and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

Apple iTunes Music Store tops 1 million in video sales. Well, Steve Jobs states the obvious:

"Selling 1 million videos in less than 20 days strongly suggests there is a market for legal video downloads,"

Well nerr ner ner, no kidding. This may be just an excited bulge resulting from hype but I suspect people like the idea of videos on their iPod and they be comin' back fer more. Key here is the uptake of outside content - ABC's "Lost" for example. If Apple can continue to sign up more content providers I don't see this slowing down too soon. Of course, the questions to be answered are how much the SAG will put up with this - they want their cuts too, those greedy actors -joke.

On top of this, TVHarmony.com even has a new version of their software that can convert "TiVo-recorded shows into iPod video compatible format. This sort of thing may still be for the technically savvy but it's only a matter of time.

Along another vein, a slashdot post recently asked Can iTunes Resurrect Old Time TV? - referencing the boom of old-time radio available on the internet as 'proof of concept'. My take? Maybe you can't get someone to buy Dragnet for $50 in the store but if you can get some insomniac surfing the iTMS at 1am in the morning and they see their favourite show from childhood, I think the nostalgia could kick in enough for people to cough up a dollar or two.

So where is it all going? Is the subscription model dead? I can only presume companies will continue to flog any dead horse that might once have been their beast of burden and this is what makes giant companies go belly up like a fish flushed down the sewer. We'll have to wait and see, but I will leave you with this little piece of math:

One show a day: $1
30 days / month: $30
Not enough? How about two or three hours of video a day?

$90? Still sounds cheaper than some people's cable bill.

Oh yah, one last thing: our favourite monopoly may be back, Ma Bell: Verizon Communications' purchase of MCI and SBC Communications' acquisition of AT&T has been approved unanimously by the FCC:

[The FCC] voted to clear the deals after days of negotiations over conditions.

...consumer advocates warned that SBC and Verizon's acquisitions would suffocate competition for customers, lead to higher prices and poorer service.

"Approval of these mergers undermines more than 20 years of efforts to introduce competition into the residential local and long distance telecommunications market," said Gene Kimmelman, senior director of public policy for Consumers Union.

Nevertheless, competitor Qwest seems to have kow-towed to the FCC:

[Qwest] had urged the FCC to set tougher conditions on the acquisitions, such as asset sales and price controls.

But then:

"It appears that the FCC has imposed critical protections that will prevent the two mega-firms from increasing the prices or decreasing the quality of essential services they provide to competitors," Qwest said in a statement.