NBC pulls its TV shows from Apple iTunes
No more ad-free episodes of The Office, 30 Rock, Scrubs or Friday Night Lights for $1.99 each.
As promised, NBC (GE) removed all its content and that of its affiliates from the iTunes Store over the weekend after its contract with Apple (AAPL) expired.
That means no shows on iTunes from Bravo, mun2, NBC, NBC News, CNBC, NBC Sports, Sci Fi, Sleuth, Telemundo or USA Network. (Some shows aired on NBC but produced by other Hollywood studios such as Viacom, Disney or 20th Century Fox are still available.)
NBC has put some of that content on NBC Direct, an ad-supported download service that runs only on Windows machines; a Mac version is due next year. Its shows will also be available on hulu.com, a joint venture with News Corp. Both services are still in beta.
NBC had been Apple’s single largest partner for digital video, with more than 1,500 hours of programming representing either 30% or 40% of iTunes video content, depending which side you believe. Talks to renew the contract reached an impasse last August. NBC wanted to be able to charge more than $1.99 for its most popular shows. Apple insisted on a flat per-show rate and claimed that the network wanted to raise prices to as much as $4.99 per episode. (See Apple to NBC: Drop Dead.)
In a recent interview, NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker insisted its demands were “modest” and complained that Steve Jobs was undervaluing video content in order to sell more iPods.
“We don’t want to replace the dollars we were making in the analog world with pennies on the digital side,” he said, according to Variety.
$5 is a bit pricey, considering I can DVR stuff i miss or rent shows from netflix I can’t get on my cable package. (I’ve got the $4.99 plan). It’s not customer-centric. If pay $5 to download a TV show, I think it’s only fair that I should be able to copy it to a DVD so I can watch it on my big screen or at least take it with me, or let someone borrow it. That’s the thing about iTunes, including the movies. you can’t really loan them out or swap with friends.
NBC is clueless! Absolutely clueless. They have an increased likelihood of getting their programming to more people using the iTunes vehicle. I buy more TV on iTuens than ever, because I want to watch what I want, when I want and without all the damned commercials. Every year, I end p buying more and more shows. The problem is that NBC wants to control what you watch and how much you pay and what they want you to pay isn’t fair to consumers and that’s basically what Apple told them. So NBC decides to screw the consumer by removing everything because they want to end the contract. Who looses? We do. Wake up NBC. Fire Jeff Zucker and get yourselves a real executive.
I guess I don’t get it. There are 25 episodes in a season X $1.99=$49 and change. They sell the seasons on their (NBC) web sight for $40. Out of that $40 they production costs of the dvds and distribution costs. So I guess I fail to see the logic behind NBC decision except they wanted to rape their public at $4.99 thats $125 a season. Yeah Right!!!
Amazing to see how many people miss the point . . . good thing you aren’t in charge of marketing, ARE YOU? (1)Apple will not have content to sell (never), (2)people are willing to watch commercial filled shows for free (not), (3)iPhone revenue sharing model should be applied to NBC (LOL). Do you guys have an ipod, iphone, or even walked into a Mac store? Why do people buy a cadillac, a jaguar, or a corvette? I seriously doubt they are worried about who put in the seats or the stearing wheel or the floor mats - THEY CAN FIND THOSE ANYWHERE! Same thing with the ipods and the iphones. (1)Its about prestige and peer groups and fitting in - group psychology. (2)Its about being in control of what you want to watch, when you want to watch it without having to sit through Pepsi commericials. And finally (3) Its about switching costs. If you own an iPhone, then how many other similar options do you have - of the same caliber -absolutely zero! If you watch NBC shows, then how many similar options do you have - endless!
I just wish everyone in all areas of consumer products could offer the innovation of Apple!
“I can’t be the only NBC shareholder out there who ones multiple iPods ”
no, but you may be the only shareholder who spells “owns” o-n-e-s.
NBC is on the right track now Baby!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
The NBC move is inherently dumb, and was made by someone ’stuck on stupid”! As a NBC share holder I do not support this decision. I can’t be the only NBC shareholder out there who ones multiple iPods (there are 22 in my extended family alone) who wish to watch the network in which I have invested content on those iPods. But then maybe I’m the one stuck on stupid as I should have bought more apple stock than I have NDC!
Apple and WalMart do not sell products of their own
i guess you think computers, servers, software + osx, itunes, quicktime + codec (H.264), firewire (IEEE 1394), ipods & iphones aren’t products.
