QotD: Keynote Video Stream
Posted January 10th, 2005 @ 11:10am by Erik J. Barzeski
Question: Apple is not having a live streaming version of the MWSF Keynote presentation because it costs too much. Today's question: how much would you pay to watch the stream if a pay option were available?
My Answer: $9.99. Sell it via the iTMS, play the video through iTunes. The infrastructure is probably already (or mostly) there.
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Posted 10 Jan 2005 at 11:19am #
I'd pay $10. I wouldn't pay any more, even though I'm enough of a diehard that it would probably be "worth" more than $10 to me. I'd just feel stupid for paying more than $10 for a webcast.
Maybe the keynote should be on pay-per-view for $50, like boxing matches. 🙂
Posted 10 Jan 2005 at 11:36am #
$9.95 seems like about the most I'd pay, yeah. Only downside to this is that unlike albums, there's no way to "try it out" before it happens. Then you end up in a situation where the keynote itself is a product rather than a vehicle.
Not that it's far from that now, but when you're paying, your expectations are higher.
Posted 10 Jan 2005 at 11:47am #
My expectations wouldn't be any higher if I was paying. I'd realize I was paying to watch something that would otherwise not be available to me. I wouldn't be paying Apple to "put on a show," but merely to make the show they had always planned to put on to be available to me.
As for the preview, well, they could show highlights of previous shows. So there. 🙂 I don't think anyone who would buy access to the stream would need a preview to know what they were buying.
Posted 10 Jan 2005 at 12:27pm #
I probably wouldn't pay. $10 would be worth it to me, but I might not be able to watch much of it live because I will be at work (where I'm supposed to 'work'). Also, streams can be somewhat unreliable at my office - depending on coworkers' usages. I would hate to purchase the webcast and then not be able to see any video.
Posted 10 Jan 2005 at 12:48pm #
For the most part, its only the diehards and the news outlets who are going to want to pay for such a service. I'm never home from school in time for it, so I can't watch it, but I'd pay for the option of downloading the Stevenote in full, as compared to streaming it.
Posted 10 Jan 2005 at 1:58pm #
I'm not willing to pay for a live stream. I doubt I'd even pay for an archive one. And yes I'm a diehard - I just have to work during the keynote. I can wait until 9pm to plug my PowerBook into my TV.
And actually, this is the first I've heard that cost was in fact the reason for the lack of a stream. I've heard speculation about that, but haven't seen any official word from Apple to that end. Perhaps I missed it.
Posted 10 Jan 2005 at 2:32pm #
I remember the days of paying for TechTV just so I could watch the stream on my big screen. Those were the days.
As for now, I'd throw down $10 for it.