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This is going to be a huge slap in the face to all the Apple TV folks.
Well, yes and no. $2 per episode is already making it a luxury of not waiting until DVD comes out. I buy occasionally, but at $4 or $5 I would not buy at all anyways, so it does not matter.
 
Universal (and NBC, by extension) seem like one of the more draconian companies. They refuse to adapt to new technologies (including the Internet, for Pete's sake), and their CEO has stated how much he distrusts university students and thinks everyone is a pirate. I wish I could find the quote somewhere--it's sheer hatred of consumers is almost delicious, it's so bad.

I'd be all for this move (I agree with "Good riddance), but at the same time, I'd rather see the iTunes Store succeed than a lesser competitor. Competition is well and good, but I'm not sure of a competitor right now that I'd go with. Do any of you use non-iTunes solutions that are really nice?
 
In a way I'd like to see Apple sell $4.99 TV shows from NBC...just to have no one buy them :p

And wasn't it the CEO of UMG that accused iPod owners as theives? Now I guess it will be everyone that owns a TV. Bit torrents here I come!
 
You could go see a matinee movie for 2 more dollars (probably less in some places).

I do think this is all a little overly dramatic. It is probably a setup situation where Apple says, "Sorry, we can't go all the way up to $4.99 that's preposterous!"

NBC says, "Fine we're pulling our stuff off the shelves."

Everybody says," Screw them, I don't need NBC"

NBC says, "How about we lower it down to $3.99"

Apple needs to get the last word in the deal, "$2.99 per episode"

Everybody says, "Well... that was a lot better than $4.99 an episode" totally overlooking the fact that they just jacked the price up a dollar.

Watch as this all unfolds.
 
Best Quote I've seen yet (flat out loud funny)

"As one might expect, much of the analysis among the Apple commentators was harshly critical of NBC. "Bottom line? Apple's looking good here, championing users," wrote Michael Gartenberg, a tech analyst Jupiter Research. "Sometimes I think God put video content guys on the planet to make the music guys look progressive and visionary."

:D
 
I guess in some people's mind, there is no "the other side", apple say "they want double what you pay", you take it, apple say "they are greedy", you take it.

I guess before I can get some numbers, I won't repeat same old theory.

You can just sit tight and watch how much NBC will charge for their shows through other online market. and My guess is they won't charge you $4.99/episode!
 
Best Quote I've seen yet (flat out loud funny)

"As one might expect, much of the analysis among the Apple commentators was harshly critical of NBC. "Bottom line? Apple's looking good here, championing users," wrote Michael Gartenberg, a tech analyst Jupiter Research. "Sometimes I think God put video content guys on the planet to make the music guys look progressive and visionary."

:D

:D That's hilarious!!!!
 
My guess is they won't charge you $4.99/episode!

No, but they'll do what they've been doing to the cable companies forever. Bundling. You can only have your latest episode of "Battlestar Galactica" as part of a package that also include the latest "Dateline" and "ER". We'll throw in a bonus episode of "30 Rock", and charge you $4.99 for the deal. Isn't that sweet of us.

IMHO it's more likely we'll see some kind of subscription model.

B
 
I wrote NBC a nice letter on their website, listing all the shows I've purchased/watched that are under their banner of NBC, Sci-Fi, and USA Networks.

And then told them if they leave the store, their network will no longer show on my television.

Fox got the same treatment after firefly. I couldn't even tell you my local affiliate's name because I've never watched it because we moved here after firefly.

Guess I'll turn off NBC, USA and Sci-Fi as well. I don't care how much I enjoy BSG, if Universal wants to play the game, I'm not going to play and go find somewhere else.
 
Don't dilute formats. Stay with MPEG4-AVC.

Why doesn't Apple offer DiVX and XVID compatability to iTunes and the iPhone/iPod. Then your could take your DVD's and rip them into iTunes like you can with CD's and manage them just like we do with music tracks.

This would setup a similar model to when the iPod first came out and give the consumer a legitimate option to building thier online media library.

Every music track I've purchased over the last 4 years or so has been through the iTunes muisc store. Prior to that, I accumulated them from...*cough*...other places, including ripping CD's.

I think having that equalizer servered a great service to the consumer AND the companies selling videos.

Make it Legitimate, Make it Fair, and Make it Convienant.

