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Apple to Stop Selling NBC Television Shows

As I said in the other thread on this, time for Apple to finally add a DVR component to iLife / iTunes and just make all those NBC shows legally available for free by recording over the air broadcasts directly into iTunes.

Poetic justice really since NBC was the most vocal opponent of Apple adding a DVR to their systems.
 
As I said in the other thread, this is probably so the NBC CEO can get an extra $10 Million while the cronies who actually get all the DVDs, online content and whatever done get $8/hr.
 
all free via bittorrent

well...they're all freely available via bittorrent. i found the best app for this to be xtorrent ($24 shareware and well worth it). http://www.xtorrent.com/


what a deal.

nbc universal are truly lost in the 21st century.
 
itcomesinwaves said:
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?
Click to expand...

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.
 
Analog Kid said:
Um, that was the *first* axe to drop...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
Click to expand...

actually MS is going away
On December 23, 2005, it was announced that NBC Universal would acquire an additional 32% share of the television network from Microsoft, solidifying its control over television operations and allowing NBC to further consolidate MSNBC's backroom operations with NBC News and its other cable properties. MSNBC.com will continue to be 50% owned by both NBC and Microsoft, and its operations will be largely unaffected. NBC will have the option to buy the remaining 18% share from Microsoft after two years. Due to Microsoft's declining influence, rumors are currently circulating in the broadcast industry that the network will eventually be rebranded as NBC News Channel, which is currently used for the network's news service to NBC affiliates.
Click to expand...
 
Wirelessly posted (LGE-VX9900/1.0 UP.Browser/6.2.3.2 (GUI) MMP/2.0)

Thats too bad, nbc will soon realize that this action was a mistake when itunes becomes the largest online store in the world...
 
Zwhaler said:
Wirelessly posted (LGE-VX9900/1.0 UP.Browser/6.2.3.2 (GUI) MMP/2.0)

Thats too bad, nbc will soon realize that this action was a mistake when itunes becomes the largest online store in the world...
Click to expand...

well that won't happen for quite a while. but largest digital media distributor? perhaps not so far. if not already.
 
5 bucks says they'll start selling their shows on MS' video store (or worse yet, walmart) for $1.99 😉
 
OldTimey said:
... i don't even have an HDTV, or cable. waste of money if you ask me.
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Same here. I only had a 13" TV anyway and zero reception in the mountains. I dropped cable when I realized I was paying Time Warner $50 to watch mostly news programs when I could get those as podcasts from iTunes.

Then I discovered I could also buy other TV shows on iTunes. So I do. It's been fun. Like grabbing a soda or a packet of M&Ms at the checkout in the grocery. Optional and reasonably priced. Notice I didn't say the price was cheap, I said it was reasonable.

So dear NBC: It was CONVENIENT on iTunes. That was the grab. We're done!
 
Apple TV can't compete!

I think what everyone is forgetting about in this feud is that this is a sideline business for NBC. I doubt that NBC has sold more than a million TV episodes total on itunes. At $1.99 an episode, we are only talking 2 million bucks total less Apple's cut.

NBC can get 2 million for a 30 second ad slot in a high ratings program. This is the fundamental problem with pay per view TV. Content providers make much more off of advertising than they do off pay per view. NBC can play all day with the Apple. Apple needs a large content library more than NBC needs the revenue from itunes sales.

Apple is going to have a tough road to hoe going forward. More and more content providers are going to want to set their own pricing. Content production is expensive and the providers are not going to want to give it away.

By the way, Apple makes a boatload off of itunes sales. It started as a sideline to sale ipods but it has turned into a huge business in itself. So don't think Apple isn't motivated to get more content.
 
I don't care. Never downloaded videos from iTunes because I don't like being locked into iTunes. I'll download from BitTorrent and buy the box sets (because I like to support things I enjoy, same reason I buy CDs and go to concerts). Though I do wonder what other legal means of obtaining videos there are?

iTunes is the only one I knew of.
 
