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Steve Jobs kills 30-second spot We’d heard that Steve Jobs’ press conferences draw huge online audiences, so last night, playing a role we’re unaccustomed to—an Apple groupie—we logged on to the one hour and 20 minute Quicktime of Jobs’ unveiling of the video iPod. (For the record, we didn’t completely geek out during this exercise. We multi-tasked by sorting laundry.) And we came away much more convinced than we had been earlier that not only is the video iPod a watershed, but, sorry advertisers and agencies, that commercial TV may just be f*cked, and it’s going to hurt advertisers much more than it will hurt the networks. Jobs, with a little help from his relatives at Disney, has just applied a price-point to commercial-free network content and the price, even for Desperate Housewives, is so low—at $1.99—that it makes the decision to purchase pretty damn easy. Layer on the fact you don’t need to even own a video iPod to own the content—you can just download it onto your PC—and, well, we said it already. Buckle your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen. —Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

October 13, 2005 | Permalink

Comments

Yep, I think a lot of folks were excited about the video capabilities but not many folks in advertising are thinking about this angle! And, if you can download the show to your iPod, shouldn't that mean that you could also play it on your Mac? And then, if they create a simple interface to send that signal to a large screen TV, wouldn't that potentially create an Apple media center that actually by-passes network TV? This could really be much bigger then what it is right now. And given previous rumors that Apple would buy TiVo...

Posted by: David Polinchock | Oct 13, 2005 11:39:58 AM

"And then, if they create a simple interface to send that signal to a large screen TV" -
They have done that, the ipod has a TV output and the application that runs everything is called "front row" and they announced that too see it here :

http://www.apple.com/imac/frontrow.html

It's time, embrace the now.
- owen

Posted by: owen plotkin | Oct 13, 2005 12:46:58 PM

But no firewire???

Posted by: Bob | Oct 13, 2005 3:57:32 PM

but remember its' been encoded at a 320x240 aspect ratio so it's not going to be the best quality of a TV picture if blown back up on a regular TV nor will it be High-Def. But yes advertisers will have a lot of researching and catching up to do with the launch of the Ipod video.

Posted by: da greasy guide | Oct 13, 2005 6:06:42 PM

This has to go under the headline of 'What the hell were Disney thinking?'. With the 6-disc box set of Desperate Housewives retailing at some places for $60 for 23 episodes, that works out at $2.60 per episode. Why would someone now buy the DVD box set when they can simply download them? Disney has effectively reduced their profit margin by 25%.
Only time will tell if 25% more people download episodes than those that bought the box set

Posted by: Claire | Oct 14, 2005 2:28:48 AM

This new revenue pipeline has the potential to dwarf
DVD sales of "Snow White". (intended)
Disney has made a good move offering downloadable programming.
I would not be surprised to see 10 to 50 times more people download episodes, than those that buy the DVD box sets.
The 320x240 aspect ratio compressed with H.264 will play at full screen size very well. And perhaps Apple will offer a choice of download aspect ratio, given H.264's amazing compression quality.
- owen plotkin "embrace the now"

Posted by: owen plotkin | Oct 14, 2005 9:46:38 AM

And the cost of authoring, pressing and distributing a DVD
compared to
the cost of compressing an episode and uploading it to a server, greatly greatly greatly decreases the cost per episode.
For Disney, it's a no brainer.
-owen plotkin "embrace the now"

Posted by: owen plotkin | Oct 14, 2005 9:57:02 AM

There is no room for advertisers in here - if you've paid $1.99 and your finger is on the skip button, ads aren't going to get seen. And the old chestnut that a brand will subsidise the content if you view their ad doesn't add up - you'd need a cpm of $1990 to match the money Disney/Apple make!
So advertisers need to start making content people want to watch. So they need to find some agencies that aren't TV spot factories.
Simon
Big Picture
London

Posted by: Simon Andrews | Oct 14, 2005 10:48:33 AM

Free TV (with ads) will promote the TV you buy (with no ads). Some shows will premiere on the paid network, and as season two starts, season one goes to cable, spurring sales of season two with a brand new fanbase (who are currently 'test-driving' season one).

Posted by: | Oct 14, 2005 5:46:43 PM

It seems the Eminem ad has been pulled from apple's site. The rumor is it was pulled due to the striking similarities to a Lugz ad made by Psyop (www.psyop.tv and navigate to Archive then Lugz O1).

Posted by: David Stone | Oct 14, 2005 8:02:52 PM

I'm not sure how adding $1.99 to something that was once free is progress? People having be recording and distributing TV and Music Videos at no cost for the past few years. Apple adding a price point to it will cause the further lawsuits from and hassles from the MPAA & TV's equivalent. Apple did us no favors here. The screen is way tiny too!

Posted by: Bryan Fox | Oct 18, 2005 1:34:17 PM

c52t

Posted by: ma155zda | Dec 14, 2007 11:58:46 AM

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