God forbid Apple should miss out on another opportunity to extract their pound of flesh. Apparently the new dock connector on iPhone 5 will ensure only devices that are licenced by Apple (and duly pay a royalty) will work with the new iPhone. Presumably they will roll that out to all their other iOS devices over time. We already have a closed system for iOS apps, etc so Apple get their 30%. How long before they mandate that only apps sold through the Mac App Store can be used on Macs? I think we can all see where this going. Less choice and more expensive apps & peripherals for us but KERCHING for Apple. Say what you like about Tim Cook but he certainly knows how to make money.

If this is all true and comes to fruition, then I sense a ton of bitterness, reluctance, and pilfering on torrents to occur.  Most people have become too dependent and use to having free podcasts for the past five years.   The thing is, I'm surprised it took this long for this to develop.   Most podcasts will remain free because they are either small potatoes or done as a labor of love.   However, some major players, basically, the top-twenty of each podcasting genre could be interested in such a model.  

If people are willing to pay for cable TV, movies, music, etc. why shouldn't people be willing to pay for premium content? If you don't like it, don't buy it. Incredible.

I don't see it being a viable model, except maybe some celebrity podcasts and some occasional specials.

I guess it could be a system to make it easier to donate. Last I heard, the donation model doesn't bring much money in anyway, so I don't know if that would help.

There are very few podcast's worth watching and they sure aren't worth paying for.

And you are perfectly free to buy something else. No one is standing outside a shop with a gun, forcing you in the door, are they?

SHAUN, UK "God forbid Apple should miss out on another opportunity to extract their pound of flesh. Apparently the new dock connector on iPhone 5 will ensure only devices that are licenced by Apple (and duly pay a royalty) will work with the new iPhone. Presumably they will roll that out to all their other iOS devices over time. We already have a closed system for iOS apps, etc so Apple get their 30%. How long before they mandate that only apps sold through the Mac App Store can be used on Macs? I think we can all see where this going. Less choice and more expensive apps & peripherals for us but KERCHING for Apple. Say what you like about Tim Cook but he certainly knows how to make money."

Don't want to sound dismissive....but you do have a choice. Get an Android tablet made by ?, smartphone made by ?, a zune, and a chrome notebook. And a $400 PC.

What Apple is doing is succeeding at making a fantastic eco-system. And making a pretty penny in doing so. 

Apple is about excellence for profit. Most other companies are about "ripping off" the consumer for profit, Dell, HP (think ink), ATT, Verizon, Cox Cable, MS, RIM, etc., etc. 

And when I say, "ripping off the consumer for profit," I mean providing slipshod products, rushed to market with clunky software, with half-assed, baked into creaky, crappy, plasticky hardware.

I will not buy any electronic equipment unless it's made by Apple.

I've gone 4 years w/o a TV, my GPS (TomTom) is an app in my iP4s. Which I use as my main camera. I will not buy a DSLR because of the clunky software in them. Too many "bits!"

An iP5, iPad, MBA, Apple TV and I'm good to go! Less wires, less power bricks and a lot less headaches! :)

PS. I do have a Brother MFC printer.

Best regards! :)

makes sense - to create competitive original content for the Apple TV and break free from the TV content model. The purely ad based model is tough - eg.: revision3 (now sadly part of the the Discover Circus of television)

Actually, when you stop and think about it there really isn't much different between subscribing to a season of a TV show in iTunes and subscribing to a video podcast.