NBC's iTunes Alternative Launches Private Beta

MacRumors · 05:42 PM

NBC and Universal's joint venture Hulu.com has launched in private beta. The new video service will feature premium video content delivered over a Flash-based web interface, and is already being syndicated to sites such as video.aol.com. First impressions have been positive, and Hulu allows you to embed content into other websites. As a private beta, access to the site appears to be limited, but the embeded player allows you to browse other content.

At present it appears the content is ad-supported, with very short ads playing at designated times during playback. Ads are noted on the timeline as small dots.

An entire episode of The Office is embedded below, but the player reportedly does not work outside the U.S:

visit Article Link for video content

In August, NBC pulled their television content from the iTunes store due to disagreements in pricing structure.

Article Link

gauchogolfer · Oct 29, 2007, 04:28 PM

It will be interesting to see how acceptance for ad-supported viewing goes. The more models there are out there for consumers to choose amongst, the better.

Martin C · Oct 29, 2007, 04:31 PM

The only thing I appreciate about this is the free Office content.

Lukjohnson21 · Oct 29, 2007, 04:31 PM

Does this thing cost money. I f it does, its not as good as iTunes, because it can't be on an iPod!!

arn · 07:34 PM

the ads are very short and pretty unobstrusive. Obviosuly, the big limitation is you can't watch it on your iPod or whatever.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lukjohnson21

Does this thing cost money. I f it does, its not as good as iTunes, because it can't be on an iPod!!

It appears to be ad-supported (ie. free)

arn

fraserdrew · 05:05 PM

I can confirm it doesn't work outside the US, well it doesn't in the UK anyway, screenshot below...

Eric Lewis · Oct 29, 2007, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arn

the ads are very short and pretty unobstrusive. Obviosuly, the big limitation is you can't watch it on your iPod or whatever.

arn

doesnt work in Canada at all! stupid iP!

yoman · Oct 29, 2007, 04:33 PM

The player seems to run much better than NBC's own site. My interest has increased to discover more about this.

scottlinux · Oct 29, 2007, 04:34 PM

Ads on nbc.com episode videos are extremely annoying, and the video player takes up a ton of CPU. If this player is not an improvement, most will continue to just pirate higher res, ad-free versions that are freely available.

gauchogolfer · Oct 29, 2007, 04:34 PM

Now all we need is Flash support on the iPhone so we can watch these on the go.

Oh, wait, that'll probably not be high on Apple's to-do list now.

Badandy · Oct 29, 2007, 04:35 PM

I love the Office, and since I haven't been at home for the last 2 episodes, I've been having to watch it on NBC.com, for free. Unfortunately, the whole experience is terrible, and I'd give anything to get episodes back for a mere $2. The whole NBC online interface is clunky, the same ads play constantly, and it's just a worse product. Bring it back to iTunes NBC, I'm no longer going onto your ***tty site.

mirffy · Oct 29, 2007, 04:36 PM

*sigh* yet another service, not available outside of the US - at least with iTunes you could use US vouchers...

longofest · Oct 29, 2007, 04:36 PM

Meh... I have to watch it on my computer. The thing about

TV that I like is that I can watch stuff on my ::gasp:: TV.

I think that's the number one reason why at least I will never get into these studio-run sites. On the other hand, I do hope Apple is working on a studio-acceptable method to keep the video content flowing for iTunes.

arn · Oct 29, 2007, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Badandy

I love the Office, and since I haven't been at home for the last 2 episodes, I've been having to watch it on NBC.com, for free. Unfortunately, the whole experience is terrible, and I'd give anything to get episodes back for a mere $2. The whole NBC online interface is clunky, the same ads play constantly, and it's just a worse product. Bring it back to iTunes NBC, I'm no longer going onto your ***tty site.

Did you try the embedded content above?

arn

Thataboy · Oct 29, 2007, 04:37 PM

NBC complained that they only made $15 million from iTunes sales. But sales for permanent ownership and iPod/iPhone transfer are completely different than an online streaming player. Can't they see that?

$15 million may not be a ton, but it is > $0. Hulu would just take away users of NBC.com's own flash player, no? So Hulu and iTunes could coexist and maximize profits for NBC.

I fail to understand the strategy behind this.

aLoC · Oct 29, 2007, 04:38 PM

In the case of music iTunes provides a valuable aggregating service. There are thousands of artists and if they all ran their own websites it would be untenable.

But there are only a few major TV studios, and except for iPod compatibility I don't see why they really need Apple. Maybe in future iTunes could become a home for indie content, but really they have YouTube already.

nigrunze · Oct 29, 2007, 04:40 PM

Aah.

"Unfortunately this video is not currently available in your country or region. We apologize for the inconvenience"

I wanted to watch a free episode of The Office.

How does NBC expect people to watch this when they block us from seeing it in the first place?

No love for Canada.

Peace · Oct 29, 2007, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thataboy

NBC complained that they only made $15 million from iTunes sales. But sales for permanent ownership and iPod/iPhone transfer are completely different than an online streaming player. Can't they see that?

