Over 1 Million NBC Downloads Since Return to iTunes

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

One of the major announcements during last week's media event was the return of NBC shows (http://www.macrumors.com/2008/09/09/itunes-8-hd-tv-shows-grid-view-genius-playlists-nbc/) to the iTunes Store. NBC reportedly accounted for 40% of iTunes video sales prior to their removal late last year.

Hollywood Reporter reveals (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i8fcb5100629836e60f2b946f58f168aa) that over 1 million NBC iTunes downloads have been logged since the studio's return on September 9th. Some of those downloads may have been free HD episodes which are currently available from iTunes.

Free HD iTunes episodes include (via TUAW (http://www.tuaw.com/2008/09/10/free-itunes-hd-tv-shows/)):

- He That Believeth in Me - Battlestar Galactica, Season 4 (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTVSeason?i=289298137&id=287463411&s=143441)
- Fun Runs, Pts. 1 & 2 - The Office, Season 4 (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTVSeason?i=265292596&id=264812288&s=143441)
- Lipstick Jungle: Pilot - Lipstick Jungle, Season 1 (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTVSeason?i=289090068&id=288696560&s=143441)
- Four Months Later... - Heroes, Season 2 (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTVSeason?i=264898590&id=264406664&s=143441)
- Pilot - In Plain Sight, Season 1 (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTVSeason?i=289016793&id=288833021&s=143441)
- Mr. Monk Buys a House - Monk, Season 7 (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTVSeason?i=289897076&id=289084429&s=143441)
- Ghosts - Psych, Season 3 (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTVSeason?i=290454608&id=289736505&s=143441)
- Merit Badge: Pilot - Life, Season 1 (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTVSeason?i=289049295&id=263097375&s=143441)
- Bad to the Drone - Eureka, Season 3 (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTVSeason?i=289910330&id=289083672&s=143441)

NBC's fall season will kick off (http://www.comingsoon.net/news/tvnews.php?id=45398) next week for many of its popular shows including The Office (http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/) and Heroes (http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/).


Article Link (http://www.macrumors.com/2008/09/19/over-1-million-nbc-downloads-since-return-to-itunes/)

[grooveattack]

bet that's a nice little earner...

[sjjordan]

SOME? Try MOST. As soon as I heard there were free episodes, I grabbed 3 of them. I'm sure a lot of people did the same.

[solipsism]

I wonder how many they lost by not selling on iTS, especially during the Olympics.

[sushi]

Nice to see NBC back and the level of interest shown by 1 million downloads in a relatively short time.

[gianly1985]

"Save the cheerleader, get a bunch of money" :D

ps: it sucks that all these HD goodies are only on the U.S. Store :mad::mad::mad: I'd like to see movies and tv shows on Italian (or foreign, in general) store too...

[garty]

Call me crazy but I just bought season 4 of Battlestar Galactica despite having them all from 'other sources'. Why? To show NBC that if you offer them in a way that is convenient for the customer (remember them?) at a reasonable price and HD as a bonus then I will buy them rather than get them from 'other sources'.

I hope the NBC execs have learned form this episode.

[stagi]

I downloaded a few of the free shows to see the quality of HD

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

That's a huge number for such a short amount of time. What are people saying about the quality of the HD programming from NBC.

[Stella]

Seems like iTunes needs NBC as much as NBC needs iTunes for an online impact.

1 million - says a lot to those people who were saying iTunes is better off without them...

[MrCrowbar]

I downloaded a few of the free shows to see the quality of HD

I want to, but can't because I need different account information for payment of the free stuff...

[Papajohn56]

Funny they came crawling back.

[matt archbold]

I downloaded all but 3 of those HD shows. I dont know if I did something diffrent but when I selected the HD version it also downloaded the SD version as well (free of charge). Does anyone know if the SD version is free with the HD purchase? It makes sense, buy the HD version and put the SD verison that is included on my iphone.

The HD version diid seem better in quality than the SD versions of the same shows although not a whole lot. It was sharper and a little brighter using the same screen settings on my XPS m1330 laptop.

All in all it was a good experience with the HD shows. I dont think I'll buy every show in HD that's available, but will for my favs (The office, Heroes, Monk, Psych and pretty much anything on the Discovery Channel).

[iSaga]

Does anyone know if iTunes will be offering the Heroes season pass?

[yoda13]

I downloaded some Law and Order SVU shows in HD...the ones I missed last season, there were about 4 of them. I had some quirks with the downloading process, but now I will be able to download all the shows that I watch on all networks, so I am happy....no need to get a DVR now...which is expensive where I live unfortunately...:)

[arn]

I downloaded all but 3 of those HD shows. I dont know if I did something diffrent but when I selected the HD version it also downloaded the SD version as well (free of charge). Does anyone know if the SD version is free with the HD purchase? It makes sense, buy the HD version and put the SD verison that is included on my iphone.

