We may not have movies in the U.K. iTunes store, but that hasn't stopped the UK broadcasters from slowly but surely adding their wares to the UK shop. First the BBC pitched in with a selection of shows such as 'Spooks' (it airs in the US as 'MI:5') and then Channel 4 added the likes of Black Books (amongst others). So today adding to the mix is commercial broadcaster ITV, which has added 'Lewis', 'Goodnight Mr Tom', 'Brideshead Revisited', 'Cold Feet', 'The Saint' and 'Captain Scarlet' to the UK store.That may not sound like a great deal of content, however ITV is clearly looking to milk the archive shows for all they're worth. Apple UK's Hot News quotes Dawn Airey from ITV: "[We have] thousands of hours of classic content in the archive which we are bringing to a whole new audience via iTunes". and then leaves us with the perennial teaser of "Watch out for more great additions coming soon on iTunes".
As usual, iTunes UK TV show pricing of £1.89 (US$3.75) an episode applies to all the ITV content.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-23-2008 @ 5:05AM
Chris Nixon said...
...or I could get Cold Feet for £8 for an entire series on DVD. FAIL!
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4-23-2008 @ 6:17AM
Gary said...
Wake me up when ITV shows any sign of quality programming. The only thing ITV is good for is the Champions League.
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4-23-2008 @ 6:33AM
Ed said...
+1
4-23-2008 @ 6:20AM
dbr said...
Ugh. Legal online media outside of the US is still a complete joke..
For one, both the prices are around 1.99, but 1.99USD is half the price of the UK content.
There is *far* less content in the UK store (and about one series I'd maybe watch)
Seriously. I am looking for a legal replacement for bittorrent/usenet, and there is *NOTHING*. About 99% of the online services are inaccessible outside of the universe- I mean America. The rest have practically no content.
..yet, bittorrent works everywhere, for free, and has damn-near every TV show and film ever made..
DVD's are a possible alternative, but physical media is a pain - it scratches, it takes an hour or two at 100% CPU usage to digitize it (which is technically against the DMCA), and them I'm stuck with a bunch of largely useless boxes/discs..
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4-23-2008 @ 9:52AM
Andrew said...
The price is not the real issue here. It is totally irrelevant that the price in GBP is almost twice that in USD.
Local taxes, local artists and local costs result in different prices. British users are not paying $4 because they don't actually get or use USD for currency.
What you should be talking about is how long it takes a British worker to earn that amount of money? Then you can compare the real price difference between the US and UK.
4-23-2008 @ 10:09AM
sockatume said...
You know we've paid for all the BBC programming already through the Licence Fee, right?
FYI the average wage in the UK is about £26,000 or about $51,000. The average US wage is about $50,000. So your argument on spending power is erroneous. We have as much money as you do, yet we're charged about 1.8 times as much (when you account for taxation).
4-23-2008 @ 11:28AM
bob said...
this is not free to air television, we have the free iplayer, this is a dvd replacement for those who want to legally have their content on ipods etc, im not saying its better than ripping but a lot of people either dont know how to rip or dont want to break the law.
4-23-2008 @ 6:38PM
Joey said...
Yes, but if you're outside the US, then technically you're not subject to the DMCA.
4-23-2008 @ 10:38AM
Aidan Brown said...
i was just going to add something, Goodnight Mr. Tom may be classed as a film, because it is about 1:24, so it costs £2.99, this could be an indication of films to come???
probably not.
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4-23-2008 @ 11:11AM
Blaktornado said...
Hai ITV, plz dont pollute R iTunez wiv ur Xfactor.
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4-23-2008 @ 11:41AM
ed said...
"Wake me up when ITV shows any sign of quality programming. The only thing ITV is good for is the Champions League."
AGREED
"Seriously. I am looking for a legal replacement for bittorrent/usenet, and there is *NOTHING*."
AGREED
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4-23-2008 @ 2:03PM
Jez said...
ITV is poor mans BBC
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4-24-2008 @ 2:46AM
Ed said...
ITV is also dumb man's BBC
4-23-2008 @ 6:00PM
Dray said...
Actually Lewis costs £2.99 an episode. How odd.
Check again!
~Dray
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4-25-2008 @ 3:04AM
edward said...
Well, Lewis is two hours long (with advert breaks which I assume will be edited out for iTunes), so maybe that's why it's more expensive. I wouldn't mind having the first season of Lewis, but I have a US account. Hello, Torrent!
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