Media In Canada reports that Mad Men has decided to by-pass the conventional Canadian broadcast system and offer its third season on iTunes instead. While the program will be available on its home network (AMC), the move suggests that producers believe there is more money to be made through Internet distribution than from the Canadian broadcast system. If this approach catches on, Canadian broadcasters may find it tougher to buy U.S. programming which goes direct-to-the-Internet instead.
Mad Men By-Passes Canadian Broadcast For iTunes
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That sucks.
I love the show but hate iTunes. I’m not going to give my money to iTunes. Instead I’ll just steal the episodes from somewhere. I would have suffered the commercials if it was on TV.
How much does…
iTunes charge for a TV show (last number I saw was something like $1.99 per episode, but that price is old)? How much of that goes to the content producer? How many people from Canada would download it? And how much would the Canadian broadcasters have paid for the rights? Math sucks.
Does anyone know if it’ll be carried on Rogers on Demand this season?
Never watched it in Canada on TV anyways, as commented above, far better quality and no commercials on the pirate versions…..
I refuse to use DRM/Proprietary technology
Because I use free software I can’t even purchase madmen from iTunes because iTunes is a proprietary mess.
I think it’s a stretch to say that they think it’s more financially viable. Hulu/iTunes etc. doesn’t come close to the amount of revenue generated by TV advertising. What’s more likely is that CTV were unwilling to pay higher licensing fees because the show has so much more buzz now, so AMC went to Apple instead.
What frustrates me more than the DRM is that the show in iTunes costs as much as the set on Blu-Ray. Seems like bad value and less convenience.
Fine by me!
This is the future. I’m close to being able to ditch cable altogether because most of the shows I watch are now available on iTunes. I’ve been buying shows from there for a while now and haven’t even noticed the DRM. However, all my devices are from Apple. How long will it be though before the DRM is removed from video on iTunes as it was from music?
Frustrating
This is frustrating. I don’t mind buying it through iTunes but I really wish it could be in a DRM format so I could stream it to my Playstation 3. Why did they remove DRM from music but not movies?