Welcome, Fall 2010 Students!

Welcome to Club Medianote from Your Humble Blogger. Links to all the medianotes will be posted here.

Our first medianote of the semester involves Apple and the future of television. Apple is attempting to extend the 99 cent download model that has worked so well for recorded music on iTunes to television shows. Apple hopes to offer episodes of current TV shows within 24 hours of their airing for 99 cents. And it will be commercial-free.

Disney is willing to give it a try. CBS and NBC are against the idea, fearing it will hurt their DVD and advertising revenues. Fox has yet to decide, although company chairman Rupert Murdoch wants to partner with Apple, in part because he hopes to start a national newspaper that will be distributed in iPad format.

What does all this mean for the future of television. Our class discussion was based upon this article in the Los Angeles Times.