What happens to iTunes when AAPL has no content to sell. Like it or not AAPL is a distributor here with no content of its own.
according to the SEC Form 4 (05.05.06), JOBS STEVEN P is the largest shareholder in DISNEY (DIS) with 138,000,007 shares. a little company you might have heard of that just owns one of the largest content libraries + ABC, A&E, ESPN, Walt DIsney Pictures, Touchstone, Pixar, & Miramax.
other content that doesn’t involve the networks or studios are podcasts & audio books which have been making consistent gains as content for ipods year after year.
Jobs may want to learn some partnering skills - they’ll come in handy when AAPL inevitably stumbles and needs the revenues.
partnering skills maybe, or you could just control the company.
AAPL S&P stock report 12.01.07
5 yr total return = 2251%
5 yr return on $10k = $235,123
with The Daily Show, CBS & Southpark shows online & free via their own sites coupled with Netflix for full season DVD rentals of most popular shows, who is really going to pay the $4-5 zucker thinks people will pay for content? jobs rightly objected to zucker’s idea of content bundling. that is to sell bundled shows at a higher price. the OFFICE is a popular download, so bundle it with that boxoffice turd EVAN ALMIGHTY just because they both shows star steve carell. it’s a stupid idea & jobs knew it. what consistently kills other content startups is confusing pricing scemes (napster) and proprietary or cumbersome codecs/encoding or hardware agendas (sony connect). sony connect ranked 23rd before finally shutting down.
apple designs the whole experience to work seamlessly at a great price - from the codec, to the store, to the player. do you really think having a hodgepodge of several different companies, each controlling their segment from encoding to market to player would be a better solution? it has been tried too often & always fails because of the separate greed of each of the components.
If NBC thinks people will flock away from iTunes to Amazon (HAHAHA), NBC Online, or some Huhu.com site, they are crazy. Consumers are dedicated to the distribution channel just as much (if not more) than the content.
This is not television, where switching your distribution channel is a button on the remote, and switching back is pushing another button.
This is a software application - people learn it, customize it, tweak it, and become comfortable with how it interacts. They become proficient and like the flow of it. They become adept at using it quickly, and it stops being a program for putting media on their device and starts being an integrated tool in their daily computer use.
Apple has done a supreme job at tying a device to an application - most of the consumer base has no idea you can use anything BUT iTunes with your iPod, and even if they could, why would they want to? Apple mastered the market on the intuitive interface long ago, and so far nobody is touching them. Look at the iPhone… years of producing phones from companies like Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, LG, etc… and in walks Apple at the last minute with hands-down the cleanest, most seamless phone OS ever built. They tip-toed in on the ROKR and realized there was no way a partnership would work because the other player was too dumb to listen, so they would go it alone. Result? By far the most hyped and demanded cellular phone ever created. Others can only WISH they could pull that off on their second go at a cell phone.
Thus far, Apple has managed to find ways to stave off the juggernaut (M$) and actually grow market share. Not easy for a company with less than 10% to start with. On the flipside, NBC, a company who has only consistently LOST market share, shows that it fully intends to continue that loss. I would wager that the current users of iTunes are also the users most probable of paying for content - and NBC just walked away from the lot of them to bet on who? People who would defect from iTunes for NBC Content, iTunes haters, and Pirates.
Good luck with that strategy NBC, if you want to know how it will turn out, give me a call on my iPhone after it gets done syncing with my iTunes.
I just found out that we can borrow full season DVDs at our local library. Free is always good :)
Commenting On:
I am glad NBC did not renew their contract with Apple.
Apple is fast becoming the WalMart of digital distribution. Sure, the prices are low, but Apple is just a greedy distributor of products. WalMart and Apple both offer no real products of their own. Apple uses others’ content to sell iPods. WalMart sells others’ products to keep people coming into the store to buy more stuff.
It is time for media companies to invent their own marketplaces where they can be free to provide superior service and collect more revenue for their valuable content. No one really needs an iPod or the Apple store to get music, TV shows, movies, and other digital content. NBC needs to either create its own marketplace or help Microsoft to come up with an alternate market. Microsoft and NBC already have MSNBC together. They should be helping one another conquer and destroy the juggernaut that Apple is becoming!
