DirecTV Sells NBC Shows For 99 Cents

DirecTV Sells NBC Shows For 99 Cents Dave Zatz is out with a post on a new arrangement between NBC and DirecTV whereby people will be able to pay 99 cents to download commercial free NBC television shows with a new DirecTV DVR.

Perhaps I don’t get it, but if you have a DirecTV DVR why not just record the show yourself and skip the commercials and not pay 99 cents. I suppose there always may be the case where you accidently didn’t record your favorite show, but it would seem to me like an unlikely service to be used. I could see it being sold on DirecTV units without a DVR, but then again this is probably just the first step on NBC’s part of experimenting with selling downloadable TV. Although not many details are provided, perhaps DirecTV plans to cripple their next version of DVR or somehow limit it’s potential in order to make these new show downloads more attractive.

I also did not see anywhere what kind of quality we might expect. Will these downloadable shows be in high def? Somehow I doubt it. Then again, anything would probably be better than the low res TV downloads currently available through iTunes and these are even at half the price.

Update: Not to be outdone, CBS and Comcast have now also announced today that they too will sell some of their programming on demand. “Beginning in January, Comcast Digital Cable customers in markets served by CBS owned-and-operated television stations (including the top 7 US markets)will be able to view episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NCIS, Survivor and The Amazing Race on Comcast’s ON DEMAND service. The on-demand programs will be available as early as midnight following their broadcast on the CBS television network. Each episode will cost 99 cents, and customers will be able to view the episodes anytime they want for up to 24 hours from the time they order them. Certain Comcast systems also may make CSI and NCIS available ON DEMAND in high-definition for customers with HD-enabled Comcast digital cable set-top boxes.”

Update: Jonathan Greene adds his thoughts here. JupiterMedia Analyst Michael Gartner offer his thoughts as well.. ArsTechnica picks it up here.