Domain of the Bored

part one of a two-fer.

this bug is The Daily Show and The Colbert Report not listed among iTunes TV Shows.

UPDATE 2006-03-11: forgot to link to the bug report. oops. fixed.

Summary:

in iTunes' Browse view, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are not listed.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. click on Music Store. you do not need to load the front page; if you don't want to, click .
2. click Browse.
3. click TV Shows.

Expected Results:

The Daily Show is listed between Conviction and Desperate Housewives. The Colbert Report is listed between The Biggest Loser and Comedy Central Stand-Up.

Actual Results:

neither The Daily Show nor The Colbert Report is anywhere in the list.

Regression:

none known.

Notes:

rdar://4407769 is a previous instance of missing TV shows.

Technorati tags: Apple Bug Friday, applebugfriday.

So I bought a multi-pass for The Daily Show last night. I was waiting all last night for iTunes to give me a dialog box or something (a Growl notification would have been nice, but that's just wishing on my part), but it didn't do anything.

Finally, when I checked my email, I got this:

The latest episode of The Daily Show is now available for you to download. Simply sign in to iTunes and it will begin downloading immediately.

1. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 3/08/06

Sign in? But I'm already signed in! I'm always signed in!

I tried quitting iTunes, accessing the front page, accessing the TV Shows page, accessing the Daily Show page — nothing worked. There was no notification in iTunes that a new episode was available, and not even a place I could poll to see if a new episode was available, much less get it.

Finally I signed out, then signed in again. And then, finally, it downloads. But it didn't get added to my shopping cart (I still use one — holdover from my dial-up days); it simply downloaded immediately. This would be fine if it were listed among the podcasts, but it's a component of the Music Store, and Music Store downloads should use the shopping cart if it's enabled.

So if you buy the multi-pass, you have to sign out and back in to make it download any new episodes. Lame, Apple, lame.

I think I'll file a bug on this tomorrow.

UPDATE 2006-03-10: Patr1ck suggested in the comments that I should try “Check for Purchases”. This works, but it isn't documented anywhere. I'll still file a bug today.

Technorati tags: iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iTunes Video Store, iTMS, iTVS.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog announces that the Daily Show and the Colbert Report are now in iTunes:

The sale of these shows is being handled a bit differently. You can buy a "multi-pass" for both The Colbert Report and The Daily Show for $9.99US. This gets you the current episode, and sets up iTunes to automatically download future episodes as they become available (up to 16 episodes).

this is equal to paying 62.4375¢ per episode. that's cheaper than music. especially when you consider that 20 minutes of music will usually cost you at least $10 (because songs over 8 minutes are usually album-only).

TUAW says that there weren't any episodes. there is one now (of each), and it is $1.99, the same as all other TV show episodes on iTVS. there is no reason to buy single episodes of The Daily Show — get the multi-pass and save yourself $21.85.

• The Daily Show
• The Colbert Report

UPDATE 14:29: I should clarify that you can buy these shows an episode at a time if you want to. there is just no reason to, because the multi-pass costs so much less.

Technorati tags: iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iTunes Video Store, iTMS, iTVS, The Daily Show.

there's only one download this week that doesn't appear in the free section of the front page. it's Access Hollywood Year 10: Oscar Preview. a little late, but what do you want for free?

UPDATE 2006-03-09: well, I don't know if this wasn't up Tuesday or if I just missed it, but there are two other free videos, under Project Runway:

• Project Runway Trailer: ‘Overview of Emmy-nominated series "Project Runway".’
• Project Runway Trailer: ‘A 22-minute overview of Project Runway Season 2 leading up to the finale.’

here's a list of free downloads on iTunes that aren't listed in the “Free Downloads” section on the front page, for the week of 2006-02-28.

Music

• Dolly Parton - Travelin' Thru — OK, never mind that — I just checked the front page again and they've added it now. it wasn't listed there earlier.

Videos

• Conviction - Conviction (Pilot) — this was up last week as well. it's the new series from “D**k Wolf” (as he was referred to last week — now all the descriptions have been changed to not mention him by name). I think this airs on actual TV this week.
• Gabe Dixon Band - All Will Be Well — also up last week. problem with this music video is that the characters from the show talk over it. the actual song isn't available on iTunes. somebody needs to place a call to the Gabe Dixon Band's recording company.
• Conviction - Behind the Scenes — also up last week.
• Top Chef - Top Chef Trailer — two-minute trailer for a reality show.

my first ever. yay!

in iTunes, there is a 'Browse' display, activated by clicking a 'Browse' button in the upper-right corner of the ⌘1 window. this provides a hierarchical display of the contents of the currently-selected source. in the iTunes Music Store, one of the top-level selections is 'TV Shows'.

you would expect that selecting 'TV Shows' here would show you a list of all the TV shows available to be bought on the iTunes Video Store. and you would be wrong, because it only lists some of them.

the full list of displayed shows is:

• Adam 12
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• Battlestar Galactica
• Commander in Chief
• Desperate Housewives
• Dragnet
• Knight Rider
• Law & Order
• Lost
• Monk
• Night Stalker
• The Office
• The Suite Life of Zack & Cody
• Surface
• The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

this leaves out a number of shows, including well-known ones like Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Saturday Night Live.

filed as rdar://4407769.

UPDATE 2006-01-30: it seems fixed now, although the bug isn't closed yet.

In case you don't normally follow iTMS's free music, both of the free songs this week are good. And if you get Angelina, you should get the original version as well.