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August 28, 2007

itunes_store

Music to British ears: “TV Programmes Now Available!”

Posted Aug. 28, ’07, 5:51 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen
Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

uktvshowssmall.jpg

Evening Tuesday news just keeps coming, and today turns out to be a special day for all iTunes users in the UK: they finally have access to TV Shows. I can hear screams of joy from the other side of the pond. More than two years after Lost and Desperate Housewives first graced the US store, it’s finally time for another country to enjoy the same treat.

Specifically, Apple quietly posted several TV shows on iTunes UK (curiously, there’s no announcement yet on their UK website). Those include “programmes” from ABC, Disney Channel, MTV, and a few others, which translates into the availability of, for example, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, and South Park. The selection is pretty small, reminiscent of the one found in the US a little less than two years ago. But, hopefully, that selection will grow exponentially in a similar way.

Single episodes are priced at £1.89 — before you whip out the Unit Converter widget, that’s worth approximately $3.80 USD, or almost two dollars more than a US episode. Of course, I wouldn’t expect it to be completely equivalent, especially with the current state of the US dollar, but that’s a pretty steep difference in my opinion.

Pricey or not, they’re there for your enjoyment, so enjoy! Oh, and Apple, thanks, but Canada is next, isn’t it?


4 Comments

krye said:

Actually it's 10p cheaper for them. £1.89 to them is like $1.89 to you. Even though the exchange rate is 2:1. A cup of coffee here is $1, there, it's £1. And the tax (VAT) is rolled into the price, so you don't get any surprises at the register. The price points are the same, it's just the exchange rate that sucks. So you can't look at it as "Oh my god, they're charging double in the UK!"

August 28, 2007 6:24 PM
Kelmon said:

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that Apple has finally started to make video content available in the UK since this actually starts to make the AppleTV useful. BUT all the content that I can see is US shows. Where's the local content? I was at least expecting to see content from BBC and/or Channel 4 but this is pretty much the same as the US store had at its release. Are we seriously suggesting that this has taken 2-years to do?

Local content for local stores.

Mind you, I'm going to download an episode of Commander In Chief since I've not seen that before and I'd like to see how well the process works.

August 28, 2007 11:36 PM
Gordon said:

Who cares about the price.

Aren't they missing something? Like, you know, content from the UK?

I enjoy a lot of US TV but there are acres of good stuff created here in the UK... maybe it's because most of the British channels already offer their content free to view from their website.

August 29, 2007 12:46 AM
Darren said:

Wow! Cheaper!
The US must be dumb paying $1199 for an iMac when it's a mere £799 here in the UK. Shouldn't you demand a price cut to $800?

August 29, 2007 4:02 AM

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