Robert Seidman at TV By the Numbers gives us a glimpse into the revenue being made by TV shows on iTunes. He uses the recent #1 iTunes debut of the series premiere of Dollhouse as an example.

If 25,000 downloaded a show from iTunes at $2.00 per download, that’s $50,000 in total revenue. Or one half of what the show would make for a single thirty second spot even at only 5 million viewers. And that assumes that all of the money goes back to the network, which of course isn’t the case — iTunes (Apple) gets a cut. Again, I’ve deliberately ignored many nuances and disclaimers here just for the purposes of keeping it simple. Adding all of that discussion and explanation back in just confuses things and doesn’t change the end result much. And the end result right now is simple. Watching television on television makes a lot more money — and I mean a lot more money — than Internet viewing of those same shows.

Of course, $50,000 might be a lot of money to an indie filmmaker — even a split share of those 25,000 viewers could look attractive to a micro-budget filmmaker. Unfortunately we’re talking about a high-cost TV show with an advertising budget and a rabid built-in fan base (those folks who know Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) – marketing advantages that few indie films have.

This not to say that iTunes is irrelevant; as a service there are very few download-to-own or rental options online that are nearly as easy to use or that have as much content. iTunes is pretty much the king of legitimate downloadable content both musical and cinematic. For now, however, it’s just one piece of the puzzle filmmakers have to figure out when constructing a home video distribution plan.

Read the entire article on TV by the Numbers.