The MikeTake
Two major corporations bickering in public. At least here on macrumors we keep it in the family.
"We didn't want to screw you over like that - we wanted to screw you over this other way..."
Damn. I almost feel out of my chair over that one, fellas. Thanks for the laugh. You are so right, it's scary.
Steve's not used to getting "Jobbed".
And that's because he's very, very careful about what he does, where he does it, and the context surrounding his doing it. Nevertheless, it's a ballsy strategy and I support Steve in it because, amongst other reasons, I have no love for any members of the Entertainment Injustistry.
Not to sound like a jerk, but I really want someone to explain to me how you can "steal" NBC shows when anyone in the US can get the shows for free with an antenna?
!¡ V ¡!;4121185 said:
Same can be said for music over the radio.
I feel strongly about this. Another poster,
nkawtg72, in my post here effectively elaborates on it. But yes, I have a hard time paying for something that is otherwise available "for free", especially something that has already been completely paid for by advertisers. Talk about double-dipping.
Production costs are taking a healthy jump up because of things like moving from SD to HD and increased production value while ad revenue has been steadily declining as the proliferation of a wider variety of media has eroded TV ratings.
Lethal, let's try not to forget it
isn't and has never been a case of the general public screaming for HD. The broadcast industry made this bed a long time ago, and now they're having to sleep in it. The unfortunate part is that they're making others (local broadcasters) spend their money to upgrade their already-paid-for, fully-working equipment for no real or legitimate reason. It's amazing to me how effective the broadcast industry/entertainment industry (yeah, redundant I know) has been in brainwashing the general public into going along with this and spending hundreds of millions on at least one, if not two, three or even four generations of tv equipment because of this whole HD rigamarole.
I don't now, and I don't ever plan to "upgrade" from the 1994 RCA ProScan 27" I presently own and (truth be told) never really use anyway.
Amen brother.
Once I buy the White Album on iTunes Plus I'll never have to buy it again ever... The record companies must really freak out about that.
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They put so much money behind enormous atomic flashes in the pan. They want you to hate it in a week so they can sell it to you all over again as quickly as possible.
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iTunes scares big media giants because it gives the consumer too much control. Consumers made iTunes + iPod popular by choice. Not even the biggest Mac fanboy would have predicted that in 2001. There was no controling it. It just happened becuase someone got it right for once.
Yes, yes, and a big fracking YOU BETTA BUH-LIEVE IT!!!
NBC should change their initials to CYA.
No doubt, they also wanted more flexibility in the pricing, but I think Apple's main gripe is that this "flexibility" wasn't intended to benefit the customers, but rather bump the prices up on popular programming. We've heard this before, when the music industry wanted to do the same. I don't think Apple's pricing structure is perfect, but I sure like the keep-it-simple approach.
FWIW, I think the increase in price on shows was NOT intended to rake in more cash for NBC, but rather to drive more viewers back to broadcast TV where NBC's real cash cow is--advertising. Just like the music industry, TV broadcasters are going to see some real upheaval in their business model. It looks to me like NBC is having a knee-jerk response. Instead of getting creative about how to profit from iTunes sales, they want to pull the rug out from under it and drive people back to regular TV where they make an obscene amount of cash from ridiculously inflated advertising prices--something they cannot duplicate on iTunes because of a smaller viewer demographic. (Anyone know if this Hulu.com will include ad breaks? I'm betting it does.)
As for their other point, it's almost a non sequitur. NBC says they are concerned about piracy, and yet they take away the single most popular option out there for people who want to pay for legit downloads. What kind of sense does that make? What other options are out there for those people now?
You know, Inkswamp, the only real issue I have with your post is that you've left me nothing to say. Yes, you're absolutely right. Couldn't agree more.
I totally disagree. People will NOT go to other places to get the shows they want to see.
You forget why the iPod was a success in the first place. It didn't have the most features, it wasn't the most compatible, it wasn't even available to people using the dominant OS (MS Windows) at the beginning. The iPod was a smash hit because It Just Worked. The vast majority of people will NOT be willing to go to 6 different studio's websites to get the various content they want to download, which come in 6 different formats, which are locked with non-Fairplay DRM and thus totally unplayable on their iPod.
And as far as your question about hulu's DRM, the DRM on media from non-iTunes sources literally can not work with the iPod without Apple licensing the iPod's Fairplay DRM to another company, and that's not gonna happen without a long gigantic legal battle.
