Apple to Stop Selling NBC Television Shows

[MacRumors]

After report today that NBC and Apple were unable to come to an agreement on pricing, Apple confirmed in a press release that they would not be selling NBC television shows for the upcoming season on iTunes.

Apple explains the move by stating that NBC had wanted "double the wholesale price" for each NBC episode and claimed it could result in a retail price of $4.99 per episode. They also state that ABC, CBS, FOX and The CW have continued television show sales at the same price as last season ($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."

NBC's current shows will continue to be available on iTunes until December of this year. NBC accounted for 30% of iTunes TV sales.


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[IJ Reilly]

So, who is going to sell NBC shows online, if not Apple?

[Shanesan]

Good riddance, I say. Money hungry little crooks.

[TitoC]

So I guess everyone who posted earlier, guessing it was NBC wanting more money, were right. So "money-hungry" bastards I assume is appropriate now (officially)? It looks like it WASN'T about them getting more of a percentage or Apple wanting anything new, it was just NBC saying "Hey, this has worked really well for us so far, so let's screw it up, just like we did in the music biz. We're greedy, we know it. We can't help it."

Nobody was offering anything like iTunes back in the beginning, so NBC went along. Now that it has become very popular, they want to screw their customers. The very ones that have supported this business model. Classic. Then when they go somewhere else to sell their online digital content and find that it doesn't give them the access and success like iTunes, let's see where they stand then.

Oh, and then maybe they can see people downloading Bit-torrents of their shows more and more.

NBC executive: "Hey, what happened? Where did everyone go?"

[Moe]

EyeTV and antenna. At 0¢ per episode, amortizes pretty quickly. And it's HD, not near-DVD.

This model also works on the PC with Hauppauge drivers. I use BeyondTV for PVR there.

[nagromme]

Originally Posted by longofest

I just realized... This means no more Battlestar Galactica!!!

(though on SciFi, it is distributed by NBC)

Galactica is the best show on TV, now entering its final season, and I bought it on iTunes JUST to avoid the huge spoilers I'd overhear if I waited for DVD. Doubling the price would have been a deal-breaker (so I'm glad Apple stayed firm), but dumping iTunes entirely leaves me in the same boat: no more Galactica.

Originally Posted by Moe

EyeTV and antenna. At 0¢ per episode, amortizes pretty quickly. And it's HD, not near-DVD.

Yep--that's my answer! But no good for Galactica since I have no cable TV and don't plan to change that.

(I can't remember--are Universal movies on iTunes?)

[chrisgeleven]

Who the heck would pay $4.99 per TV Show episode?

Are you kidding me?

Talk about being greedy.

[bluebomberman]

And just like that, Apple takes the PR high ground. Ouch.

[OrangeCuse44]

Wizzzzzzzeak.

[edcrosay]

Bit Torrent for the win.
They could have had my money, but I guess it's not good enough for them.

[samh004]

Originally Posted by bluebomberman

And just like that, Apple takes the PR high ground. Ouch.

Originally Posted by exit1200

Looks like I'll be downloading "The Office" and "30 Rock" from other (free) sources.

I can't believe they'd try something like that, when the music companies follow suit, piracy will become more rampant again and the small profit they made from iTunes will completely drop...

All this proves are these companies really are stupid. I hope NBC really suffers while not on iTunes, I hope they lose tons of money.

[chrisgeleven]

I like this move by Apple. By saying that 50 other cable companies have already agreed to the $1.99 per episode price, Apple is basically backing NBC into a corner and calling their bluff.

I don't see how NBC can think they are going to win on this one.

[itcomesinwaves]

I doubt they thought that Apple would go for the price hike. More likely they stuck to the absurd price just to scuttle the deal. They, like many other media companies, imagine that they (or one of their partners.. *cough* MS *cough*) can do a better job of selling digital content online. Time will tell, but so far the only significant competition to the iTunes Store is P2P.

[shunpike]

talk about shooting yourself in the foot NBC - $4.99 that is ludicrous!

Thankyou iTunes 4 not caving in to these stupid demads!

<3 <3

[stompy]

Originally Posted by itcomesinwaves

I doubt they thought that Apple would go for the price hike. More likely they stuck to the absurd price just to scuttle the deal. They, like many other media companies, imagine that they (or one of their partners.. *cough* MS *cough*) can do a better job of selling digital content online. Time will tell, but so far the only significant competition to the iTunes Store is P2P.

Have to agree with you on this. NBC's version of the Universal "Test."

[sanford]

Originally Posted by itcomesinwaves

I doubt they thought that Apple would go for the price hike. More likely they stuck to the absurd price just to scuttle the deal. They, like many other media companies, imagine that they (or one of their partners.. *cough* MS *cough*) can do a better job of selling digital content online. Time will tell, but so far the only significant competition to the iTunes Store is P2P.

