back to article Warner Bros flogs Nikita on iTunes

Warner Brothers is making three TV shows available in the UK, putting them up on iTunes one day after each show airs in the USS. Nikita, The Vampire Diaries: Season Two hits iTunes UK every Friday and Gossip Girl: Season 4 lands on Tuesdays. The shows cost £2.49 a pop and you can buy season passes for Vampire and Gossip for £ …

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  1. seanj
    Thumb Up

    Great first step...

    Now we just need more shows aired in this way. Unfortunately, they've chosen three TV shows that I don't watch, and have no intention of watching, to kick off their new policy, but major kudos to the guys at WB for getting the ball rolling. More please!

  2. LinkOfHyrule
    Coffee/keyboard

    £34.99 each!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    The blooming DVD boxsets will be cheaper than that surely?

  3. 2FishInATank
    FAIL

    Hmmm

    So for the cost of a DVD box-set, I can have lower quality downloads?

    Where do I sign up?

  4. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
    FAIL

    Pricing fail

    C'mon, guys, two and a half quid for a 40 minute TV show? We might be dumb, but we're not fucking stupid.

    GJC

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    titlar

    £2.49? thats around 13% of my sky subscription! I don't think so Warner Bros.

  6. yoinkster

    Common freetard defense still stands

    Why is it that the cappers can get an episode ready for release on torrents a few hours after the show airs yet WB take a day?

    "It isn't available and I need it now" obviously still stands in this case, it's a nice try from WB and I hope everyone else considers following suit, they have a long way to go before they get as good as the pirates but they have to start somewhere, right?

  7. Elsie
    WTF?

    £2.49 an epsiode ... £35 for a "season pass"?

    LOL, like WTF!?!

    Hello!!! McFly!!!!

    These shows are going to be aired in the UK and they're expecting viewers to pay these prices, eespecially when they'll be shown on free-to-air channels in a couple of months? The DVD box set of these shows wouldn't cost this much!

    50p per episode a tenner for the series (as long as I could keep the shows) would still be too expensive but at least I would consider this price range. The prices they want to charge are laughable.

  8. Tom 15

    If only

    Now, if only they charged a price that wasn't quite so ridiculous then maybe they'd finally make some money online.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      reporting flaws much

      I bought the series pass for vampire diaries season 2 last week. when i bought it, it was £22.99

      couple of points to note;

      these prices that are being quoted are for the HD version of the episodes, not standard definition..

      i can watch each episode the day after it's aired in the US - not weeks (months) later when it airs in the uk.

      i can keep the episodes i've paid for - if i watch them over the air i can't keep them because i don't have a recording device.

      buying the series pass invariably saves me a fortune, case in point being lost, season 6 - according to my iTunes purchase history i paid £25.99 for a HD series pass - the blu ray box set has just come out and is £44.99 on amazon, £49.99 in tesco.

      a fringe benefit to me with iTunes downloads is that people can't "borrow" things i've paid for.. i don't have some scabby friend asking me if they can borrow my box set and then not return it for a year and a half (has happened, several times).

      and another fringe benefit is i don't have to start taking over yet another wall of the house to store box sets on bookshelves / dvd towers.

      as it is i so far have over 60ft x 7ft of wall space taken up with bookcases and dvd towers for boxes that only get moved to dust the place. a task that takes frigging hours, not to mention not factoring in the costs of said bookcases and dvd towers.

      to be perfectly honest the only actual argument for people who torrent these things is they are cheap scabby lowlifes that are too tight to actually pay for anything and should perhaps spend more time getting a job as opposed to whining about how everything costs too much. do they go to tesco and steal the food off the shelves because it "costs too much".

      1. King Jack
        Pint

        HD, big deal.

        Why are people willing to put a premium on HD content? When we had 405 line monochrome TV did we pay more for 625, then colour? No. The broadcast standard changed. Everything was colour. It cost no more to make colour than B&W. (tv licence excluded as it's a con). Now fools will pay extra for the same dross just because it's Hi-Def. Wake up it's the new broadcast standard and after the milking is done, everything will be 'Hi-Def. It's good to see one mug in the uk is willing to be fleeced. I raise a glass to you.

  9. Wonkydonkey

    Cost too High?

    Surely it can't just be me that thinks that £2.49 is ridiculously expensive for one episode of a tv programme?

    This is something that is available essentially for free on TV (Ok I know we pay a license fee and maybe something to sky or cable but that's hardly optional) so how can they justify that cost for downloading it?

    Music is a totally different proposition and any tracks i buy at 79p will be listened to many many times, but a tv episode is a throw away thing. Most people will only ever watch it once. Even when I've bought a TV series on DVD it's only because I missed it and even that only gets watched once.

    So £2.49 for a single viewing of 40 mins of TV? not a chance.

    Are any of you actually willing to pay that?

    Especially when you compare the cost to iplayer / hulu.

    And at this price it's not really a scalable proposition either. Lets say there are 10 different series that I like to watch, I'm hardly likely to pay £25 a week to get them all.

    Great idea but silly price.

  10. BristolBachelor Gold badge

    It's a start

    Like I said, it's a start. People want it and they will get it. Give it to them instead of the torrents.

    BUT seriously iTunes? So of the hundreds of media TVs, computers and set-top boxes, none of them will likely play it even though they support all files under the sun except the iTunes format.

    Also if I buy it today, I want to be able to watch it in a years time too, unlike my wife's music collection which vanished becuase the re-install of her computer means that iTunes will no longer let her play her music because it says she has no license.

