NBC Television Shows Now Available on Amazon

[MacRumors]

NBC and Amazon announced today that NBC television content would now be available through Amazon's Unbox download service..

Popular NBC shows now available on Amazon Unbox include the Emmy Award-winning series The Office, the critically acclaimed drama Heroes, and Emmy-nominated comedy 30 Rock. Beginning on September 10, Amazon Unbox customers can download for free -- in advance of their network premieres -- the pilot episodes of NBC’s new shows Bionic Woman, Chuck, Journeyman and Life. New episodes will be available on Amazon Unbox the day after they air on TV.

The shows are available for $1.99 per episode (same as iTunes), but also available as an entire season at 30% off. Apple and NBC had publicly disputed the terms of their agreement which led to the end of the NBC-iTunes contract.

Apple had claimed that NBC was demanding "double the wholesale price" for each NBC episode. NBC later claimed that the dispute centered around flexible packaging of shows together and piracy concerns.

Amazon's Unbox service requires Window XP and is not compatible with the Macintosh.

Article Link

[siurpeeman]

does anybody know how well amazon unbox does?

[KingYaba]

Those bastards.

[R303blue]

Such a poor move, why is it that these companies don't get the fact that at least iTunes doesn't shut out PC users? Back to the old-school times where Apple is left out in the cold. Tiring. And something seems odd with the public dispute between NBC and Apple, I would love to know the actual truth in that.

[williedigital]

so, this must have been planned in advance, with such short turn around time right?

[Luis]

Originally Posted by KingYaba

Those bastards.

Couldn't have said it better myself!

[bjmorgan]

I, too, would like to know how Amazon's service has fared, seeing as I've never heard of it until this moment.

Why pull the plug on cross-platform service only to migrate to one that doesn't work with the Mac? I wonder what Amazon is making off of each purchase as compared to Apple?

[gusapple]

I don't know. This issue will probably result in either Apple and NBC "hugging it out" or Apple will not admit anything, loose tons of business, then eventually come back to NBC and "hug it out" too late.

[levitynyc]

WTF? I hate this not available on mac BS. Why should we be punished since we have good and reliable computers with a secure OS

[siurpeeman]

Originally Posted by gusapple

I don't know. This issue will probably result in either Apple and NBC "hugging it out" or Apple will not admit anything, loose tons of business, then eventually come back to NBC and "hug it out" too late.

or nbc realizing it isn't selling as many tv shows/seasons with unbox, losing overall viewership due to decreased time shifting. and then nbc comes back to itunes. who knows what's going to happen?

[mac 2005]

Well, there's still hope. NBC will offer its programs on its own website: hulu.com, I think.

Maybe the format there will be open to Macs and PCs.

That said, I can't understand why companies intentionally choose an exclusive format when it costs just as much to make the material available for most PC users.

[Muzzway]

What the ...? NBC leaves iTunes and then enters a PC only service at the same price?

Anyone here going to rate this positive? Steve Ballmer, as usual?

[dethl]

The only thing Amazon's Unbox service has is the auto-downloading to your TiVO. And once its on the TiVO - DRM becomes a non-issue. NBC just shot themselves in the foot some more. I wonder if there's a proverbial foot for NBC to stand on now.

And I'm going to bet that the price stays at $1.99/ep because of Apple outing NBC before the new pricing was revealed. It's a damn shame NBC couldn't have stayed with Apple.

I'll still watch BSG - but thats about the only major NBC procduced show that I watch from 'em anyway. And I also TiVO it too. It's WAY too easy to rip a show off the TiVO nowadays.

[hokullani]

this is stupid, if tthey want to stick it to apple then they should at least use a service that is supported on a mac! otherwise they are just serving windows

[hooch]

I don't know...part of me thinks, "WTF! This sucks!". The other thinks NBC and Amazon will pay for not thinking of the mac community" which, by the way, is gaining in market share. And, when I mean gaining, they are gaining in the home and in the classroom where most of this market would be. Not the PCs that are sitting in the office.

[kuribohbabylon]

*ducks for cover prior to saying this*

Probably works in Parallels/VMWare

Not that I'm in any way shape or form on NBC's side on this one... I think they are making a mistake... but unfortunately we have to wait for time to tell which side was more right.

[motulist]

These days, having no Mac support means your product is much less likely to ever become a big success. Why? Because Mac users aren't afraid of trying something new - which is how many of us became Mac users. As a group I'd guess that a majority of early adopters of new technology are Mac users. If you don't get the early adopters to use your technology, then you'll never get the general computer users. Because most average tech users will only try out a new product once they feel that enough other people already use it.

No Mac support = few early adopters of your product = most people will never even give your product a try = your product fails.

Now, a company like Amazon can sidestep this chain of events to a certain degree because they already have a very well known name, so they may be able to swing enough atypical early adopters to try their product so that they might reach the critical mass of users needed to gain momentum with general users. But without Mac support they lose a major advantage to general acceptance. So only time will tell.

[irmongoose]

NBC has gone nuts with their idea of "stronger piracy protection". Unbox has these restrictions:

Originally Posted by Ars Technica

Shows bought from Unbox can be kept on two computers max and can be stored on up to two different (approved) media players.
Users cannot "mix" accounts, meaning that a PC cannot have authorized content purchased from two different accounts accessible at the same time

Now THAT is some damn restrictive DRM if I've ever heard of one. Only lunatics will spring for such a deal.
I say it's only time that will tell NBC how stunningly, utterly, amazingly asinine they are.



irmongoose

[synth3tik]

NBC still sucks

[sminman]

Bitches...

That is just a slap in Apple's face.

[drimmen]

Ack! The Office, 30 Rock, and Heroes were all shows I subscribed to on iTunes last season. As well as Battlestar which I think NBC owns as well, no?

I guess I'll keep my $1.99 per episode and look to "other" means of watching, and not via Amazon for obvious reasons.

[e-coli]

As far as addressing piracy, there has never been a piracy issue with videos purchased off iTMS. You can't even burn the damn things. They're totally locked.

And who cares if NBC isn't selling on iTunes anymore. What, are people going to throw away their iPods and iPhones and buy Zunes? Yeah right.

Everybody uses Miro and TV RSS anyhow. Idiots. Just taking a step backwards and encouraging piracy.

[drater]

good job NBC. Found a good picture of their Executives.

To the left is Steve Capus, in the middle is Jeff Zucker (aka: mourning star-jigga what?!), and to the right Lynn Calpeter.

[Sandfleaz]

We'll probably never know the straight scoop on this ... weird!

[wnurse]

Originally Posted by Muzzway

What the ...? NBC leaves iTunes and then enters a PC only service at the same price?

Anyone here going to rate this positive? Steve Ballmer, as usual?

This proves NBC was telling the truth when they said it had nothing to do with doubling the price.. Wow, apple fans were jumping all over NBC for being greedy when all they wanted to do is have the flexibility to package their shows. They even selling the package for a discount. Notice they are not preventing anyone from buying a single show.. just if you want to buy a package, you can too.. itunes does this already with music.. you can buy a track or album. What was apple problem here?. Am i missing something?