Comments: You mention that Apple and WalMart do not sell products of their own. What does Best Buy sell that is their own? What do movie theaters sell that is their own? Thousands of stores sell items that are not their own… it is called a service. When companies like Apple and Walmart specialize in a service, it brings down prices (which you agree with) and brings up quality. NBC does not specialize in the sale of media content. Apple has already proven itself to be very successful, despite all the failed attempts by others. Sure no one needs an iPod or the Apple store to get music, but you tell me, what place is more accessible, more available, and more convenient? You mention that NBC should partner with Microsoft. Do you think they would be any different than Apple? Don’t you think they would target their content towards Zune users and influencing people to purchase a Zune. And isn’t Microsoft already a juggernaut itself? I agree with you that media companies like NBC have alternatives, and by partnering with companies like Microsoft would create competition (which would lower prices and raise quality). But you have got it all wrong. If you can name be a better product than the iPod and a better content provider than iTunes, fine. But no matter what new software of device comes along, those two will remain supreme.
Apple has created an ecosystem that I find elegant, convenient and fairly priced. I have enjoyed watching numerous NBC television shows via iTunes and while I have thoroughly enjoyed them, I will not be pursuing that content via other distribution methods. There is no shortage of alternative content, to be sure.
NBC’s handling of this situation has soured me to the company. NBC’s stance reads, quite frankly, as greedy and short sighted.
As stated above, I watched NBC content because of iTunes. I didn’t buy my iPod because of NBC!
Anyway there has to be more going on here than meets the eye. Why is it NBC insists $4.99 an episode when they don’t even charge that much on Xbox Live?
Posted By Yadgyu, Harkeyville, TX : December 3, 2007 4:49 pm
“I am glad NBC did not renew their contract with Apple.
Apple is fast becoming the WalMart of digital distribution. Sure, the prices are low, but Apple is just a greedy distributor of products. WalMart and Apple both offer no real products of their own. Apple uses others’ content to sell iPods. WalMart sells others’ products to keep people coming into the store to buy more stuff.
It is time for media companies to invent their own marketplaces where they can be free to provide superior service and collect more revenue for their valuable content. No one really needs an iPod or the Apple store to get music, TV shows, movies, and other digital content. NBC needs to either create its own marketplace or help Microsoft to come up with an alternate market. Microsoft and NBC already have MSNBC together. They should be helping one another conquer and destroy the juggernaut that Apple is becoming!”
That is one of the most hypocritical statements I’ve read. You’re suggesting that non-greedy Microsoft should be the one to stop Apple from giving consumers what they want by teaming up with NBC to come up with a better way? I suppose that solution will be kind to both Mac and PC users, right? Sounds great, and I’m sure Microsoft would never take advantage of being on top of the game once they got there. How old are you?
It’s nice how a few of you call us Apple fan boys because we support Apple’s iTunes.
So tell me, what is your’s or NBC’s solution to watch my Mac video content on my HDTV using my Apple TV in a commercial free form? How about those who just want to transfer from their Mac to an iPod?
So far I’ve been told to use Acquisition, Limewire or Bittorrent. Somehow I don’t think NBC would condone those options. It appears no one has anything legal in place for us Mac users. At least Apple supports both Mac and PC users the same way.
So NBC thinks they will find enough suckers to pay $5 PER EPISODE (!) for shows that people can watch for free anytime at home on their DVR. What have they been smoking?
iTunes shows should be viewed a great promotional tool that can be used to reel people into your network, not as a profit center.
Will be sad to watch NBC follow the rest of old media into bankruptcy. But that’s what happens when your greed overwhelms common sense.
I know that it’s an imperfect analogy but: My understanding is that the Railroad Barons lost the war with Trucking for delivery of goods to the consumer, because they thought that they were in the business of “railroading”. They didn’t realize that they were in the “transportation” business.
Likewise, today Apple is in the “transportation” business and know that the best way to keep the lock on that business is to keep prices to the consumer low. As long as prices are low, piracy is kept at bay.
If the networks know what’s good for them, they will run, not walk to jump on the Apple transportation system - iTunes. Solid consumer base. Good quality product to the consumer. No commercials. Once those things go away (like I hear about the network sites)people will flock more and more to other forms of content delivery, again, pirate. Someone at NBC isn’t getting the whole story. Can you say Zucker with an S?
Doesn’t matter to me. My wife and I canceled cable recently because we were either Tivo-ing shows over the air (HDTV looks surprisingly good with a quality antenna) or watching them on DVD.
