So, it looks like Apple is finally introducing some new ways to purchase video from the iTunes Video Store: the Multi-Pass and the Season Pass. In theory, if all of my favorite shows were offered on iTunes, I could simply subscribe to the appropriate multi-pass or season pass, and download all of my shows to my Mac using my Internet connection. Then, there would be no need for Comcast, my current cable provider. In theory, this should cost me less money, because instead of paying for cable TV and Internet, I can just buy Internet. But, let's try and figure it out.

My cable bill for regular, non-digital cable is right around $50 a month. For that $50, my MythTV machine is recording 2 current-events style shows (the NBC Nightly News and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), 4 hour-long dramas, and 5 half-hour sitcoms.

Now, let's do some math. I am paying $600 per year for cable TV, and out of that I am watching 11 shows. So, the cost-per-show per-year comes out to $54. In order for iTunes to be compelling, it needs to beat that number. Apple hasn't announced the pricing for a season pass yet, but we can assume that it will be less than $48 ($2 per episode times 24 episodes). So, things are starting to look pretty good.

Unfortunately, things like the Daily Show are going to be more expensive, because you get a lot more than 24 episodes of that in a year. And in fact, the multi-pass for the Daily Show is $10 per month.

So, my math has to get a little bit more complicated:

9 season-pass shows * $48/season = $432
2 multi-pass shows * $120/year = $240
Total for a year's worth of TV on iTunes = $672

Only $72 more than Comcast. That's not too bad, when you consider that:

• There are no commercials in the video content served through iTunes (for now).
• The shows are all portable -- I can watch them on my PowerBook, or a video iPod.
• I would actually own the shows -- if I had enough local storage, I could save them all, and go back in time and watch whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
• Things like the NBC Nightly News are already available on the Internet for free, so it might be free on iTunes too.
• A season pass will hopefully cost less than buying each episode individually, which makes the above number look better.
• Not all shows have 24 episodes in a season (i.e. "Battlestar Galactica"), further making the above number look better.

Of course, the negatives are that the quality of the video isn't as good (the resolution is about a quarter the size of regular TV resolution) and the content won't be available until a day after it originally airs on broadcast TV. But I very rarely watch things in realtime anyway, so I don't think that will be too big of a deal for me.

So, I'm going to be watching the pricing for Apple's Season Pass content with interest. If it is really cheap, then I could potentially start saving some real money versus buying cable TV.

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Macintosh, DVR, iTunes, Comcast, Video On Demand