Hey, Zune and its music store has taken the northwest corner of the Texas panhandle by storm. We better watch out. But I agree: It was a scuttle move, not a real price increase. Nobody would pay $5.00 for a TV show. NBC had also held back on some key properties all along. Note Universal Music terminated their iTunes music contract, though they are likely to still sell most of their music, with DRM, through iTunes. NBC Universal, Universal's NBC, same company.

Universal is HD DVD only, now lately joined by Paramount, but Paramount perhaps only for a limited time -- until the cash the HD DVD consortium (ah, Microsoft) gave them. Universal seems to be trying some sort of bizarre consumer-unfriendly dual strategy: They are a content producer but they also want to do digital retail for it, but they don't have any real digital retail operation, so they look to Microsoft which for some reason I can't fathom -- probably because Microsoft doles out "financial incentives" -- they believe will allow them more control over the retail end.

This is all part of the recent trend in retail product sales: four guys win, everybody else loses. I've given up trying to have a shot at everything. We went Wii and PS3 for games; if it comes out for Xbox, we just can't play it. We went Blu-ray for HD movies; if it's Universal or, at least for a while, Paramount, we get it on standard DVD -- the deck upscales, anyway, and looks great. I don't watch much TV so I can't say the NBC thing will really bother me. But for music, if its an album Universal won't sell through iTunes, I'll just buy a CD copy if I can find one for $10 - 12. If they want $17, I'll just live without it.

By all means I think Universal should sell music and TV through a Microsoft operation if they wish. I just think they should sell through iTunes, too. And release on Blu-ray *and* HD DVD. And third-party games should be released for any console that can handle them. I would say it's like if Universal said they'll sell CDs at Wal-Mart but not Target; but deals like that are already happening. It's ridiculous. We as consumer should start screaming about it, but I just don't have the time or energy for their sneaky deals. I suppose they're counting on that, but I don't think they're counting that I'll just do without.

Honestly I think a lot of this is coming from desperation pay-outs from Microsoft, if not cash then some sort of incentive tantamount to hard currency, because they know they're losing domination of the digital media market. But then their answer to iPod and, ultimately, iPhone* is Zune? Well, what did they expect?

*Apple is a bit guilty of this retail/platform exclusivity thing with their ATT deal. But they did apparently shop the thing around to just about everyone and ATT was the only one to seriously consider their terms and requirements.

[Corrosive vinyl]

4.99 a tv show episode? for that I would just buy the dvd or go the netflix route. what about NBCs 40% of downloads? It is upsetting to hear the 4.99 price when I have things from NBC news which were free.

[mahonmeister]

Some stations stream their tv shows online free of charge. NBC thinks people would be willing to pay 5 bucks per episode?! Ha!

[clevin]

Originally Posted by mahonmeister

Some stations stream their tv shows online free of charge. NBC thinks people would be willing to pay 5 bucks per episode?! Ha!

sigh, i think "some stations" are actually started by "NBC"

and people, NBC isn't stupid, we can bet their own online store will NOT charge users higher price than ITMS for same products.

[Porco]

NBC should move to the UK, Apple seem to have no problem charging close to what they want for TV shows here...

[rxse7en]

First episode is available as a free download on Xbox Live. Now we know who's gonna have NBC shows.

[Buschmaster]

Selling NBC shows to me, IJ Reilly?

Nobody.

[itcomesinwaves]

Originally Posted by IJ Reilly

So, who is going to sell NBC shows online, if not Apple?

Well, considering that MS is the other half of MSNBC, I imagine it will be Microsoft. I heard that all of NBCs shows are going to be up on the Xbox Live Marketplace this season. Granted, you have to buy a $350 game machine to buy the episodes, but maybe they're thinking of expanding the service?

[SiliconAddict]

Originally Posted by itcomesinwaves

Well, considering that MS is the other half of MSNBC, I imagine it will be Microsoft. I heard that all of NBCs shows are going to be up on the Xbox Live Marketplace this season. Granted, you have to buy a $350 game machine to buy the episodes, but maybe they're thinking of expanding the service?

No. they will be selling it through NBC's website. There is nothing new here. I fully expect everyone else to follow when Apple doesn't cave to their price structure.

[MarkMS]

Originally Posted by IJ Reilly

So, who is going to sell NBC shows online, if not Apple?

No one!

I'm just going to be a bitch and download them in higher quality and a few hours after they have aired through Bittorrent. I buy plenty of music and videos through iTunes to mainly support Apple and the few artists I enjoy to listen to. So if NBC wants to leave iTunes, fine with me. I'm getting the shows no matter what. It was just easier for me to get it though iTunes.