What's with all the TV and movie downloading announcements today from major broadcast media and Internet media companies? Seriously... Today, I wrote about AOL offering classic TV episodes for free download, and now cable television channels Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network will offer the online sale of several half-hour programs for $2.99 per download to a Hasbro Inc.device, VuGo portable media player (pictured below).

Did all the Hollywood cronies get together in a big boardroom and say "Ok, fellas, we can't stick with the old model and we can't stop kids from downloading our copyrighted material on P2P networks. We have to do something. If Apple can do it with iTunes, maybe we can make money too. Let's offer our TV episodes for paid download."

It's almost as if we've turned a corner in my opinion. Not to say Hollywood won't be still suing 12-year olds for downloading movies, such as the Incredibles.

The difference between the two announcments is that this announcment mentions a fee of $2.99 per download where as the AOL announcement stated the TV episodes would be "free". I suppose the fact that AOL is offering TV shows that are 10-20 years old may have something to do with it being "free" while the Nickelodean and Cartoon Network offerings will most likely be much newer episodes. The paper said the episodes will be formatted to work exclusively with toy maker Hasbro's VuGo portable media player, which sells for about $100 at discount retailers.

According to Reuters which quotes a WSJ Journal article, Nickelodeon, owned by Viacom Inc., will offer shows such as "SpongeBob SquarePants," "Unfabulous" and "Rugrats" for download at VuGo.com. It said that the shows that Time Warner Inc.'s will offer include "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends."

The Reuters article also says the following:

The traditional TV industry has recently been eyeing a shift in viewership, as the Internet, digital media players such as Apple's iPod, cable TV's on-demand systems and video games now compete for attention.

Two top U.S. TV broadcast networks, Viacom's CBS and General Electric's NBC, have signed deals with cable company Comcast Corp. and satellite TV provider DirecTV Group Inc. respectively to sell on-demand episodes of recently aired top shows for 99 cents.
Meanwhile, Apple and Walt Disney's ABC networks struck a landmark agreement in October to offer episodes of top shows "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" for sale at $1.99 per show that can be downloaded into recently launched new iPod digital music players. CBS and NBC are also in discussions to offer shows to Apple's service, sources have said.