All this means is that rather than buying shows from ITMS which I can’t share with friends I’ll simply wait until a season is over and either buy or rent the show. Buy it and I can loan it to as many friends as I please (our $25 copy of Friday Night Lights is in its third household now), rent it and I don’t pay much.
Yeah, I’m still paying for their content. I will always pay for quality content. I just want to watch it on my terms. That’s the part where the networks and music industry don’t get it. It’s not that I don’t want to buy your CDs. I buy at least 1 a month. I just don’t want to buy a CD for that ONE song I like off of it.
And it’s not that I don’t want to watch your TV shows. I’ll gladly pay good money for the DVDs (bought 30 Rock last night for $40). I just want to watch the TV show when I want, how I want and without the ads. Sorry.
I am glad NBC did not renew their contract with Apple.
Apple is fast becoming the WalMart of digital distribution. Sure, the prices are low, but Apple is just a greedy distributor of products. WalMart and Apple both offer no real products of their own. Apple uses others’ content to sell iPods. WalMart sells others’ products to keep people coming into the store to buy more stuff.
It is time for media companies to invent their own marketplaces where they can be free to provide superior service and collect more revenue for their valuable content. No one really needs an iPod or the Apple store to get music, TV shows, movies, and other digital content. NBC needs to either create its own marketplace or help Microsoft to come up with an alternate market. Microsoft and NBC already have MSNBC together. They should be helping one another conquer and destroy the juggernaut that Apple is becoming!
I find it amazing that NBC wants consumers to pay up to watch a television show online (either by fees or by watching ads) but doesn’t want to pay the writers who created these shows. They claim the iPod is nothing without the content. The content is nothing without the writers.
They want to resell the material and not pay for it. That’s the epitome of greed.
Every Tuesday afternoon before I leave work I check out the iTunes store to see what’s new and I almost always download two or three shows to watch on my iPhone during my commute. Obviously this won’t include NBC shows any longer.
I don’t really know (or care) if research shows people are willing to watch content online with commercials. What I do care about is convenience. I have no desire to watch TV on my computer at home. That’s what I have the HD TV for. Besides that, while my company doesn’t block the iTunes store it does block the entertainment sites. So even on slow days when I can actually take my full lunch hour, I can’t get to the network websites. I can always get to my iPhone.
What the execs at NBC fail to realize is that watching TV is all about convenience. Used to be, I had to be in front of my TV at 8 to watch my favorite show. Today, thanks to TiVo I watch when I want. Thanks to iTunes I am able to extend that to where I want and increasingly, I want to watch it on my iPhone in that otherwise dead 55 minute trip to and from work. If NBC won’t let me do it (and pay for the privilege) I’ll still do it.
CUPERTINO, California—August 31, 2007—Apple® today announced that it will not be selling NBC television shows for the upcoming television season on its online iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com). The move follows NBC’s decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99. ABC, CBS, FOX and The CW, along with more than 50 cable networks, are signed up to sell TV shows from their upcoming season on iTunes at $1.99 per episode.
“We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers.”
Apple’s agreement with NBC ends in December. Since NBC would withdraw their shows in the middle of the television season, Apple has decided to not offer NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season beginning in September. NBC supplied iTunes with three of its 10 best selling TV shows last season, accounting for 30 percent of iTunes TV show sales.
ex ped: That was Apple’s threat in August. I don’t believe they made good on it. Correct me if I’m wrong, but last time I checked, Apple was still carrying all of NBC’s digital video content — until it all got pulled over the weekend. –Philip Elmer-DeWitt
As the sub prime market hurts the auto sales, more and more auto companies are going to pull back on advertising on TV, including NBC.
This is due to tax write off using ones’ house to purchase new vehicles.
This stunt is going to back fire big time and NBC is going to lose.
iTunes and iPods are here to stay. I’m just waiting for the video rentals to start on iTunes and their AppleTV to takeoff.
We don’t want to replace the dollars we were making in the analog world with pennies on the digital side,” he said
“We’d prefer to make nothing” he continued.
Idiot… this strategy has worked well for the music industry right? Face it, the old way (centrally controlled)of doing business is gone. Trying to regain “control” of their business model won’t work. Making it “harder” for consumers to get content will drive them all to P2P solutions… already happening in fact. Oh well…
Big mistake on NBC’s part. I only watched NBC shows that I bought on iTunes. now that they are gone, I’ll only see what gets pirated to YouTube, or wait for it to come out on DVD in NetFlix. Really, really dumb.
