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iTunes offers digital delivery for video
Following up on an earlier post about Mountain Bike Action’s foray into digital publishing comes news that Apple has made available Red’s Dream, a 1987 Pixar short film about a unicycle, to users of its iTunes store. While I’m not too sure about Red’s Dream itself — and I’m hesitant to drop $3 on it, since I’m not what you call an animation afficionado — the entire concept of digital delivery for video is an intriguing proposition for consumers and content providers.
With the recent growth in the availability of broadband Internet access and reputable online services showing that it is, in fact, possible to provide legal, commercial free, high quality video to consumers (who are willing to pay for it), I’d like to think that Pixar’s animated short is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to online video content. As someone without cable television, I’d love to be able to purchase bike-related content (like the individual stages of the Tour de France) instead of relying on the goodwill of my cable enabled friends.
Of course, time will tell but it’s likely that this writeup will be obsolete in two or three years. At least I’m hoping it will.