Yep, the SD and HD versions are bundled together. The SD version is for iPhone/iPod use.

arn

[penguy]

for some reason when I select any of the free episodes and they are moved to my shopping cart, they are then shown as 'unavailable'. Everything else in my cart is fine...

I did notice a reviewer on one of the shows indicate that they were having the same problem. Any thoughts? Could it be HD related? ie, your system is inadequate, therefore you cannot download the content? (if they would update the mini, that would NOT be the case, but I digress)

[gkarris]

Duh, since NBC left, there's a lot more video capable devices Apple sold (iPod Nano, Touch, iPhone). I'm even starting to see more people buy AppleTV, and you can now purchase directly on that.

I don't know, a network that cancels Stargate and gives us Flash Gordon.... :eek:

[emaja]

I am not really sure that this is an indication of anything since they are free downloads. I can say that I would not have bothered if they weren't free. In fact, I really downloaded them to see what the HD content looked like.

[bobbleheadbob]

1,000,000 total downloads! :eek:

(Too bad only a small % of those were likely PAID downloads...Betcha almost all of them are just everyone grabbing the free stuff ;))

[marktesssing]

for some reason when I select any of the free episodes and they are moved to my shopping cart, they are then shown as 'unavailable'. Everything else in my cart is fine...

I did notice a reviewer on one of the shows indicate that they were having the same problem. Any thoughts? Could it be HD related? ie, your system is inadequate, therefore you cannot download the content? (if they would update the mini, that would NOT be the case, but I digress)

from itunes click store>shopping cart from the sidebar on the left then click "buy now" in the lower right corner of screen

[clalor]

for some reason when I select any of the free episodes and they are moved to my shopping cart, they are then shown as 'unavailable'. Everything else in my cart is fine...

I did notice a reviewer on one of the shows indicate that they were having the same problem. Any thoughts? Could it be HD related? ie, your system is inadequate, therefore you cannot download the content? (if they would update the mini, that would NOT be the case, but I digress)

Try turning on one-click purchasing for these shows. There's some sort of bug that prevents you from purchasing many of the NBC shows when using the shopping cart. It worked for me with the Battlestar Galactica season 4 HD episodes.

[MojoWill]

come on Apple sort out the UK store. We want the HD shows NBC etc.......

[FaasNat]

for some reason when I select any of the free episodes and they are moved to my shopping cart, they are then shown as 'unavailable'. Everything else in my cart is fine...

I did notice a reviewer on one of the shows indicate that they were having the same problem. Any thoughts? Could it be HD related? ie, your system is inadequate, therefore you cannot download the content? (if they would update the mini, that would NOT be the case, but I digress)
I think you can still click on the 'buy' link from the shopping cart. However, doing it with the shopping cart option only downloaded the SD version. I had to enable the 1-click method to be able to get the HD versions as well.

[twoodcc]

i bet most of those are from free downloads, but that's still a lot of downloads

[LankyNibbs]

I "mostly" agree with those who guess that "most" of the 1 mil are the free episodes.... :-) but my guess is that it's more like a 51% most than a 90% most.

IIRC, NBC left itunes last December, which leaves people's episode collections a full season behind. I would guess that many customers are going on a "catch-up" spending spree (no matter what half-ass avi episodes I, I mean they, torrented during the drought).

Maybe it wasn't more than half, now that I reconsider, but free downloads were certainly a substantial part of the 1 million. "Welcome back, NBC! Let us love you, you dumb-a**'s."

[/dev/toaster]

Still, none of those shows have any interest to me. Sorry, but NBC is fairly irrelevant to me they produce pretty crappy shows.

[esquire360]

The office says unavailable? any1 else?

[polar-blair]

Cool, heroes in HD! i'll get me that :D thankyou!

qucik question the HD shows arnt out in the UK yet, :mad: If I buy heroes season 3 (when it starts, cant wait) for example in SD, then when HD shoes come to the UK can I get the HD versions at a lower price, I heard that when you download a HD movie you get a SD version aswell, so if you already have the SD version, and I just want to "upgrade" to a HD version do you get a discount? like the complete my album feature, you get the cost of the songs you already have deducted from the total price of the album.

[Object-X]

You can not download HD TV shows from AppleTV! I just got burned by that. Apple should make this limitation more obvious, or at least label them HD or SD.

You can download HD movies from AppleTV, in fact, that's the only way to do it, but it's appears to be the oppisite with TV shows. This is very confusing.

