James Poniewozik has an interesting article about an alternative pricing structure: how about paying a premium to watch the show before anybody else? Pay twice the price to see the show one day before the show airs on regular TV.

This is very similar to ordering PPV movies: you’ll see it before anyone sees on the networks, but you’ll see it later than anyone who paid the premium to go to the movie theatre. And amidst the clamor from record companies to provide different pricing structures for no other reason than that some music is in higher demand than others, this actually makes sense: knowing one day earlier than everybody else what happenes on Lost might be worth an extra $2 to some people. Think about Survivor: the value of the episode diminishes in value after it has been broadcast on the networks, so some people might even pay $5 or $6 for the ‘Inside Scoop’ on the next person voted off.

I should get started earlier on Mondays… Several sources have reported that TiVo is going to support transfers to video iPods and Sony PSP’s. A beta is available starting today, and a general release is scheduled for early next year.

The downside is that the transfer process is far from fast – apparently TiVo suggests syncing overnight. Add to that the time to transfer your shows from the TiVo to your PC, and this may take a while. I suspect that the added copyright-measures (apparently the video transferred to your iPod will include a digital watermark) is largely responsible for the slow process… maybe they’ll be able to improve that by next year.