$15 million may not be a ton, but it is > $0. Hulu would just take away users of NBC.com's own flash player, no? So Hulu and iTunes could coexist and maximize profits for NBC.

I fail to understand the strategy behind this.

NBC is hoping it will make more money with the ad supported stuff than ad-free iTunes.
This whole debacle is due to advertisers.You can thank good old fashioned greed-based capitalism.

Schnebar · Oct 29, 2007, 04:47 PM

I am fine with office for free with ads.

I never buy movies off iTunes.

I have a DVR so I watch all the office episodes thursday nights and whenever I want. But I would rather save $2 for spending one minute of my time watching a commercial.

Only thing is the iPod thing.

Well competition is only good. Maybe iTunes will offer ad based free shows for download. Or NBC will offer quicktime versions to download with ads.

fregedegpo · Oct 29, 2007, 04:52 PM

ew. advertisements. I disagree that they are inobtrusive. Just because they are short doesn't make them any less annoying. Hideous.
Much better quality than youtube, though. That's a nice thing.

Thataboy · Oct 29, 2007, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peace

NBC is hoping it will make more money with the ad supported stuff than ad-free iTunes.
This whole debacle is due to advertisers.You can thank good old fashioned greed-based capitalism.

Right, but if there were (for illustrative purposes) 10 million users of ad-supported NBC.com and 1 million buyers on iTunes before.... then now wouldn't there be 10 million users of ad-supported Hulu and 0 buyers on iTunes?

NBC seems to think that former iTunes buyers will all move to Hulu, thereby increasing page views for higher ad rates. But those 1 million iTunes buyers already had the option of ad-supported content on NBC.com. Say 500K of those iTunes buyers already used NBC.com in conjunction with iTunes purchases, and the other 500K were not interested in streaming flash ad-supported content. Then there would be a net increase of 0 users of their streaming content. If iTunes users can't find content on iTunes, and they were interested in a streaming alternative, they ALREADY HAD ONE.

Therefore it seems to me that NBC just threw profit away for little to no reason. However, one could counter that the entire point of the removal from iTunes was to create publicity for Hulu. So if their projected net increase due to publicity is > $15 million, then I think we know the REAL reason they pulled out of iTunes (and it has nothing to do with "flexible pricing").

Brianstorm91 · Oct 29, 2007, 04:58 PM

Quote:

.. we aplogize ..

I hope that they spell 'apologise' correctly should it make the leap over here.

American spelling =/= English spelling, therefore it's wrong

mrowl · Oct 29, 2007, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thataboy

NBC complained that they only made $15 million from iTunes sales. But sales for permanent ownership and iPod/iPhone transfer are completely different than an online streaming player. Can't they see that?

$15 million may not be a ton, but it is > $0. Hulu would just take away users of NBC.com's own flash player, no? So Hulu and iTunes could coexist and maximize profits for NBC.

I fail to understand the strategy behind this.

NBC also complained that they didn't get a piece of the Apple hardware sales... give me a break.

Do they get money from every TV manufacturer when a TV is sold?

The NBC president is an idiot. And I doubt they only made $15M.

4ndr3w · Oct 29, 2007, 05:01 PM

If anyone has an invite... I'd love one. PM me.

Also, no full screen view? Are they crazy? Even if it looked horrible in FS, I would still watch it.

brinycbri · Oct 29, 2007, 05:02 PM

I know there are ways to rip content off Youtube into a downloadable video format. Can you do the same to these? Then we can put it on our ipod.

Oct 29, 2007, 04:27 PM	#1
MacRumors macrumors bot Join Date: Apr 2001	NBC's iTunes Alternative Launches Private Beta NBC and Universal's joint venture Hulu.com has launched in private beta. The new video service will feature premium video content delivered over a Flash-based web interface, and is already being syndicated to sites such as video.aol.com. First impressions have been positive, and Hulu allows you to embed content into other websites. As a private beta, access to the site appears to be limited, but the embeded player allows you to browse other content. At present it appears the content is ad-supported, with very short ads playing at designated times during playback. Ads are noted on the timeline as small dots. An entire episode of The Office is embedded below, but the player reportedly does not work outside the U.S: visit Article Link for video content In August, NBC pulled their television content from the iTunes store due to disagreements in pricing structure. Article Link Last edited by Doctor Q : Oct 29, 2007 at 05:42 PM.

Oct 29, 2007, 04:28 PM	#2
gauchogolfer macrumors Demi-God Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: American Riviera	It will be interesting to see how acceptance for ad-supported viewing goes. The more models there are out there for consumers to choose amongst, the better. __________________ Victoria Concordia Crescit

Oct 29, 2007, 04:31 PM	#3
Martin C macrumors 6502a Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: New York City	The only thing I appreciate about this is the free Office content. __________________ flickr

Oct 29, 2007, 04:31 PM	#4
Lukjohnson21 macrumors newbie Join Date: Oct 2007	Cost?? Does this thing cost money. I f it does, its not as good as iTunes, because it can't be on an iPod!!

