The NYT is reporting that NBC won't be renewing its iTunes contract. You can read the story here [www.nytimes.com]

Bottomline though is NBC execs are dumber than David Letterman ever put on. Clearly they don't realize shows like the Office would never have made it w/o iTunes. Even worse, they d/ls they get from iTunes are, in effect, free money to them. It doesn't cost them one marketing nickel to put on iTunes, and its money they never say before iTunes. What are people going to do...dare I say bit torrent? And all this because NBC wants to force consumers to buy...er "bundle" mulitiple programs together. Stoopid.


Maybe this has something to do with it to: [www.hulu.com]. It's a NBC/FOX joint venture.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2007 05:03AM by Chupa Chupa.

They see success in this method of distribution and want more of the profits for themselves. They will probably try to come up with their own model and will fail.

Hulu is their model. And of course it will fail. It won't work on iPods. And they will now have to pay for servers, staff, promotion. I'm not sure how they think they can make more money than the iTunes deal they had where Apple was footing the bill for servers and staff for what was truly a nominal cut. Apple barely makes a profit w/ iTMS b/c most of the $ goes to the content owners.

yeah, I don't know. I guess they will have to charge more for each episode or inject a ton of paid ads.

They want to charge more. They think people will buy the stuff. Oh and it looks like they don't want you to buy just what you want, they are going to bundle good stuff with crap and charge more for it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2007 06:00AM by Sam3.

NBC wants to bundle a 30 minute episode of The Office with the full length movie 40 Year Old Virgin? How many times do they expect that to work?

I hope they still keep the streaming video option!

You can watch many network TV shows -- with advertising -- on their web sites right now. The content is there already, along with infrastructure for purchased downloads if and when they implement such things.

NBC is surely aware that they owe some ratings success to the iPod video market. I suspect that they wouldn't do this unless they are ready to sell downloads that are not DRM-burdened.

Then again, they could all be idiots. A first year economics student could tell them that bundling doesn't necessarily increase profits, yet their main argument is that they'd see more income from expensive bundles than they do through individual sales.

Quote
MacMagus
You can watch many network TV shows -- with advertising -- on their web sites right now. The content is there already, along with infrastructure for purchased downloads if and when they implement such things.

NBC is surely aware that they owe some ratings success to the iPod video market. I suspect that they wouldn't do this unless they are ready to sell downloads that are not DRM-burdened.

Then again, they could all be idiots. A first year economics student could tell them that bundling doesn't necessarily increase profits, yet their main argument is that they'd see more income from expensive bundles than they do through individual sales.

Except that:

1) You can't watch the streamed TV shows on the network sites on your iPod. I can understand if NBC doesn't want to exclusively distribute on iTunes, but to not sell on iTunes seems to be cutting your nose to spite yoru face.

2) It seems NBC wanted MORE DRM not less.

I think though this really has more to do with NBC/Fox's new Hula service than anything else. The rest was just all pretext to end the contract. I don't see how any non iPod compatible service can get any traction and I don't see the networks releasing non DRM'd material either.

I wonder if Fox is going to follow suit now.

I think some idiot beancounter decided that selling low quality DRM and commercial infested episodes for $2 would make them billions without taking into account that sales will drop to almost zero.

---

In tha 360. MRF User Map

These articles are just a load of crap. The current contract between Apple and NBC doesn't expire until December, so why they are reporting it like the sky is falling is beyond me. I'm sure that in the next FOUR MONTHS they'll come to an agreement. So for today, someone's going to buy some Apple stock since this will send all the sheeple into a panic and lower the stock price.

> The current contract between Apple and NBC doesn't expire until December, so why they
> are reporting it like the sky is falling is beyond me. I'm sure that in the next FOUR
> MONTHS they'll come to an agreement.

Don't be so sure. These decisions are usually made many months in advance.

'Just learned that South Park was renewed for 3 more seasons. Does that mean that it's now got a planned run through 2010? No, because they still have a year left on their original contract. The show has been renewed through 2011.

I understand that they don't wait til the last day of the contract to re-negotiate these things, but it also doesn't mean that they walk away and never talk to each other again. Getting this information into the public is just a publicity thing, and can sometimes be used for pressure. Although I think it will hurt NBC more than Apple.

I don't download anything off NBC, but this includes battlestar galactic, which is one of the shows that I have downloaded almost in entirely from itunes, since I don't have cable. I assume this means we won't get all of season 4 on itunes. Bummer.

NBC Universal will get bitch slapped on this, big time. So will Universal on the music side.

Go Apple.

If you ever wondered whether network executives were smart or not, I have one word for you: Manimal.

Hell, I have never paid for a tv show.

Bittorrent is your friend...

[ Seacrest >If you ever wondered whether network executives were smart or not, I have one word for you: Manimal.]

LOL, I remeber Johnny Carson actually making fun of that show.

Well, there it is... Apple just dropped NBC shows:

[playlistmag.com]

They will stop selling them in September, this year.

Jeff

Also note that NBC is 4th in the ranking of major networks. This may cause NBC more damage than they expected.

...and the game of chicken is under way. Who will blink first?

I have more than the average number of DVD movies in my library but never bought a TV show and probably never will. I'm just wondering where people can buy shows other than iTunes and how much do they cost? Where can you play them is also important.

Quote
Sam3
...and the game of chicken is under way. Who will blink first?

Hmm...lemme guess...NBC?

As kj4btkljv noted, Apple's hilarious response to NBC saying 'No thanks after December' was 'Really? Well then, take your crap outta here right now. And have a nice life.'

[www.apple.com]

(Note that NBC wanted to more than double the cost to consumers. Fsck 'em.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2007 04:07PM by Article Accelerator.

YAWN...

Bittorrent is your friend...