In Raleigh, North Carolina USA, we have had on-demand content for a few years. Time Warner Cable offers both pay-per-view and all you can eat on-demand for a growing list of networks.

Today analysts are calling it competitive for CBS, NBC, Comcast and DirectTV to offer pay-per-view? Three or more after Time Warner began offering the same service – only cheaper?

Every single analyst I have read today is attempting to portray these announcements as competition for iTunes. They all miss the key element that make iTune video a winner.

Its about taking it with you, in an elegant usable format!

Not one or these supposedly new offerings will allow consumers to do that. You simply get overly DRM’d content in the same old environment. The living room.

This on top of the fact that Time Warner has been offering on-demand content for a flat fee for years, make today’s announcement of 99¢ time-limited content a non-starter in my book.

I will pay to take content with me on a road trip or flight. I won’t pay to watch reruns of existing content in my living room, and which in may disappear within 24 hours of purchase.

Yes. Apple has DRM too, but in this case FairPlay is exactly that. Enough control for media conglomerates to feel safe, and enough freedom for consumers to use the content they legally purchased where they want.

Perfect is the enemy of done. In this case, Apple has done what these other companies will never perfect.