Oct 29, 2007, 04:32 PM	#6
fraserdrew macrumors member Join Date: May 2006	I can confirm it doesn't work outside the US, well it doesn't in the UK anyway, screenshot below... Last edited by fraserdrew : Oct 29, 2007 at 05:05 PM.

Oct 29, 2007, 04:33 PM	#8
yoman macrumors 6502a Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: In the Bowels of the Cosmos	The player seems to run much better than NBC's own site. My interest has increased to discover more about this. __________________ My first computer was an Apple IIGS at the meager age of 6 1/2 years. I was raised with an APPLE and I will die with an APPLE.

Oct 29, 2007, 04:34 PM	#9
scottlinux macrumors 6502a Join Date: Sep 2005	Ads on nbc.com episode videos are extremely annoying, and the video player takes up a ton of CPU. If this player is not an improvement, most will continue to just pirate higher res, ad-free versions that are freely available.

Oct 29, 2007, 04:35 PM	#11
Badandy macrumors 68000 Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Terminus	I love the Office, and since I haven't been at home for the last 2 episodes, I've been having to watch it on NBC.com, for free. Unfortunately, the whole experience is terrible, and I'd give anything to get episodes back for a mere $2. The whole NBC online interface is clunky, the same ads play constantly, and it's just a worse product. Bring it back to iTunes NBC, I'm no longer going onto your ***tty site.

Oct 29, 2007, 04:36 PM	#12
mirffy macrumors member Join Date: Feb 2007	sigh yet another service, not available outside of the US - at least with iTunes you could use US vouchers...

Oct 29, 2007, 04:36 PM	#13
longofest Demi-God (Editor) Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Falls Church, VA	Meh... I have to watch it on my computer. The thing about TV that I like is that I can watch stuff on my ::gasp:: TV. I think that's the number one reason why at least I will never get into these studio-run sites. On the other hand, I do hope Apple is working on a studio-acceptable method to keep the video content flowing for iTunes.

Oct 29, 2007, 04:37 PM	#15
Thataboy macrumors regular Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: New York, NY	NBC complained that they only made $15 million from iTunes sales. But sales for permanent ownership and iPod/iPhone transfer are completely different than an online streaming player. Can't they see that? $15 million may not be a ton, but it is > $0. Hulu would just take away users of NBC.com's own flash player, no? So Hulu and iTunes could coexist and maximize profits for NBC. I fail to understand the strategy behind this.

Oct 29, 2007, 04:38 PM	#16
aLoC macrumors 6502a Join Date: Nov 2006	In the case of music iTunes provides a valuable aggregating service. There are thousands of artists and if they all ran their own websites it would be untenable. But there are only a few major TV studios, and except for iPod compatibility I don't see why they really need Apple. Maybe in future iTunes could become a home for indie content, but really they have YouTube already.

Oct 29, 2007, 04:40 PM	#17
nigrunze macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada	Argh! Aah. "Unfortunately this video is not currently available in your country or region. We apologize for the inconvenience" I wanted to watch a free episode of The Office. How does NBC expect people to watch this when they block us from seeing it in the first place? No love for Canada. __________________ 20" Aluminum iMac, 2.4 Ghz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD - Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard"

Oct 29, 2007, 04:47 PM	#19
Schnebar macrumors 6502 Join Date: May 2006 Location: California	I am fine with office for free with ads. I never buy movies off iTunes. I have a DVR so I watch all the office episodes thursday nights and whenever I want. But I would rather save $2 for spending one minute of my time watching a commercial. Only thing is the iPod thing. Well competition is only good. Maybe iTunes will offer ad based free shows for download. Or NBC will offer quicktime versions to download with ads. __________________ 2.5 GHz MBP with 20" Dell monitor 15 GB iPod Orange Shuffle Grado SR80 Headphones 16GB Black iPhone 3G Canon Rebel Xsi

Oct 29, 2007, 04:52 PM	#20
fregedegpo macrumors member Join Date: May 2004	ew. advertisements. I disagree that they are inobtrusive. Just because they are short doesn't make them any less annoying. Hideous. Much better quality than youtube, though. That's a nice thing.

Oct 29, 2007, 05:01 PM	#24
4ndr3w macrumors member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Chicago	If anyone has an invite... I'd love one. PM me. Also, no full screen view? Are they crazy? Even if it looked horrible in FS, I would still watch it. __________________ MacBook (white) C2D 2.16 gHz, 2GB RAM, Mac mini, CD 1.86 gHZ, iPhone 3G 16GB White, 5G iPod 30GB, 3G iPod nano 8GB (silver), 2G iPod shuffle 1GB

Oct 29, 2007, 05:02 PM	#25
brinycbri macrumors 6502 Join Date: Mar 2007	I know there are ways to rip content off Youtube into a downloadable video format. Can you do the same to these? Then we can put it on our ipod.

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