Now here is someone who was actually
awake in class and
paying attention. I've made comments here and elsewhere before to the effect of what you've just said. Anyone who goes around saying that the iPod is popular only because of clever marketing by Apple (a.k.a. Apple is somehow doing something wrong to the general public, or acting like some kind of "evil" company because they want to achieve success at something) pretty much just got their argument -- nay, their entire worldview of this situation -- nullified by what you just said. The iPod is popular for ONE SIMPLE REASON: right enormous crap-loads of people ALL OVER THE WORLD like it a lot. This is a perfect textbook example of why any product in the world ever SHOULD be successful.
basically, its whom you want to trust, obviously you selected apple, I don't, since I don't think NBC is that stupid to sell their show for $4.99 when all other networks sell shows at $1.99. GE didn't grow big by being stupid.
want to test who is right? wait for NBCU's hulu.com, see how muh they charge per episode.
Clevin, I have a question: If you didn't select Apple, then what are you doing posting here on a Mac-related message board?
Now, as far as GE being stupid or not, well, one can judge; however I would offer that GE
was smart enough to get rid of Bob Nardelli. And that earns 'em at least one or two points in my book.
I'm sure I'm only repeating what many others may have already said, but I haven't read everyone's reply.
I personally have never bought into this paying for TV shows, whether it's off iTunes or anywhere else for the matter. Movies are another thing, they're editted for on-air broadcast, so buying them is really the only decent way of getting a good version of one.
I can't help but think that this is actually the source of the debate between Apple and NBC. NBC doesn't think they're making enough money selling a show I can record for free off-the-air. [emphasis added]
Personally I think NBC is shoveling some pretty smelly %$#@%, when they complain about "concrete piracy protection." Who do they think they're fooling here. They're not loosing money because of people like me who record a show off-the-air and are not willing to pay for it. Piracy steals money when someone other than NBC distributes it over the internet illegally. Do you think someone who would do that, would pay for the show in the first place?! I doubt it. They'll record it just like I do, convert it to half a dozen different formats and start dumping it online in places. The "piracy" debate is a smokescreen for not being able to sell the unsellable.
What we have here is NBC trying to make Apple look like the bad guy, for something they(NBC) just needs to learn there is no money in. NBC is wanting to "bundle" shows. In my mind that means HIGHER prices. It doesn't matter how many shows you put in the package, NBC is still going to put more $$$ in their pocket. Do you really think that it costs them one more penny to add a show or multiple shows to a package??!!!! NOOOO. It's just that it gives them an excuse to raise the prices, which I think APPLE is obviously opposed to.
Apple has routinely, in my opinion, represented consumers honestly against the music and broadcast industry. This isn't the first time a "client" has tried to get Apple to raise prices, and Apple has fought them. Apple stands to gain nothing by raising prices. The % breakdowns have shown Apple only takes a very very small cut of the $$$ with the sale of content from ITMS, which goes to cover operating costs. Apple's $$$ interests here are providing a source of content for the millions upon millions of iPod/iPhone and iTunes users out there that have to buy those iPods/iPhones and hopefully Macs from Apple.
I think Apple sees that if NBC raises prices of their content on ITMS and at the same time provides it through other outlets, then it could potentially drive away customers at ITMS.
When Apple says they are fighting NBC because NBC wants to raise prices, I believe Apple. NBC can call it packaging all they want, but at the end of the day they are expecting customers to pay more for the sale of an item than they were previously.
As for me. I've never shared anything I've recorded and then transferred to my Mac and then iPod. So as far as I'm concerned NBC can go take their crap somewhere else and try and sell it. If I want something from TV on my iPod, I'll encode it myself for free, why pay NBC to do it, and pay Apple to download it to me.
nkawtg72, I couldn't agree more, except with one particular point:
"Piracy steals money when someone other than NBC distributes it over the internet illegally."
No, that isn't like stealing money from NBC, or any other broadcaster. And it isn't stealing money because NBC has already made money by the advertiser sponsoring the show with their ads! Moreover, every eyeball is an additional eyeball, so if you "steal" a copy and watch it, then you're one more person who sees the ad than would have seen it originally.
Now, if someone D/L'd the thing and then redistributed it for a fee, then for me that would be a somewhat morally/ethically gray area, but at the end of the day I'd have to say, just to be fair, the entity in question should have to pay at least some of that money back to NBC. However, they should be able to keep enough of it to defray expenses and turn a reasonable profit. Mind you, we're probably talking no more than maybe 20¢ - 30¢ as being a reasonable "finders fee", but still why shouldn't they be allowed to profit through such enterprising efforts?
Ultimately, folks, it's a sad commentary on the world we live in when our society can give such legitimacy to fighting and arguing these kinds of battles (instead of just laughing the instigators right out of the room) and shows that "the powers that be" have done a fine job of brainwashing us all. Oh well. I continue to wish Steve and his crew the best of luck and success.
