04/25/2006, 9:20am, EDT
Tuesday, April 25th
Apple to sell ads on iTunes?
Apple's decision to allow advertising on iTunes may undercut the television networks, although the company is said to be working with ESPN Radio, which supplies some of iTunes' most popular ad-supported sports podcasts, according to the report.
"Still, the iTunes deal undercuts the networks' bread-and-butter business. ABC is about to work advertising into its on-demand distribution plans; in May and June it will offer free versions of several of the same shows it sells on iTunes on its own site with ads that can't be skipped. NBC will launch free original Webisodes this summer of its hit "The Office." AOL's In2TV plans to offer free, ad-supported original fare and just signed a distribution deal with A&E Network."
Filed under: industry
Other story tags: digital music/video
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"I really like the VW commercials, here's 99c so I can see them whenever I want."
Whatever.
Second, it sounds like Apple jumping on the podcast's bandwagon and using their works for Apple's gain. All apple does with the podcasts is host the link to the RSS feed. That's it. The bandwidth, cost, etc, is basically on the podcaster. Now Apple wants you to watch ads while listening to other's content? And how do they tie these together? Is it in the file (which is hard if its an MP3 file, which most podcasts are)? Does it connect to the internet to get the ad while you're listening? Can you skip it/ignore it/HIDE it?