Comments on: Approximately speaking, nobody downloads ‘Heroes’ TV Shows from iTunes

By: Jasmine

Jasmine — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:14:17 +0000

From what I remember, I watch Gossip Girl every week, there are not many Apple ads at all. I know its a different kind of company but GGirl clearly has a major sponsor in Verizon Wireless and their phones are used on the show, leading into or out of commercials as well, and that is the main thing in that sector that is advertised.

By: WizReport » Vid-Biz: Move, iTunes, Unhappiness

WizReport » Vid-Biz: Move, iTunes, Unhappiness — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:32:01 +0000

[...] ITunes Numbers Still Tiny for NBC; TV by the Numbers says at most, iTunes downloads are less than one percent of viewing if you add them to the TV viewing numbers. (TV by the Numbers) [...]

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:06:04 +0000

I watch all three shows so I’m aware of that. But I suspect that’s more about appealing to status conscious young men who watch all three shows, and nothing to do with iTunes data. I was thinking if they didn’t run the ad on Gossip Girl, then there was ~ zero correlation with their ad programming and TV Dowloads on iTunes.

Nick, you know you watched Gossip Girl twice and saved it on your DVR. Won’t you please tell us!

By: FrankJ

FrankJ — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:00:29 +0000

On Monday during Heroes, Chuck and Terminator, Apple ran the same commercial showcasing the iPhone 3G…with one difference in each commercial: they showcased the phone using a different application from the App store.

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:45:09 +0000

I’m not sure about Gossip Girl, but Apple advertises A LOT on Comedy Central, particularly during Colbert Report and the Daily Show, both of which do sell pretty well on iTunes, I believe.

By: Nick C

Nick C — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:43:24 +0000

Robert, I think it is indefensible of you to ask people to do research for you. That is if it means watching GOSSIP GIRL. Shame on you!

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:37:07 +0000

Frank, NBC could do the work (I’m not sure how much data processing it is) but it’s still pretty pointless from my perspective. # of streams means nothing — at least nothing we can compare it too, without including minutes per stream. Because of the mishmash of measurement and no minutes per stream data, we can’t even easily track the growth trend.

I doubt Apple uses iTunes data for its decisions, instead relying on demographic data (age, gender, income, gadget buying propensity — Nielsen can track that to a degree). But I could be wrong. Does anyone know whether Apple advertises a lot on Gossip Girl?

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:35:06 +0000

FrankJ, they probably know all that information, but they are going to publish whatever makes it seem like they have the most viewers.

By: FrankJ

FrankJ — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:26:26 +0000

Robert, wouldn’t NBC’s server logs make it a lot easier for them to track each individual episode being watched? They know every IP address connected to their server, how long they were connected, where they came from, how many streams they grabbed, etc. Probably tedious to sift through it all, but I bet they have people on it.

About iTunes…I think the data on iTunes is good from the standpoint that it helps Apple know what TV shows to advertise on. Every person logging in to iTunes has a slew of purchases that Apple tracks I’m sure. If Apple knows the shows they watch and what products they bought, better for them to target that product to the rest of that show’s audience.

By: Kathy B.

Kathy B. — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:44:30 +0000

I download TV shows from itunes. It’s great for taking entertainment on airplanes & such, but what is interesting, is that I noticed on my Supernatural episodes, the music was changed. There should really be a disclaimer because the music is such an important part of the show. On the upside, the latest DVD’s had the digital download included.

By: clutz12001

clutz12001 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:04:53 +0000

Does any legal download outlet (iTunes, Amazon, etc…) provide its own independent data on how many downloads a program receives? I’d be interested in comparing data from different sources.

Web streaming is a murky matter indeed. I trust a “completed legal download” (someone paid for it somewhere) more that streaming data.

By: Nick C

Nick C — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:43:18 +0000

I’m interested in what happens today with the XBOX 360. Today is the day that it becomes a NETFLIX box and in addition will allow people who are NETFLIX members and XBOX LIVE GOLD (ah the catch) members to download even current episodes for free.

NETFLIX warned yesterday that not all licenses were cleared yet (so limited numbers at first for DVD and TV show downloads).

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:04:31 +0000

less than that after Apple gets its cut.

[edit] though the cost is higher if they purchase the HD version. That’s $2.99 per episode (and $64 for a season pass vs $1.99/$43 for standard def). NBC doesn’t distinguish between HD and standard def downloads, though Apple is pushing the HD to the point where from a user interface perspective it’s not particularly easy to find the standard def versions. there’s just a small link that says “this TV show is also available in standard definition”.

By: jonasbrosrule

jonasbrosrule — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:00:37 +0000

wow 24 eps x $2.00 x 70,000 = 3.36 million thats less than 4 million cost just to produce one episode of Heroes

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:48:58 +0000

Clark, I went that route with my first post on TAMI a while back. I modified the headline, but going back to do the similar number crunching for The Office isn’t going to happen. I would’ve done it for Chuck, but there was no data…

By: Clark

Clark — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:44:14 +0000

Well it’s #2 right now in terms of sales on the iTunes store and is regularly in the Top 5 so it looks like nobody downloads any TV show off of iTunes then. You could of pointed that out instead of singling out Heroes in the headline trying to get clicks. I know it’s your job to post about TV and Heroes downfall is a story, but it seems like lately this site(among others) has been going out of their way to point out Heroes downfall.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:44:01 +0000

I know it’s a chore, but what about actually reading the post (or at least clicking the link to the report from NBC), how does that factor in?

By: mike

mike — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:41:30 +0000

what about hulu and nbc.com how is that factored in?

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:31:31 +0000

It’s not worthless — there’s just no way to compare as the data we’re looking at is USA viewing, and torrent downloading is worldwide. there’s no good mechanism (that I’ve seen) for separating out the USA volume.

By: James

James — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:13:57 +0000

crowd*

-typing a paper @ the same time sorry-

By: James

James — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:12:24 +0000

i know this is worthless, but it gets about 1 million downloads in the first couple of days on bittorrent: eztv, mininova, piratebay, isohunt, and a few others. The demographic for heroes is young tech ground and they arent going to pay 1.99 for a tv show, dont believe check the numbers on those sites for yourself

-same goings for most sci-fi/serial shows, but Heroes is by the far the most downloaded