous. Maybe at that cost there is an option to apply your new release rental charge to a DVD purchase when it gets released.