Comparing Video Podcasts with the iTunes Store TV episodes

In my recent iTunes freebie update, I posted about HBO's Extras podcast, the video podcast that presented the first of Season 2's episodes. I asked readers what they thought about this po ible new trend. International readers in particular re onded enthusiastically. They loved getting acce to quality video e ecially since iTunes does not yet offer video stores outside the US. Here is a rundown of some of the other Store-versus-Podcast-for-Free-Episodes i ues brought up both by reader feedback and via brai torming.

I ue	iTunes Store	Video Podcast
Hosting	Data at the iTunes Store, using their bandwidth.	Data on the home server, presumably using provider's bandwidth.
Maximum downloads	Set (presumably) by the iTunes store contract, a la the recent 100 million ABC download promotion.	No download limits except from provider bandwidth
Encryption	Standard iTunes video DRM	No DRM. Podcasts can be freely copied and distributed.
Advertising	At the highly trafficked "Free on iTunes" section, via the yellow-tagged advertising slugs, and in the TV store, traffic will be driven strongly to the free material.	The podcast section does have advertising but iTunes users are not used to hunting around for full TV episodes in the Podcast section, it's kind of redundant to put "free" tags on podcast material, there's no built-in way to drive traffic to your material (a la "Free on iTunes") nor is there a compilation of episode material (e.g. "TV Episode Podcasts")
Availability	US only, and only to those with iTunes accounts (usually requiring a credit card on record)	International, no iTunes US account needed
Comarketing Materials	None at the TV store listings	Can easily package commentary tracks, behind the scenes audio and video along with the episodes into the same main podcast screen so all related comarketing materials are presented at once
Updates	Must go through the iTunes store to update materials	Can update materials on your own site, since the data is locally hosted
iPod Playback	TV shows a ear in their own Video submenu on the iPod. You choose whether to sync all episodes, most recent N episodes, or unwatched episodes.	Video podcasts a ear in their own menu, and your podcast settings limit whether those episodes get synched. At this time, you ca ot set separate rules for video podcasts versus audio ones.