Fantastic take on the subject as usual Carl. After Forrester's "iTunes sales collapsing" debacle a few months back, this latest study of theirs sounds just as unfounded.
The fact that it is impossible to skip or fast-forward the ads on the various online ad-supported TV show services from all indications isn't even considered to be a potential deal-breaker for a significant number of consumers.
What about the significant number of users who want to download these shows onto their iPods or iPhones for offline viewing. From what I can see, pretty much all the "free" ad-supported services are streaming only.
I think we'll see Forrester having to eat their words yet again as iTunes in particular continues it's rapid growth in the video and movie markets.
-Mart
great work Carl...thanks!
The question isn't pay for downloads. The question is margins. How can iTunes maintain their margins once competition really heats up? The price of content is going to decline to the marginal cost, and the middlemen like iTunes will be squeezed. Whether the content is free or costs $1, iTunes profit will be the roughly the same, based on transaction cost.
I should add that I speaking strictly of iTunes. AppleTV would be more popular if lots of free content were available.
Not only iPods but also TV screens. How much of the ad-supported Internet-streamed video is being watched on large TV displays? When will a company not named Apple make an easy-to-use AppleTV clone AND an iTunes Store clone to take care of this issue?
Commenting by HaloScan
