Filed under: iTS, Retail, Video, iTunes
Family Guy appears on iTunes
We've heard many times before that Fox was interested in getting on iTunes, and now it seems a deal has been worked out-- Family Guy has appeared on iTunes. Now you can watch the Griffins (including Stewie, definitely my favorite) on your Apple TV, iPod, or iPhone.
There's only one episode up as of this writing, however, and a little birdie tells me that the episode is "b0rked" in technical terms-- apparently the quality isn't very good, and it may have simply been a test to start getting the show online. Unfortunately, while the episode posted is pretty good (it stars Drew Berrymore as Brian's dumb girlfriend), we have no idea what else is going to show up in iTunes-- if they're going to do full seasons, or a "greatest hits" of downloads.
Either way, Family Guy is on iTunes. Welcome, Griffins.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
There's only one episode up as of this writing, however, and a little birdie tells me that the episode is "b0rked" in technical terms-- apparently the quality isn't very good, and it may have simply been a test to start getting the show online. Unfortunately, while the episode posted is pretty good (it stars Drew Berrymore as Brian's dumb girlfriend), we have no idea what else is going to show up in iTunes-- if they're going to do full seasons, or a "greatest hits" of downloads.
Either way, Family Guy is on iTunes. Welcome, Griffins.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matt McNamara said 4:34PM on 10-02-2007
I haven't checked it out yet, but does that say $1.99? Or is there a reason for that.
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scott said 4:38PM on 10-02-2007
@Matt
Don't complain, they might hear...
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matthew said 4:56PM on 10-02-2007
"We've heard many times before that Fox was interested in getting on iTunes, and now it seems a deal has been worked out-- Family Guy has appeared on iTunes."
I'm confused. All of the Fox season premieres were online for free, and Prison Break (and other shows, no?) were available last season, right? So isn't this not the first Fox/iTunes deal?
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matthew said 4:58PM on 10-02-2007
I'm tired. By "online" I meant "on iTunes".
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duscrom said 5:01PM on 10-02-2007
1.99 is the price for TV shows...
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techn0phile said 5:01PM on 10-02-2007
Yeah a deal has been worked out, over a year and a half ago.
It's nice to finally se Family Guy though.
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Quix said 5:04PM on 10-02-2007
"B0rked" video, unfortunately, seems to be a hallmark of the iTunes Store. The season premier of Battlestar Galactica last year looked horrible, and Apple didn't provide a replacement. Another episode had odd problems as well (the early downloaders got the shaft before an improved version was posted). And last year's Fiesta Bowl (Boise State vs. Oklahoma - greatest football game ever!) looked absolutely hideous. Worse than VHS quality. Like TiVo on the lowest quality setting. I'm still seething about that garbage. I wanted to keep that game forever, but it's barely viewable.
Either get into the video business in earnest, Apple, or get out. 720p would be a nice start.
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Aron Trimble said 5:07PM on 10-02-2007
I might buy this out of principle just to support FOX getting on iTunes!
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Jon said 5:19PM on 10-02-2007
Family Guy ringtones too?
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vandlism said 5:23PM on 10-02-2007
Fox needed to add something popular back to the iTunes Store since Universal is pulling House.
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Connor Cimowsky said 5:48PM on 10-02-2007
It looks great to me, I don't know what everyone's talking about :)
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Mitesh Gowani said 6:23PM on 10-02-2007
I'll wait till the quality is worked out but I can assure you that I will be buying all seasons of Family Guy from iTunes because it really is very convenient and plus this might show FOX to get Simpsons on which would be a huge plus again.
I already have Family Guy and Simpsons on DVD and torr*ahem* downloads but this would just make it better because it would sync easily to my iPhone iPod and aTV. (I know fruit freak here but I just like the convenience of not having to setup complex machines and servers to see something everywhere and I never seem to keep my DVD's in place anyways.)
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shadownight said 7:33PM on 10-02-2007
Yeah, I think Fox has been on iTunes since spring 2006, about 6 months after the very first ABC shows (ah, those were the good days). I never understood why Family Guy wasn't offered though, so it's great to see it's finally here.
(And Mike, that article you link to is from December '05...)
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Garrett said 8:00PM on 10-02-2007
Anyone else wondering where the Star Wars special is?
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Tom Strong said 1:06AM on 10-03-2007
Family Guy = unfunny Simpsons ripoff
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Nick Simmons said 8:42AM on 10-03-2007
"Family Guy appears on iTunes"...if you are in the States. It's really starting to p!ss me off that you cannot get any movies or TV shows in Canada. Whoopie do, here are some trailers. Is it any wonder that people turn to bit torrent? Yes, I know it's not totally Apple's fault, but given Canadian TV is basically American TV, we'd like to share the love too please!
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TH said 11:05AM on 10-03-2007
It's the newest episode. They must assume all the true fans already have a dedicated 30GB ipod containing the first 99 episodes and can now use iTunes to add the new one every week instead of getting it from an unnamed Swedish bay of pirates.
That is a pretty good assumption...
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sirbarton said 2:02PM on 10-03-2007
The real reason it has just appeared on the iTunes store is that Fox didn't negotiate the music licenses for the earlier seasons to include All Media and digital downloads . All upcoming seasons will be on iTunes because they now pay upfront for the inevitable fees associated with downloads. Because the show uses so much music, it would be very expensive for Fox to go back and negotiate fees for all of those episodes just to sell them as downloads. Especially when most fans own them all on DVD already.
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Katie said 9:10PM on 10-04-2007
@Sirbarton: Seasons 1,2,5, and now 6 are available on the Amazon unbox store. I'm not sure what's going on with 3 &4, but I assume that if they have it on Amazon, they'll eventually have them on iTunes.
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