AAPL wants a cut of monthly iPhone wireless services revenues from AT&T and Jobs is a visionary genius. NBC wants a cut of iPod hardware sales in return for selling its content on iTunes and is decried as greedy and out-of-touch. Right. A music and video store with no content doesn’t sound like a great business model. Jobs may want to learn some partnering skills - they’ll come in handy when AAPL inevitably stumbles and needs the revenues.
A simple trend that people here are overlooking is that recent studies have shown that viewers are very willing to watch ad supported shows for free.
Why should NBC loose money with iTunes just to help apple sell more video iPods?
Apple and Steve Jobs are in fact the “evil doer” with their genius marketing, spinning the blind public’s perception of the actual issues. They are simply a distributor that yield’s vast power over the media companies which are increasingly becoming frustrated with Apple’s policies. Expect more detractors in the near future.
wow 5 bucks a show, who does NBC think it is. There shows are barely worth the 2 dollars. Zucker and NBC are showing their true sides, Its all about the money, forget about the fans of the shows.
What happens to iTunes when AAPL has no content to sell. Like it or not AAPL is a distributor here with no content of its own. We’ll see how long the fanboys hold out and boycott content that isn’t sold on iTunes. How crazy is that? Your loyalty is to what, a web store? Who cares where you buy it from? This is one of the most amusing aspects of AAPL fanboyism. Any company that doesn’t want to agree to Jobs’ terms “doesn’t get it.” We’ll see what AAPL is left with when the networks, studios, and labels pull their content and go their own way. Apparently there will be a lot of empty iPods since you will all refuse to buy from anywhere else!
While I can appreciate them wanting more money, this just seems illogical. iTunes had both the mac and pc world. I wouldnever pay over $2 for a show. I have issues with that now. At least with iTunes, I could back up my purchase on a disc. With the Amazon Unbox, while it lets me play them over my xbox on my tv in great quality, I can’t even burn a back up. And the TOS on that thing is just horrendous. Watching them online on NBC.com is OK. It just seems that they have the same number of commercial interruptions AND that stupid volume issue.
I love it how people are slamming NBC as a greedy corporation. What do you think apple is this little mom and pop shop. Get your facts straight it does not matter who did it, it boils down to money and nothing else. Apple, microsoft, NBC, Exxonn the list goes on and on repeatadley companies being tax shelters and continuing to make ridiculous amounts of money while you the consumer feeds the machine. The only way to affect greed is to not play into it, keep buying your ipods.
Yep, I watched Heroes last year on a couple international flights…. Guess what, I have not watched it this season. NBC is foolish… I watched your shows because of the ipod, I didn’t buy the ipod because of your shows!!
NBC sucks hard! This business decision from NBC won’t affect me at all though, since iTunes doesn’t offer shows outside of the US where I live. So, I will keep on using my other ways to get high quality shows, no-drm, no ads, and no price. I do think it’s time for the intern to sit down with the NBC boss and show him the power of the internets, as they probably don’t have a clue.
The Television networks are in trouble. They earned their prominence by having a government granted monopoly of the airwaves when there wasn’t nearly enough to go around. Technology has now increased the bandwidth to the point that there can be unlimited content providers via the Internet, and the Networks no longer command what they used to. This is a sea-change in their business of reaching advertising viewers. NBC is now empowered only by the capability to create entertainment content that others cannot easily emulate (yet), and a large but dwindling population of legacy TV viewers. But maneuvers like these, that turns their back on their viewers, evidences a lost cause. If they can offer something of real value to the new population of viewers, enough to draw a crowd, a GROWING crowd to be specific, then maybe they could stay viable as an entity. NBC has now abandoned its only growing venue. Fearing death by disease more than death by starvation, they withdraw when they should advance. There’s just no stable business model there, guys. Like the music labels, this industry remains just one Internet innovation away from extinction.
I bought full seasons of Heroes and Project Runway last year. I thought it was well worth the price to watch when I wanted AND on which machine I wanted. I had pretty much stopped watching TV before ITMS offered these shows. Now, once again, I watch almost no NBC offerings - or TV for that matter. Their ad supported streaming of Heroes is roachy as hell and very annoying to watch. Bravo shows are not available at all on the net (or are they? Hmmmm….) Dumb move NBC, especially with no REAL alternative in place.
