Reuters
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
By Chris Marlowe
LOS ANGELES, March 15, 2006 (Hollywood Reporter) — College basketball fans will get new ways to indulge their passion following a deal announced Tuesday between CBS Sports and Apple.
The 2006 NCAA men’s basketball tournament games, which are distributed by CBS Corp.’s College Sports TV, will be available in condensed form at Apple’s iTunes Music Store for $1.99 each. All 63 of the foreshortened games also can be purchased as a Season Pass for $19.99, an option that automatically delivers each game to the consumer’s computer the day after it is played.
Apple vp iTunes Eddy Cue said full-length versions of this year’s semifinals and championship game also will be available for purchase at the iTunes store. In addition, content licensing and management company Thought Equity, in conjunction with CSTV, is producing compilations of “buzzer beaters,” upsets and memorable championship games from past tournaments for Apple’s online store.
Once halftime and advertising breaks are removed, Cue said each full-length game runs about an hour. ITunes had offered NCAA football’s Bowl Championship Series, and Cue said the Rose Bowl and the Orange Bowl were top sellers for several weeks.
“The response from customers has been that they love watching it on their iPods or their computers,” he said. “You see a lot of folks in gyms now that instead of watching the big TV are watching their own choice on an iPod, and kids watch in the back seat or on their laptops in their bedrooms.”
Demonstrating Apple’s belief in purchased content as opposed to streamed or rental subscriptions, other content is being added as Thought Equity’s part of the deal. For example, Cue said users can buy the highlights of the classic 1992 Duke-Kentucky game as well as Michael Jordan’s game-winning shot for North Carolina against Georgetown in 1982.
“People definitely want to relive these great moments and keep them and watch them over again,” Cue said. “What matters is having the right content at the right price.”