Like a lot of folks, I was somewhat glad when Apple's iTunes Music Store added video's to the online offerings. With the growth of broadband internet access (Come on, admit it. You remember when dial-up service meant really low speed. And somewhere you even have that 1200/2400 baud modem, too...) to larger markets, it was only a matter of time before the studios or film library owners made a larger number of titles available online. Folks may recall that it was Disney who first took the plunge in October of 2005, with Bob Iger and Steve Job sharing the stage at an Apple special event in San Jose, California. Mr. Iger even joked that they might have a reason to meet again soon; and they so did to announce the Disney/Pixar merger.

Those first few Disney titles online may have been only a small selection of short subjects, but it was a big leap of faith. Here was a virtually unexploited delivery channel just waiting for consumers to take advantage of. It harkened back to decades earlier when Roy Disney convinced his brother Walt that they could make their library of short subjects and features generate revenues by re-releasing them to theaters. Here we are almost 60 years down the road and everything old is new again.

True Disney led the way, but even it has tended to play things safe by not offering a larger portion of the library online. Sure, you can get the latest releases, but why not more of the classic films already transfered to the digital format? Heck, even the cost of transfers from film to digital can be amortized over time, making all of those episodes of “Walt Disney Presents” a potential profit center all over again. And this time, there isn't even the cost of the media (blank DVD's) and packaging. So why is it that more content providers haven't stepped up to take advantage of the new delivery channel? Got me...

And give Disney credit as they also let ABC be the first television network to offer it's shows for sale the day after broadcast. I know some fans of Lost who thought this was just short of the second coming. That success must have given NBC the push to join in as it added some of it's current shows along with classics such as Saturday Night Live, Dragnet, Knight Rider and Alfred Hitchcock Presents to fill out the video offerings Apple had for all those newly minted video iPods.

Down the road again to another MacWorld Expo and two new technological items look to make it easier for end-users to access that content. First the iPhone (although far enough away from actual delivery and maybe priced too high for the average guy or girl) and then the Apple TV brings all the parts together to make accessing content all the easier. And quietly behind the scenes, we learn that CBS/Viacom (now including Paramount) have started adding content to the iTunes store. Again, a select number of films and a few television shows sold by the season.

But the real news that quietly slipped by is that the folks at CBS/Viacom seem to have gotten the clue. Rather than miss out on the bucks from all the folks who may not want to purchase an entire season of a television show, they have begun to sell episodes one by one. And what show did they do this with? Why, of course! The one show that has probably been seen by more people around the world in all of it's franchises or incarnations.

Star Trek.

Using the newly re-mastered (check the iTunes store for a free podcast all about these) versions of the original series already generating revenues in syndication in local television markets across the country, iTunes offers the same shows to add to your online collection. At $1.99 a shot, that is affordable enough to let even the most timid of fans buy their own copy of favorites such as "Space Seed.” In all of it's re-mastered glory with new music, sound effects and even computer generated visuals based on the original model work, "resistance is futile". Sales are inevitable. Sales that wouldn't have happened before this kind of business model finally went into place.

One doesn't need a magic mirror to know that a whole new chapter has started here. Give it a year or so and you'll even be able to get just about anything you can imagine from television seasons gone by. Even that long lost favorite episode of "My Mother The Car" to laugh all over one more time.

To quote what I'm sure is someone's favorite 70's television show, (the A-team, also on available iTunes), don't you just "love it when a plan comes together"?

Now it's off to prognosticate the next great thing in home media...

Update 2/15/07 -

Well, so much for “forward” thinking.

From the startrek.com web site:

“UPDATE 02/09/07: Due to technical reasons, Star Trek and Star Trek: Enterprise are temporarily unavailable from the iTunes Store. We will announce any developments as they happen.”

Wanna bet “technical reasons” translates into something financial?