To sum up:
2006 revenue to NBC from Dave ~$150
2007 revenue to NBC from Dave ~$0
Whats also funny is that NBC has allowed Amazon to start selling their shows at $1.99 a show. The same that Apple was selling them at. Yet NBC did not make Amazon pay more for the content.
Amazon is a glowing example of how NOT to do movies and TV. What a maze to venture through and the downloads are not as crisp visually as an iTunes download.
The NBC contract doesnt expire until the end of Dec 2007. Apple stated that no contract was to be signed, then there was no reason to have the content on iTunes, so
Apple pulled current NBC content a month earlier than expected.
ex ped: I don’t think you’re right about that. This is from an NBC statement issued at the end of August (link):
”We want consumers to know that all our returning series, including new episodes, will be available on iTunes through the remainder of the contract, which expires in early December. Our content is also available on NBC.com, Amazon.com, and the soon-to-launch hulu.com.” [emphasis mine] –Philip Elmer-DeWitt
We know how this will end: Zucker (NBC CEO) will be tossed out on his duff in a year, like Eisner (Disney) was when he offended Steve Jobs in the Pixar days. NBC will be out hundreds of millions of dollars. Piracy will increase. Zucker will get a multi-million termination package and will go on to wreck some other company.
NBC is so greedy. I does not matter anyway, I am goint to get it all for free from YouTube.
It’s Apple that removed the content — get your facts straight. NBC did not want to renew the Contract.
ex ped: That’s a distinction without a difference. Without a contract, the content gets pulled. Does it matter who presses the delete key? –Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philipp,
it does matter for two reasons:
1st, it’s all about perception - your article suggest taht Apple is the big loser here. Not true. Apple will still sell a lot of ipods. People like itunes.
2nd, ending Contract does not equal removing content. You can keep content with no contract until you don’t (keep content based on the old Contract)- It is similar as the Universal Music decision not to renew their Contract with Apple.
NBC-universal know that they need Apple to sell Music. They do not know yet that they need them for TV shows.
I hope Apple continues to stay strong with record/tv companies keeping the price down. Of course NBC wants more $ for their shows. Hell, I want more money too! Damn economics.
NBC = GREED!!..why do major media companies such as Record Labels, TV and Film studios believe consumers will regress back to an age where companies like NBC owned the lionshare of media outlets and generated billions of dollars of revenue w/o any input from consumers or other competitive markets. Terrestrial Media /= Digital Media. (thats not equal to). Give use something more if you want to charge more, otherwise, GOOD RIDDANCE, NBC!!!!
Now that NBC has taken away shows from iTunes I will boycott NBC, all networks, and live under a rock because they have gone against my icon Steve. Come on people get a life. Just because two corps dispute, now you are going to stop watching the shows, you so happily forked out money for. Nutters you all are.
Ad free and within my iTunes drove me to download and buy NBC shows. Since NBC made this move I do avoid their NBC nightly news. Sorry NBC, but this was a terrible move.
Hopefully, we will see shows back on iTunes.
It seems clear to me that NBC does not “get it”. Their value was more than the money they made from iTunes. Watching their shows from iTunes “when and where” I wanted to was advertising that drove me to thier television broadcasts and away from peer-to-peer networks. I bet I will skip all of thier shows this year.
I really don’t think that NBC, ABC, or CBS will make a difference in the number of iPods that Apple sells. Since there are so many iPod owners now, there will be ways to get content on them one way or the other. You will still see plenty of iPods playing network content they just won’t be purchased. The Networks would be smart to make it easy and affordable to purchase and play their content on the most popular portable video player - the iPod.
At $1.99/episode, buying a season’s worth of programming costs about the same as buying it on DVD - without production, packaging, and retailer costs deducted. NBC, like the some record labels, is greedy. One music exec rationalized that digital customers should pay for the convenience of downloading. How absurd.
I have actually started watching several series because I discovered them while browsing iTunes. Generally, I would not visit each network site to see what’s new.
I think Steve Jobs made the right decision. They had a great venu in iTunes, and threw it away. We’ll see how many episodes of their programming they sell elsewhere, especially at $4.99/ea. It makes me wonder if their market research department checked into this.