    1. Hans 1
      Boffin

      BS

      I do not know what you did, but as long as you have the music backed up, you should be fine.

      Unlike Microsoft MediaShredder DRM, you have no licenses lying around on your computer with iTunes.

      You have an iTunes account, which is linked to the protected files, most music is now without DRM, anyway. All she has to do is log in - how hard can that be? Maybe she has authorized 5 computers, you can reset that in iTunes - I do it multiple times a year.

      Please, when you do not know what you're talking about, STFU.

  11. Tom 38
    FAIL

    Bargain

    Only £35 for a DRM encrusted version of shows broadcast over FTA channels - awesome, where do I sign up.

    Hint, studios, if I can watch it for free, I'm less likely to be willing to pay to watch it. At most I'd be prepared to pay about £5 per season, if it meant I didn't need to manually transcode for mobile devices.

  12. Lionel Baden
    Thumb Up

    Thumbs Up

    Now if they could do it on another service than Bloody Itunes and something i am liley to watch then that would be even better.

    But to expensive imo 34£ for an entire season !!! i get an entire months freeview for that amount !!!

    Bet the are bloody ads in it as well !!!

    If they get the prices more realistic then Double thumbs up

  13. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Coat

    Walk the plank

    However, the Warner move removes one plank in a common freetard defence..."I am only doing this because it is not available and I must see this now".

    Not for the true freetard who runs Linux, ITunes isn't available.

    1. JEDIDIAH
      Linux

      Flight of the Freetards...

      >> However, the Warner move removes one plank in a common

      >> freetard defence..."I am only doing this because it is not

      >> available and I must see this now".

      >

      > Not for the true freetard who runs Linux, ITunes isn't available.

      This "freetard" has some of these shows wasting space on his MythTV master backend right now.

      Dunno about your side of the pond, but these are carried by broadcast channels over here. If not for the crap signal quality, I would get these shows from an antenna for free.

      This DRM nonsense with iTunes is why I like DVDs. I can rip them and play them back on whatever device or whatever OS I want. I can even cater to Apple's restrictive requirements if I want. Although I prefer the Archos for it's storage capacity.

      The whole point of something like iTunes is "getting it now". If iTunes can't "give it to me now" then really what's the point? Just wait for the DVDs and pay less.

      That's what I do with HBO content since buying what we watch is cheaper than subscribing to the channel. Plus I can sell those disks to my fellow "freetards" when I tire of them.

      Amazon help keeps Apple in line.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Balls!

    I will still pull stuff from torrents BUT as usual I will still buy the DVD seasons when they come out.

    I'm not paying Jobs minions £35 for some pisspoor quality stream copy, then paying another £35 in 6 months for the pukka DVDs!

  15. WorkingFromHome
    Thumb Down

    Hmmmm

    Not that I watch any of those but realising them early to UK viewers is a probably a good move, however the price is unlikely to prevent priracy. £2.29 seems rather steep for one episode - seems like they want to say they tried but don't want to upset UK broadcasters at the same time...

  16. Oliver 7

    Disingenuous

    "the Warner move removes one plank in a common freetard defence..."I am only doing this because it is not available and I must see this now"."

    Not that I would employ that defence for downloading a torrent but do you honestly think Warner would do such a thing if it weren't for the existence of torrents (et al)?

  17. Tom 35

    Such a deal!

    From Amazon.... Gossip Girls Season 1-3 [DVD] Buy new: £39.93 Just S3 if you buy when it first comes out is £26.93 still cheaper and not locked to iTunes. Better quality, extras...

    So it's still better to watch it now, buy the DVD when it comes out.

    Make it £1.00 an episode and people might be interested.

  18. Daniel Owen
    FAIL

    or

    free 720p MKV with DTS on the day that the show air's

    Hmmm which will people choose?

    If it was price aggressively it might put a few people their way, but not priced like this.

  19. MrT
    Stop

    Soon to join other similar reinventions in the bargain bin...

    http://lfnikita.com/

    Peta Wilson.

    Nuff said - accept no substitute.

    This new one will be in the knock-down section alongside Six Million Dollar Woman etc very soon...

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Unhappy

      @MrT

      But will it be made *by* Canadians?*

      *I've noted that some of the best films and series have been apparently American products made by outsiders. The US love of high tech combined with the French fondness for ruthless cynicism and deception made for some entertaining viewing.

      Something tells me that won't be kept.

  20. Mark 65

    Freetards

    However, the Warner move removes one plank in a common freetard defence..."I am only doing this because it is not available and I must see this now".

    But keeps intact the other defence of "how about letting us have it for a reasonable price?" as they want 35 quid for a poxy season pass. Cheeky pricks.

  21. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    Could be a very sneaky move.

    I would *like* to believe that someone inside WB has started them down the very *long* road to making their content available at a reasonable price in full quality (which this seems to be) across all PC's.

    However this could be the other strategy.

    "Well we *tried* to sell it online but people are simply *addicted* to stealing from us. We have no choice but to use heavyweight DRM, time limits etc."

    If they are serious 2 things should happen.

    Their product range should widen and their prices should come down. Come on WB you should have a pretty good handle on the cost of BW and storage Apple charge you (I'd guess it's in the bill they send you).

    Issuing cult series (as in minority interest whose mfg costs you might not break even on) would be a *very* good gesture and put some immediate revenue in your accounts, which you *claim* are so decimated by piracy.

    *Cautious* thumbs up.

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