so what's so unusual about getting as much as possible. All tablet devices would be wise to have content for consumers. I think the TV show providers are just waiting to see how well the iPad sells before committing.

If you lowered the price of everything in a store to a 'nickel,' the damn place would be crowded all the time. Essentially all you've done is price stuff attractively enough that people are willing to part with their money because there's value and incentive to buy digital over physical product.

Uhm... perhaps the executive should look at the music sales model, where sales went down after Apple went to variable pricing.

Not only that, TV shows are a harder sell because while you listen to a song over and over, you don't tend to watch TV episodes over and over again.

What I would love to see ITunes and the studios do is to lower the season subscription prices. Right now you save a dollar or two buy buying the entire season. Make that a 25-35% savings and I think the video sales would increase substantially.

For all you "Lower the prices!" yellers, notice that it isn't the producers who are reluctant, it is the networks. The networks make their money from selling ad space on their broadcasts. They make very little of the money from selling it online, since the production company gets a share of that (the networks get very little from older shows on sales, just like they get nothing for DVD sales).

If prices went down, sales go up, but ratings will go down even more cutting their main revenue stream.

Add in the issues with the local affiliates, who will not be pleased to find their viewership is dropping because more people are buying it online, and they don't get any share from online sales. (Note that the 10pm Leno show was cancelled not because it was losing money or it didn't attract the viewership they expected, but because the affiliates were upset as it cost them carry-over viewers for their local newscasts, which is one of their few cash cows).

So, maybe they should lower prices but include ads. That might work.

Then maybe it's time to start looking at business models and how to adapt to changing technology and modes of consumption rather than clinging to the 80s and trying to protect million dollar paychecks.

here's the score folks. from someone that works in the industry so this is my job.

for the networks it's about money to replace what they spent on the shows. if a show makes back it's budget or even makes a profit, it stays. if a show is close and getting closer week by week it is often allowed to stick out the initial pick up and maybe get extended. if it is way under or dropping, good bye.
and that money comes from ad money. and only ad money. which is tied to the ratings. all that downloads on itunes, amazon. all the hits on official sites and ads on places like hulu goes into the general fund. so a show can be the number one download every week but if the ratings blow, no show.

there are serious flaws in the ratings system but that's a talk for another day. what it comes down to is that the reliance on the ratings as THE money source means that anything that could damage those numbers is bad. including downloads. the networks don't really want to embrace downloads and adding the money into each shows budget recovery they want to stick with their very outdated analog system from the 1950s. They want the prices to stay high so the precious ratings viewers won't be tempted to stop their on air viewing. someone like CBS is okay with dropping the price on an already off the air show like I love Lucy. or the first eps of a season that have already aired and earned their money when it could coax more on air viewers. but reduced prices as a way of life, forget it.