The iPod is an intensely personal media player, redefining the term “one-on-one”. It’s not something we share and people do nto gather round to watch our videos! So, NBC supposes we’re ready to pay $4.95 to watch 45 minutes of its regurgitated sitcoms alone when, for less cash, we can share hit movies in high def and surround sound with a room full of friends. iPod video sales represent great potential for incremental dollars–new centers of profit for networks and producers. But,few of us will be searching the NBC website for its rare programming delights and we surely won’t be paying absurdly high prices for playback that’s limited to computer monitors and two inch screens!
Apple should just NBC sell their shows for whatever they want. When no one buys them for $5 an episode because that’s just retarded they’ll lower the price.
As far as TV/Movie downloads I prefer Amazon over iTunes anyway. Download wise this isn’t a big deal to me, however Apple’s bottom line wise this is concern to me.
NBC is crazy if they think people will spend $4.99 for ONE episode (as Apple is claiming). I have spent $1.99 on TV shows on iTunes in the past and there is absolutely NO way I would spend over that amount. Ever.
Well, I’ve downloaded exactly zero NBS stuff and I watch about that much of NBC live. Nothing they produce appeals to my tastes so for me this is of no importance. In fact, there is hardly anything produced by any of the big three networks that I consider “prime” viewing. In fact, I don’t consider 10 minutes of commercials every half hour to be reasonable viewing. I know, I know… you aren’t in business to serve us your viewers, you’re there to make huge profits from your advertising. NBC, ABC, and CBS, you are dying. For me, the end can’t come soon enough.
Advertising, advertising, advertising..
Yeah, NBC has been making some great coin over the years as their distribution model has been all about the commercial break and the millions that come along with them. I don’t doubt that they are making a lot less in iTunes than they have made traditionally. Are they still making money via iTunes? Sure. Just not nearly what they are accustomed to .. and that just won’t due for a CEO salary and shareholder patience.
That’s the problem with ala carte services: they cost too much to get even a 10th of what a cable/dish distributor will offer. Of course, cable and dish offer 90% crap that you don’t watch .. but with commercials. Thi$ make$ the network$ happy.
Who will hit the Golden Mean between extremes and offer us something truly complelling? I dunno. But I hope it’s apple.
Guess NBC won’t get anymore of my money. I have no desire to watch their free version with Ads.. nor to buy content from hulu….
Whats on ABC tonight?
More errors for you to correct:
“NBC had been Apple’s single largest partner for digital video, wit more than 1,500 hours of programming”
With instead of wit.
[ex ped: That's one error, not "errors," but thanks for the catch.]
I just hope NBC comes around.
If not, there are other ways to get shows on iPod. :O
NBC’s loss.
So now NBC gets virtually nothing as ad rates on such sites are known to pay very little. Smooth move NBC.
It’s Apple that removed the content — get your facts straight. NBC did not want to renew the Contract.
ex ped: That’s a distinction without a difference. Without a contract, the content gets pulled. Does it matter who presses the delete key? –Philip Elmer-DeWitt
- Analyst: Apple will sell 4.47 million iPhones this quarter
- Best Buy to sell iPhones starting Sept. 7
- Steve Jobs: 60 million iPhone apps downloaded
- iPhone: Trouble in the App Store
- iPhone nano: A rumor before its time
- On the road
- iPhone apps: 1,001 and counting
- Jobs tells Times: No cancer
- Who is to blame for MobileMe?
- Two weeks later, New Yorkers wait 4 1/2 hours for an iPhone
- I do not like Best Buy and would not... More
- say goodbye to the iphone and hello t... More
- Why don't you change the name of this... More
- Eh, I guess you can't get everyone to... More
- An Iphone Nano would be nice, it woul... More
- don't forget you don't need the roku... More
- "My wife is unhappy with the iPhone b... More
- I was discriminated against at best b... More
- Make that 60,000,001 sweety.... More
- The big questions are: Is this wha... More
Silicon Valley veterans like to joke that Steve Jobs must be surrounded by a reality distortion field; if you get too close to him, you start to believe what he's saying. Thanks to the success of the iPod, the launch of the iPhone and the renewed interest in the Mac, Apple has made believers out of millions of customers - and made a lot of investors rich. But Philip Elmer-DeWitt believes that an ounce of skepticism never hurts when writing about the company. He should know. He's been covering Apple - and watching Steve Jobs operate - since 1982, first for Time Magazine, then for Business 2.0, and now for Fortune.
This may sound a bit off topic, but you can now sell your cds online using your own PayPal account and a simple website.
This is sure to bring in the little guys who need a hand to get into the music industry.
Brad Smith