Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Well, bravo to NBC and Apple's iTunes for deciding to sell individual skits of the comedy show Saturday Night Live as online downloads. That is so much smarter than trying to exclusively sell entire 90-minute shows online. And I bet that they'll make much more money with per-skit pricing than selling full programs.

Popular skits will "go viral" and result in massive sales, I expect, as evidenced by the recent rap spoof skit "Lazy Sunday" with SNL cast members Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg, which was released to iTunes users for free and became an Internet sensation. Imagine that with a reasonable price tag.

This is a nice example of the "unbundling" of media that we talk so much about. Just as many people now buy individual songs online rather than CDs (I can't remember the last time I purchased a music CD), TV shows potentially can be unbundled even down to program components. SNL is geared perfectly for this, of course, and most shows are not. But when it works, consider unbundling.
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