Just use Handbrake to convert your DVDs to MPEG4-AVC (H.264) files - then you can play them on your iPod as well as your iPhone and AppleTV. Handbrake has presets for these. Don't continue to support Xvid and Divx. They are going to just dilute the codec scene. AVC is proven and well supported. PS3 works with it too.
 
No, but they'll do what they've been doing to the cable companies forever. Bundling. You can only have your latest episode of "Battlestar Galactica" as part of a package that also include the latest "Dateline" and "ER". We'll throw in a bonus episode of "30 Rock", and charge you $4.99 for the deal. Isn't that sweet of us.

B

altho you are very sure of the "bundle", I doubt it. we shall see. as the first public broadcasting company to offer free online full episode stream, I don't feel like they are that 1990s.
 
So 4.99$ with a average of 23 episode a season.. that come out to $114.77???
hmm for that price I rather wait for the season to be released on DVD. and at 1.99$ x 23 ep... 45.77$ this still hurts but better then 114.77$
 
Seems everybody is jumping to defend Apple here against that greedy NBC :D.

Well, all NBC wanted is to gain more control over price than Apple. After all, it's NBC's content and Apple is just a broker. I am not saying this will be a smart decision for NBC but I think they should have a right to set the price to what they want. If there are enough suckers to pay for it, good for NBC. If not, then they either reduce the price or find some other way to repackage same content over and over again.

P.S.
As for me, I would not buy it even for $ 0.01 as long as it's DRMed in any way.
 
I guess in some people's mind, there is no "the other side", apple say "they want double what you pay", you take it, apple say "they are greedy", you take it.

I guess before I can get some numbers, I won't repeat same old theory.

You can just sit tight and watch how much NBC will charge for their shows through other online market. and My guess is they won't charge you $4.99/episode!

The $4.99 seems a little high, even for NBC and I think it would be partly due to Apple wanting to retain the same margin (which is a very reasonable thing to expect). But Apple cannot lie to the stock market, which is essentially what you are saying they have just done.

Also dont discount the fact that the likes of NBC arent comfortable with the amount of power Apple have in terms of legal downloads for video if they echoed their success in music. It would not surprise me at all if they ask Apple for a higher wholesale price, purely as a power move.
 
altho you are very sure of the "bundle", I doubt it. we shall see. as the first public broadcasting company to offer free online full episode stream, I don't feel like they are that 1990s.

Sure? no. But it is how they do business with the cable cos and was mentioned in the previous story.

https://www.macrumors.com/2007/08/31/nbc-to-end-itunes-sales/
NBC had reportedly been seeking better piracy controls and the ability to bundle videos.

As I said, my guess is that they go to a subscription model with heavy DRM. Maybe online streaming only.

B
 
Downloading Transmission now. Thy dont want my money?? So be it!

amen to that!


4.99?? are they out of their minds...so a 12 episode season would cost almost 60 dollars????? that is crazy. I think one person said it best, MONEY-HUNGRY!

What a bad move on their part.
 
The networks make money from advertising, generally. Maybe they don''t know how to act when they are actually selling episodes for a fee to the consumer. However, they have done this before with complete season DVDs. $5/episode would make a complete season very costly!
Anybody know how much a network makes per viewer on ad revenue? Even the $2 price seemed high to me, but I just don't know. DVD is one measure, but it's also after the season has aired, while iTMS is concurrent.
Apple supports both formats.
Apple doesn't support either format. There may have been keynotes and press releases giving lip service to both, but I still can't watch BlueRay or HD-DVD on my Mac.
i.e. NBC want more money from apple, not end users, while apple would just transfer this to end-users, now, who is greedy? can you really tell?
Yeah, I can tell. NBC. Whatever arrangement Apple has with NBC, it's good enough for everybody else and has been good enough for NBC themselves until now.

You certainly can't be suggesting that Apple resell NBC products at a loss...
 
The $4.99 seems a little high, even for NBC and I think it would be partly due to Apple wanting to retain the same margin (which is a very reasonable thing to expect). But Apple cannot lie to the stock market, which is essentially what you are saying they have just done.

Also dont discount the fact that the likes of NBC arent comfortable with the amount of power Apple have in terms of legal downloads for video if they echoed their success in music. It would not surprise me at all if they ask Apple for a higher wholesale price, purely as a power move.

apple always cuts into partner's profit in BIG numbers, I don't see why apple can't give more profit to their partners. remember why Verizon backed off from iPhone?

as for $4.99, I stand by my words, if all these fuss are really about "end-users", lets wait and see how much NBC charge.
 
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