Apple and NBC

I think NBC's decision to give their shows away for free download was their way of giving Apple the finger.

Clearly it's not working out for them or they wouldn't be talking with Apple again. If this iTunes rental is successful, they won't want to miss out on the revenue stream...

How do you know they aren't making more money from the ads then on iTunes? I am sure a lot more people watch the show for free than when they were on iTunes. To a lot of people, including me, 1.99 for a TV show you watch once is too expensive. There needs to be a TV rental option or ad supported free TV shows on iTunes or I will never download one.

All the content providers are extremely nervous about the increasing power of certain distributions systems, particularly Apple's.

It's a shame these guys are so myopic and backwards-looking that they focus on protecting old business models rather than building new and better ones (or even just making quality content). In the end, though, they will fall victim to their own ineptitude.

NBC is a leading example. They were so worried about Apple's distribution system that they failed to see that pulling their content from iTunes did nothing but lose customers. I used to buy BSG & Heroes on iTunes and then DVD. I enjoyed the content enough such that I went so far as to try the NBC site, but it was so painfully lame that it just wasn't worth the hassle and inconvenience. No content is that good. Now I just don't watch anything from NBC.

Customer doesn't get what he wants, and neither the content providers nor the distributors get any revenue. Way to kill a business guys!

umm, guys... there is already some good evidence that NBC may soon be back on iTunes.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/21/nbcs-zucker-hints-at-content-returning-to-itunes/

slu said:

How do you know they aren't making more money from the ads then on iTunes? I am sure a lot more people watch the show for free than when they were on iTunes. To a lot of people, including me, 1.99 for a TV show you watch once is too expensive. There needs to be a TV rental option or ad supported free TV shows on iTunes or I will never download one.

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You make some good points. Clearly, $.01 is too much for me to pay for NBC shows in iTunes. Especially when I pay my cable company to deliver them to me.

I also would find it hard to watch dramatic content in my home office, so downloading from NBC's site seems equally unlikely.

As to whether or not NBC is making more money from their embedded ads, I can only state that if they were successful at it, they would not have a need to strike up conversations with Apple again.

NBC's business acumen is reflected in their ratings... lousy

the new appleTV will shake things up a lot. coupled with the triumph of Blu-Ray the tv/podcast/movie world is undergoing major changes ... mostly good for consumers.

MikieMikie said:

You make some good points. Clearly, $.01 is too much for me to pay for NBC shows in iTunes. Especially when I pay my cable company to deliver them to me.

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I think Apple's goal is for us all to drop our cable companies. This works out great for me, as I watch only 3 or 4 shows at most, and the rest is just junk. It's cheaper for me to buy season passes and not pay a monthly cable bill. Now that I'm free from the cable company, I'm so much happier.

Wait NBC is in talks with Apple again. Thats extremely good news for me

slu said:

How do you know they aren't making more money from the ads then on iTunes? I am sure a lot more people watch the show for free than when they were on iTunes. To a lot of people, including me, 1.99 for a TV show you watch once is too expensive. There needs to be a TV rental option or ad supported free TV shows on iTunes or I will never download one.

Click to expand...

I'd pay $1.99 for COMMERCIAL FREE TV!

I don't have time to sit and watch TV, so having episodes without commercials is a plus. I can watch a one hour TV show in 42 minutes!!!!

Actually iTunes can create new viewers for existing shows. Thanks to iTunes other members of my family are watching several different shows on cable TV that they never knew existed. In our case NBC loses, not us.