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General discussion

Lost is finally free on iTunes!!!

Mar 2, 2006 3:50AM PST

iTunes is going to have ad-supported free downloads of Lost and other shows, according to podcastpublishing.com. The article also states that there has been no drop in traditional viewing of the show since the beginning of the iTunes experiment.

Here's the link to the article:
http://www.podcastpublishing.com/public/item/117529

Discussion is locked

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Awsome
Mar 2, 2006 3:55AM PST

The link did not work but it sounds awsome!


Peter

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Here's the page's body
Mar 2, 2006 4:06AM PST

Taken from: http://www.podcastpublishing.com/public/item/117529 at about 1pm Mountain Time on March 2, 2006.

iTunes Soon To Have Popular TV Shows For Free
Ad-supported iTunes Video of Your Favorite Shows
iTunes has finally come full-circle. Their latest announcement indicates ABC will soon be offering podcast advertisingfree TV shows, for download, supported only by advertising.

Currently, a typical 30 minute TV episode download on iTunes is $1.99. They'll continue to offer these pay-as-you-go episodes, sans commercials, for all their viewers who abhor advertisements.

ABC CEO Bob Iger suggested they were trying different business models. They are staying open to see what works and what doesn't.

They were excited to see NO decrease in offline viewership, even as shows like '24' and 'The Office' (FOX and NBC, respectively) saw amazing popularity on the music/podcast service. In fact, Grey's Anatomy ended up just behind the Winter Olympics in Neilsen ratings (pretty impressive), even with the show's iTunes popularity.

Look for 'Lost', 'Desperate Housewives' and 'Grey's Anatomy' (my favorite) to be offered, for free, with commercial sponsorship, soon. No exact dates were given.

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(NT) (NT) Awesome. Thanks, dude.
Mar 2, 2006 4:12AM PST
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Not Surprised
Mar 2, 2006 7:31PM PST

I'm not really surprised that there was no drop off of viewership on TV. Watching Lost solely on the iPods little screen or on your TV at a really low quality isn't really an option. I'm curious what will happen if they offer downloads of HD quality with AC3 audio (surround sound) for free with ads. Then folks might stop watching the TV show, and that would mostly hurt the local franchises who put in local ads.

I have a TiVo, so I probably wouldn't download the shows even then, but it would be nice to have that as a backup in case the TiVo fails (which it does from time to time) or if I have a three-way conflict during a time slot (which basically never happens). Right now I just get the shows off BitTorrent if either of those things happen.

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woot!
Mar 2, 2006 11:48PM PST

thats awesome! i just got my girlfriend into lost. we're almost done the first season...now she won't have to wait till season 2 comes out on dvd

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Hmmmm
Mar 3, 2006 10:41AM PST

The link seems to bring up a blank page now. I also just checked (because our TiVo crapped out half way through Lost) and the free version is not on the iTunes Store, at least not that I can see.

So, it's off to the BT to get Lost.