iTunes’ Breaking Bad Swindle: Making Two Seasons Out of One [Update]
Update: As posted by Chucky in the comments, I’m not the only one feeling cheated by this. According to GigaOm, a class action suit has been filed against Apple in regards to this issue.
You may have seen my thoughts about Breaking Bad’s final season. One thing I didn’t mention in that article is the swindle that iTunes has wrought on those following the series with an iTunes season pass.
Back when season 5 of Breaking Bad started, iTunes sold a season pass that offered “all current and future episodes of Breaking Bad, Season 5.” When the producers decided to lengthen the season, and split it into two parts, Apple reneged on their commitment, no longer providing “all current and future episodes.” They ended the season pass at episode 8, and call the final episodes “Breaking Bad, The Final Season.”
Yet AMC, the network on which Breaking Bad is aired, calls this Season 5. Essentially, iTunes season pass purchasers have been snookered. They entered into an agreement with Apple to get all episodes of this season, and have found that, to continue getting the last 8 episodes, they need to cough up more money.
Apple’s dishonesty is shameful. If AMC had called this a new season, which they never have, then their approach would be valid. But these final episodes have always been a continuation of Season 5, and AMC should be ensuring that those who purchased season passes for Season 5 get all the episodes that Apple promised.
Meh and double-meh. For one point of reference, Amazon handled the situation in the exact same way.
For another point of reference, did you really think you were getting sixteen episodes for $22? The severely abnormal pricing alone should have tipped you off that that wasn’t the case.
Now, when I originally bought “Season Five” from Amazon, it was made utterly clear to me that I was purchasing eight episodes. If Apple neglected to make things equivalently clear so, then bad on them, and minor criticism is deserved. But still, it should have been pretty clear based on context what was up.
So, perhaps you have a valid semantic quibble with Apple. (Though I don’t know what you cropped out of the above image. Did Apple also make clear you were getting eight episodes?) But really, we’re talking semantics, not swindles. (Personally, I prefer to do my digital commerce through Amazon, given that they seem to take extreme care to even avoid semantic quibbles, as well as being better e-commerce folks in general. But that’s just me.)
And, especially if Apple did make clear that you were purchasing eight episodes in the cropped out section of the image, then I’d say you have more of a semantic quibble with Lionsgate than with Apple…
I didn’t crop anything pertinent. Apple doesn’t specify how many episodes are in a season pass, in case a show gets canceled. (I recall, some years ago, getting a “refund” for a canceled show in the form of video credits.)
Here’s the thing. I took the screen shot at the time because the price was low. However, I had just bought the first four seasons at a very low price, so I assumed they were putting Season 5 “on sale” at a similar price.
It may only be a question of semantics, but with online sales, semantics are all you have.
“I didn’t crop anything pertinent. Apple doesn’t specify how many episodes are in a season pass … It may only be a question of semantics, but with online sales, semantics are all you have”
OK. I’m sold. You ought to demand either a full refund, or S5 pt2 for free. Your semantic quibble starts to rise to something actionable, even if a consumer significantly more savvy than the median in the particulars here would’ve understood the game ahead of time. (Don’t know how much luck you’ll have, but if you did so in an equivalent situation with Amazon, they’d readily credit your credit card within a day or so.)
“I recall, some years ago, getting a “refund” for a canceled show in the form of video credits.”
In similar situations, Amazon refunds take the form of a credit to your credit card, not a credit to a section of their store…
I run a website called TV Bobber that tracks HD TV price drops on the iTunes Store. From what I understand, this is the studio’s call. They decide when/if a show gets a Season Pass price and how seasons are broken up. I’ve seen a Season Pass get yanked and a show revert to per-episode pricing.
Shows do get some great discounts from time to time: 50% off isn’t unheard of. I think it’s very reasonable to expect that “all current and future” wouldn’t get cut off by a “Part 2,” however low the initial price.
Seems as you are not the only one to feel swindled…