To their credit they offered me a refund to allow me to download the HD version from iTunes, but this is sort of ridiculous. I wonder how many other people have made this mistake?

[aerospace]

NBC should release every season finale from last year for free. That should increase interest in this season's episodes.

[EricNau]

I'm genuinely surprised NBC was able to obtain 1,000,000 downloads, even if they were all free. :D

[hexonxonx]

1,000,000 total downloads! :eek:

(Too bad only a small % of those were likely PAID downloads...Betcha almost all of them are just everyone grabbing the free stuff ;))

I purchased Adam 12 and Ghost Hunters International. I haven't downloaded any free episodes because I've never heard of the shows.

[polar-blair]

I purchased Adam 12 and Ghost Hunters International. I haven't downloaded any free episodes because I've never heard of the shows.

Never heard of heroes:eek:

[Buschmaster]

Never heard of heroes:eek:

Or Office or Monk or Psych?

[JohnnyKingfishe]

okay but where's law & order????

[hexonxonx]

Or Office or Monk or Psych?

I work during the week at night when all these shows are on. I never even heard of Lost till I was reading a thread about how good it was a few months back and then went and bought every episode on iTunes. Yes, some of us don't get to watch TV at night.

I have no idea what new shows are even coming on this season.

[Axemantitan]

How large are the file sizes for these HD episodes? I want to download BSG episodes, but I need to know how much space they will take up.

[nagromme]

A warning: DO NOT watch that free Battlestar Galactica episode unless you've watched seasons zero (miniseries) through three already. It HUGELY spoils all previous seasons within moments, and it's a great series that you deserve to watch will all the surprises intact.

Try turning on one-click purchasing for these shows. There's some sort of bug that prevents you from purchasing many of the NBC shows when using the shopping cart. It worked for me with the Battlestar Galactica season 4 HD episodes.

Yep--that worked for me. Before I did that, I downloaded the free HD episode and didn't realize at first that I was only getting standard definition. But switching to one-click got me the HD version (which you know right away because you get TWO copies of it--one HD and one standard-def for fast iPod loading).

[solipsism]

How large are the file sizes for these HD episodes? I want to download BSG episodes, but I need to know how much space they will take up.

About 4.5Mbps. So multiply 4.5 x 60 to get your bitrate per minute. Then multiple that number by the number of minutes in the show/movie. In your case, 42 minutes for BSG. Then divide by 8 to go from bit to byte. So....

4.5Mbps x 60sec x 42min / 8 = ~1.4GB (I didn't bother to account for BASE-2 and BASE-10)

[bobcubsfan]

An hour TV show that is rougly 500 mb is not really HD. It is all about the mpbs. For example, eyeTV recordings are roughly 5 - 7 GB, and the mbps is 13 - 19, whereas the iTunes downloads are less than 2 mpbs.

The difference it quality is obvious on screens larger than 15"

[EricBrian]

I am thrilled that they are back. I finally got my Office and Battlestar Galactica episodes.


I hope the NBC execs have learned form this episode.

I hope both NBC and Apple execs have learned from this episode.

[newappleboy]

I've always stood firm that NBC was idiotic to pull out of iTunes. The fact that they claimed that the DRM wasn't strong enough and that the pricing wasn't at a high enough level for them was all ridiculous. $1.99 is reasonable for one episode of a (standard definition) TV show, but anything more than that is asking for far too much.

NBC had a good thing going with "Heroes" and "Monk" and so forth. I wonder what their opportunity cost was to leave the iTunes store for a while. :cool:

[milatchi]

NBC comes crawlin' back begging for the greatest media and technology company in the history of the world ever (Apple) to have mercy, and allow NBC to have a profit on their mediocre shows -- mediocre with the exception of SNL; now that's some funny stuff. I've never seen a show as hilarious as the current SNL, LOL, ROFL -- if not for Apple, NBC would probably continue its downward spiral and go out of business. NBC is just lucky Apple is here to save them.
God I love Apple!

[61132]

I hope they make HD episodes available for the rest of the Lost seasons, as well as Monk, and House (season 3 is SD).

[TheCrudMan]

Well, well, well...look who came crawling back.

[TheCrudMan]

NBC comes crawlin' back begging for the greatest media and technology company in the history of the world ever (Apple) to have mercy, and allow NBC to have a profit on their mediocre shows -- mediocre with the exception of SNL; now that's some funny stuff. I've never seen a show as hilarious as the current SNL, LOL, ROFL -- if not for Apple, NBC would probably continue its downward spiral and go out of business. NBC is just lucky Apple is here to save them.
God I love Apple!

