Show shopping

First we had 99 cent songs from the iTunes Music Store. That was a good idea, right? It's a fair price, you can play the song forever, burn it, copy it to your iPod, blah blah blah. Nice and simple. I'm fine with that. I don't blow as much coin on it as I used to, but it's nice to know it's there. Music isn't really given away free unless you listen to the radio or watch MTV for the 8.23 seconds per day that they spend playing songs, so paying less money for less music isn't exactly a bizarre or revolutionary idea.

So now NBC wants all us DirecTV users to buy fancy new Tivo-ish boxes on which we'll be able to "download" episodes of NBC shows from the past few weeks, for 99 cents a show. I think this is kind of funny, because paying for a single episode of a show sort of is a revolutionary idea, but not in the way that NBC thinks it is. It's revolutionary because the 99 cents is basically a punishment. You forgot to set the Tivo to record Law & Order, so you can still watch it, but it's going to cost you. It's the monetary equivalent of a quick punch in the arm, the kind you'd get from your roommate for deleting The Apprentice before he had a chance to watch it. Perhaps they'll extend the fee for longer shows or miniseries, which might reach the financial equivalent of a purple nurple. Then again, if your roommate is actually watching NBC miniseries, I suspect there are larger problems afoot.