I Have To Pay Another $23 Because 5th Season Of Breaking Bad Was Split In Half

breakingbadimageMartin is really annoyed. Last year, he bought season 5 of “Breaking Bad” on iTunes, which means that the fresh episodes should show up on his Apple TV at the same time they air on cable. After all, the episodes on now are the second half of the fifth season, not the sixth season.

Or…no, it’s not the “sixth” season, it’s the “final” season. Other shows would call it “Season 5.5,” but what it really means is “we know that our fans will cough up more money.”

Last year I purchased Breaking Bad season 5 from iTunes. Last night, I waited patiently for the new episode to show up on my Apple TV, but it never came. It turns out that Apple has decided that the Second part of the 5th season is actually NOT the 5th season! They decided that the 5th season ended with episode 8, and have rebranded the remainder as “The final season” which they will happily stream to your device for ANOTHER $22.99!

Will you help draw some attention to this to encourage apple to do the right thing for Breaking Bad fans? I find it outrageous that they would sell a product and only provide half of what was promised. I would never have dropped that much cash for a measly 8 episodes. I have contacted iTunes support and I am awaiting their reply.

That’s a good question. These last eight episodes are widely acknowledged to be the second half of the fifth season, not a sixth season. Splitting seasons in half has been a real boon for download and DVD sales. Amazon is doing the exact same thing, calling the second set of eight episodes “The Final Season.” They do seem to be selling the eight-pack for less than $2 per episode, so that’s something. Oops, that’s standard definition. The HD version costs the same as Apple. The season 5.5 issue also applies to other places where cordcutters stream content, including Xbox’s TV store.

AMC and the show’s creator are still calling current episodes the “fifth” season. We called up Apple to see what’s going on, and will update this post when we hear something back.

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