How am I supposed to get tvshows like 30 Rock or The Office while working with Front Row and iTunes? It was really easy to buy a tvshow and watch it with Front Row. Not anymore for NBC shows. I am not wanna browse to something like Amazon's store and convert the video (if evne possible with Windows Media DRM)...
 
You gotta be sh**ing me

Did NBC really, honestly think that making one tv epsiode $5.00 would really work? That is absolutely outrageous. Even if Apple had agreed to this absurd change in pricing, no customer in their right mind would choose to download it. Let's take The Office for example.

Personally, when it comes to DVDs I'd rather get the physical set because I like to watch several episodes at a time and I can carry it around with me when I travel. I bought The Office: Seasons 1 & 2 from Target a few months ago for about $42.00. Overall this is about 29 episodes (let's just say it's 30 so it's a nice, round number). If I had chosen to download all 30 episodes from iTMS at $2.00 per episode, the total in price would have been $60.00. This in itself is a substantial markup in price, especially considering you don't get a DVD case at all. Now, if the price for each episode would have raised to freakin' $5.00, you're looking at paying $150.00 for two seasons! This is well over triple the price from buying it from the store, and even a 2.5x increase from the original iTMS downloads! There's no way that makes for a smart buy no matter how much of a kick-ass show The Office is.

This whole falling out between NBC and Apple could not be put in any other terms but pure, overwhelming greed. Shame on you NBC for screwing your customers, and kudos to you Apple for knowing what we want and how to give it to us at a fair price.
 
digitalbiker said:
By the way, Apple makes a boatload off of itunes sales. It started as a sideline to sale ipods but it has turned into a huge business in itself. So don't think Apple isn't motivated to get more content.
Click to expand...

I doubt that Apple makes much after they pay the networks/record companies their shares and they pay all of the bandwidth and the staff maintaining the store.
 
Since it the beginning of the fall season, I would have purchased 5 Season Passes from iTunes this week, but now it looks like I am going to save my money and get them for free.

While I am disappointed by the inconvience, the more I think about it, the more I am OK with it:

Free
No DRM
Better quality
Slightly less convienent

(And I don't need to go to P2P sites to get them free. There are tons of tools for busy, non-techies like me to get content on to my computer from my cable box. My colleague just emailed me a link to elgato.)


But, the real shame is I wouldn't have become a viewer of the Office, Heroes, My Name is Earl, or 30 Rock without looking around iTunes for interesting new bands and music when I was on the road. I read the reviews of these shows and saw them in the top purchases boxes and gave an episode a try. Now, I would have purchased the $30 Season Passes.


Two words for this move: New Coke
 
digitalbiker said:
I doubt that NBC has sold more than a million TV episodes total on itunes. At $1.99 an episode, we are only talking 2 million bucks total less Apple's cut.
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FWIW Apple sold more than 1 million TV shows in the first 20 days of offering them.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/oct/31itms.html

12 million in months
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/feb/07showtime.html

If NBC really constitutes more than 30% of the current sales, you can bet it's more than 1 million shows/year.

Here's a more informed estimate of what NBC stands to lose: $60M

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/08/31/iTunes-pricing-spat-with-NBC-seen-as-hurting-Apple_1.html

Forrester expects the online video resale business to generate about $300 million this year with iTunes taking in most of that. He estimates that NBC will bring in about $60 million from iTunes video sales this year.
Click to expand...

B
 
I sent NBC an e-mail telling them it was a stupid move as no one would pay $108.00 for what they could get for free from Bittorrent or for @$30.00 on DVD. I actually got interested in Heroes after downloading some episodes from iTunes. These guys are unbelievably dim.
 
i could understand them not making an exclusive contract because that might hurt them, but pulling their shows completely is rediculous, they are just being a baby because they didn't get what they want, going to microsoft won't make ipod users switch to a nasty zune to get a couple shows, people will just illegally download again, just like universal, they can't see that being part of one of the largest distributors and most known is a good thing, who is going to buy a show from wallmart, then wait for it to download, then put it into itunes, and then put it on to their ipod? that will be a hassle and people won't move to a zune, they will just not buy NBC shows.
 
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