For a while now I’ve been telling people who would listen that a killer use for iTunes would be if Apple could somehow break into television and get TV shows into their online store. I’ve said I’d pay $0.99 or maybe $1.99 for a TV show, if I could get it the same time as it comes out on television, commercial-free.

Well, Apple has taken their first step in this regard, and announced yesterday a partnership with ABC to sell episodes of five of their shows for $1.99 each. Yes, folks, I’m a seer. I should be jumping with joy, right? Eh. First of all, they don’t seem to have the newest episodes. Second, they’re low quality, at 320×240 resolution, whereas what I wanted and expected was HDTV quality. My assumption, of course, is that they are commercial free (they’d better be!) but I can’t really test that cause I don’t feel like spending two bucks to see what all this hoopla is that surroundes Desperate Housewives if I’m getting such a low quality episode. I mean, seriously. 320×240 means that at full screen the video is fuzzy and pixelated. Thanks, but no thanks.

The apparent “target” for these videos is iPods. After many disparaging comments about video on the music player, Steve Jobs ended up coming out with a video player of his own, and it looks like an iPod. No, I don’t get it. The only way I’d get it is if the iPod was being used more for being able to take videos from place to place and plug it into a TV or computer for playback rather than watching on its tiny screen.

One thing Apple did that I *didn’t* predict was get older seasons of these five shows and sell them at a discount — $35 for 22 to 25 shows. Not bad, about in line with DVD sales. But for low quality episodes, no extras, no commentaries, no special features, and no clear path to getting them on a TV screen except through a fancy new iPod, I’m going to pass.

Come on, Apple. You’ve got the right idea. Now make it work. Let’s all hope that soon enough other TV networks will sign on, along with movie producers. iTunes could be a *great* outlet for smaller and independent films. Oh, and you might want to rename your “Music Store” and reorganize it a bit when this starts taking off, as I suspect (hope) it will. And put the videos in my Mac’s Movies folder, not the Music folder.

I’ve talked in the past about the future of television distribution, and I like what I see. But its only one very small step towards greatness. Not surprising, though, that it came from Apple.