Hey now 30 Rock kicks ass.

[milatchi]

Hey now 30 Rock kicks ass.

Hell yeah! I forgot about 30 Rock.

[alphaod]

Yeah I downloaded a lot of TV shows. I kind of don't like the SD downloads since it's a lot wasted space, as I don't put videos on my iPod. Just downloading Office took out 20GB! That's a lot of space.

[Oskee2001]

No Las Vegas though. :(

[hazmatzak]

An hour TV show that is rougly 500 mb is not really HD. It is all about the mpbs. For example, eyeTV recordings are roughly 5 - 7 GB, and the mbps is 13 - 19, whereas the iTunes downloads are less than 2 mpbs.First, the HD files are more like 1.5GB. And ABC and Fox both use 1280x720, just like iTunes. It's HD. Both have AC-3 soundtracks. But there are differences:


iTunes HD also has stereo AAC soundtrack, for playing the file on your computer (makes it bigger)
OTA HD uses MPEG-2, iTunes uses H.264 (makes it smaller)
OTA HD can go up to 60 frames per second, iTunes is 24 (makes it smaller)


Not a coincidence that AppleTV's max supported resolution is 1280x720 @ 24fps. This also means that all the HD shows (so far?) were originally shot on film.

[japanime]

A list of all free HD iTunes episodes provided by TUAW include:

It's nice that TUAW has begun providing free HD iTunes episode. :p

[FightTheFuture]

I've always stood firm that NBC was idiotic to pull out of iTunes. The fact that they claimed that the DRM wasn't strong enough and that the pricing wasn't at a high enough level for them was all ridiculous. don't forget the media and blogo-circus that spun around when this happened. everyone thought that other networks would follow suit, and assumed that hulu and network sites would get all of the ad supported viewership.

makes you wonder if they make more money off of iTunes or from the Norton Disk Doctor System web ads?

[mirffy]

So, after queueing two episodes via the shopping cart, and noticing they were both SD, I enabled 1-click. Trying to re-"purchase" the free episodes just told me "you've purchased this HD episode already, check your download queue where incidentally I can only see the SD version being downloaded. Seems like a small bug to me. Any way I can get the HD version? I'm thinking "If this happens when money is involved customers might be surprised"....

[penguy]

Try turning on one-click purchasing for these shows. There's some sort of bug that prevents you from purchasing many of the NBC shows when using the shopping cart. It worked for me with the Battlestar Galactica season 4 HD episodes.

Thanks...it worked with one-click. :confused:

[mirffy]

So, after queueing two episodes via the shopping cart, and noticing they were both SD, I enabled 1-click. Trying to re-"purchase" the free episodes just told me "you've purchased this HD episode already, check your download queue where incidentally I can only see the SD version being downloaded. Seems like a small bug to me. Any way I can get the HD version? I'm thinking "If this happens when money is involved customers might be surprised"....
Resolved.
Strangely enough, if it is repurchased once it's done downloading it will work just fine, but not if the item (only the SD version that is!) is in your download queue.

[beate]

I downloaded three or four free shows that I wanted to check out & bought Season 2 of Heroes, the latter to make a point.
Not sure exactly, what point I was making, but it felt good.

[reverie]

1 Million in 13 days is not that much. It equals 540k per week, and if you strip the free downloads that would be more like 200k to 300k per week in sales.

The last time Apple announced their TV show sales (which was quite some time ago, probably early 2007 if I'm not mistaken), the iTS sold around 1 million TV shows per week, across all publishers, with NBC allegedly holding a 35 % to 40 % share. And that was at a time when the iPod nano did not have video and the Apple TV had just been released.

Average weekly iTS sales should be closer to 1.5 million now, and NBC should sell at least 400k per week on average, although there are probably significant seasonal fluctuations, because people watch less TV in summer than in winter. I guess NBC's sales on iTunes will go up by 100 % in the coming weeks as people start watching more TV again and new seasons and shows are premiering.

[cantthinkofone]

I wonder how many they lost by not selling on iTS, especially during the Olympics.

2-3 million i would say. Idiots.

[donga]

So, after queueing two episodes via the shopping cart, and noticing they were both SD, I enabled 1-click. Trying to re-"purchase" the free episodes just told me "you've purchased this HD episode already, check your download queue where incidentally I can only see the SD version being downloaded. Seems like a small bug to me. Any way I can get the HD version? I'm thinking "If this happens when money is involved customers might be surprised"....

there seem to be HD and SD specific pages in the iTunes store, and you might've gotten them from the SD only page. look for the HD in the title or on the page and it'll dl the HD and SD versions