I was watching a show the other day promoting the new video iPod and how you can now download actual television episodes and thought -- What a great way to promote something: offer it on TV, available for download, maybe even include it to view online. -- Two seconds later, they mention that it costs $1.99 per episode. $1.99?? Most of these shows are on the local stations, not to mention I already pay some crazy amount for cable. Why would I want to pay more - especially when I can DVR them?

Now, I'm not a huge iPod user - I find mine works well for airplanes and working out - but it seems like this is asking for a lot more out of the user than it really should considering the popularity of TiVo and DVR which are already endangering advertiser revenues. I understand the reasons to charge people money to download the video (maybe even make up for lost revenues), but I think it would be a better direction to offer network television downloads for free, and charge for other more valuable items (music videos, maybe actual cable channels, or special artist interviews - I haven't really thought this part through but I'm sure there's something better that could be done).

So, while I feel networks are losing out on growing their audiences with download incentives such as iPod's network downloads, my very small point to tie this in to Web sites is that it's important not to ask your visitors (or potential visitors) to jump through hoops to do what you want them to do. Find out what makes your customers loyal (or brings them in initially) and focus on building from there. In my case, I would be much more receptive to the video iPod's episode downloads if there was an incentive - such as free network shows - to draw me in.