Fox To Sell Episodes On VOD Before They Air

Culture

from the foxy-lady dept

NBC and CBS said back in November they’d begin selling episodes of some of their shows on video-on-demand services from cable and satellite providers. Fox announced a similar plan with DirecTV today, but with a twist. It will sell episodes of a couple of its shows for 99 cents each for about a week after they air, but it will sell episodes of two shows from its FX network for $2.99 each — two days before they air. $3 each seems fairly steep, but it’s interesting to see the networks tinker around and try to add value in various ways, whether it’s removing commercials, adding extra content, formatting episodes for portable devices or now, giving viewers early access. The free alternative will remain attractive to many, if not most, viewers, but there’s a balance to be struck somewhere between price and added value for per-episode downloads.