Spaced on iTunes

TV programmes have been available to buy from the iTunes store in the UK for a while now - but until a few weeks ago there was so little on there worth buying (nothing of note made in the UK) that I never bothered to look at it.





Fortunately a few weeks ago the BBC became the first British broadcaster to sell their shows through iTunes - it was about five or six shows at first but that has since increased and now it’s acting as a sort of ‘long term catchup’ service with key BBC shows being put on the store eight days after broadcast.

Now a second British broadcaster has joined the BBC - Channel 4 have a number of iconic shows like Spaced, Black Books, Peep Show, Teachers and Shameless on the iTunes Store alongside the documentary strand, Monachy and the teen drama Skins.

This isn’t the first time Channel 4 have sold their shows online - you’ve been able to buy episodes of all of the above shows on the 4OD player for the past year or more - but that is a only a short term rental model.

You pay 49p and you can keep it for 30 days (or seven days after the first play). This is basically a pay for extension of the existing free catch-up service.

Now I can pay £1.89 per episode or £7.99 per series and keep it forever - I can even put it on my iPod (if it wasn’t for the fact that the video file is so bloody huge!).

I’ve spoken about the picture quality and size before when I wrote about the BBC joining the platform so I won’t go into that again - except to say that it looks great.

What excites me the most is major UK Broadcasters stepping outside of their own platforms - those platforms have become purely catch-up services with no pretence at being long term purchase solutions (god I sound like a sales wanker - sorry!).

I wonder, now that iTunes is starting to prove itself as a UK video platform whether Kangaroo will still go ahead?

Share/Save