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NBC to End iTunes Sales?
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doesn't that bundle means NBC want to sell their videos to apple ITMS? rather than directly force users to buy a video with a music?
Eureka is only a half season show and who knows if it will be back. You'll get this entire season. Episodes are available on their site.
BTW, this is another reason for the to want to pull. They will be better able to track viewership on their own site rather than collect filtered data from Apple.
Don't get me wrong, I like having it all in one store but reality has to set in here. These companies need to make as much money as they can or you will not be seeing your favorite show anywhere.
Highly plausible. GE (NBC-Universal) has very close ties with MS. They started MS-NBC. I work for GE and they are PC only - no Macs anywhere. They are also the only studio (until recently - with Paramount getting bribed) to exclusively support HD-DVD (which microsoft is pushing hard).
Sorry, but before iTunes all of the content providers previous forays into the digital world were an absolute failure. Apple knows this market and has the largest share of this market for a reason: They brought the customer what they wanted. Some content providers still don't get that. How much was an episode of a show before ITS? Oh yea, free.
Do we really have to keep watching this crap and I'm still on the first page. It really is adnauseam.
Frankly, this announcement will effect whether I purchase a new iPod. One of my principle uses for the new widescreen video iPod is to watch TV shows. If my three favorite shows will no longer be available for viewing on the new iPod, I doubt seriously that I will purchase one.
Read the f**** article.
They give an example of bundling "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "The Office" because of the Carrell connection.
They wouldn't be forcing bundles on anyone -- it would be an option.
wait till the negotiations end
Well, just wait until all of the negotiations are complete. If NBC still withdraws from the iTunes -- fine. Their shows are available for free on their own site, perhaps they'll add purchaceable/downloadable versions right there and, as they want variable pricing, old episodes will cost 50c and new ones $1.50. Plus there's free over-the-air broadcast.
Of course it'd be a pinch on the Jobs' nose, but hey, he's the shrewd businessman, he'll figure out how to make things go his way
Well, just wait until all of the negotiations are complete. If NBC still withdraws from the iTunes -- fine. Their shows are available for free on their own site, perhaps they'll add purchaceable/downloadable versions right there and, as they want variable pricing, old episodes will cost 50c and new ones $1.50. Plus there's free over-the-air broadcast.
Of course it'd be a pinch on the Jobs' nose, but hey, he's the shrewd businessman, he'll figure out how to make things go his way
Why don't you buy a eyeTV Hybrid
Why do you have to buy each show - just get an eyeTV Hybrid and get everything for free in HD.
Why do you have to buy each show - just get an eyeTV Hybrid and get everything for free in HD.
Got this from ZDNET:
"The NBC Universal move also comes as the General Electric unit is launching Hulu, a video joint venture between NBC and News Corp. NBC Universal was reportedly seeking better piracy controls and wanted Apple to allow it to bundle videos. The newly named Hulu, which will launch a private beta in October gives NBC Universal leverage"
IMO, NBC-Universal is the most bone-headed of all the studios. It seems like they try not to make money. No support for Blu-ray, and now they are pulling their shows from the only place online where people are actually willing to pay for video content. Genius.
In Germany there was an interesting legal situation maybe ten years ago.
In the UK, people were buying satellite dishes, and you needed a decoder so that the TV company would get money. Since Germany and the UK are close together, you could receive these programs in Germany as well. And since the TV company is voluntarily transmitting it to your home, in Germany you had the right to receive these programs.
That is, you had the right, but not the means. But you could buy cloned decoder cards (which usually worked for a few months until the TV companies changed their encryption, then you bought another one) and watch UK satellite TV. Completely legal, because the UK TV companies _refused_ to sell their decoders in Germany (and if you bought them in the UK, they got remotely turned off by the TV company as soon as it was found that you used them outside the UK).
Why did it make a legal difference that they refused to sell decoders? If they had sold decoders in Germany, then selling cloned decoders would have been "unfair competition" and illegal. Since they didn't sell decoders, they lost no sales, no unfair competition. There was no copyright infringement because the TV company did the actual "copying" (transmitting TV programs to your home).
iTunes is great for loyal and committed viewers to catch missed episodes of their favorite shows. It's easy to use, works great, and downloads faster than anything I've tried. TV shows are definitely becoming a lot more connected from episode to episode. Pick an episode from "The Office" from the 3rd season and from the 2nd and compare. "24", "Lost", "Heroes", "Grey's Anatomy", whatever. These types of shows garner huge numbers of dedicated viewers who absolutely have to come back every week. Having quick and easy downloads of episodes soon after they air on iTunes helps to sustain this kind of "addicted, I need my weekly fix" viewership. Now, a lot does rely on designing a show that balances out continuing story with the ability to just hop in at any point. If missing one episode is enough to throw enough people off, then the show is poorly designed (like "Arrested Development", while an incredibly well made show, it turned into something more like a huge inside joke by the end). But having episodes offered on iTunes helps widen this margin of error. The more connected the story is from week to week, the more engrossed the viewer is going to be, and the more he or she will come back the following week, but if a viewer just isn't getting something because they had no way of catching an old episode, this engrossment will quickly fall apart.
General Electric/NBC Profits From War
Companies Who Profit from War Should Not Be Allowed To Own Public Media.
NBC splitting with iTunes may be a 'good thing'.
I have often wondered what Microsoft's comments would be, if Apple bought the 'NBC package' from General Electric
Companies Who Profit from War Should Not Be Allowed To Own Public Media.
NBC splitting with iTunes may be a 'good thing'.
I have often wondered what Microsoft's comments would be, if Apple bought the 'NBC package' from General Electric
Sorry NBC...
I do not own an iPod or iPhone, but I do have an iTunes account. I have only 'purchased' one movie since iTunes inception. The rest of my limited "collection" is of tv shows, music videos, and songs that were "priced" as 'free' at the time of 'purchase'...
Sorry, NBC, your tv shows, which I do not watch on tv now, and sorry, Universal, the movies I do not pay to see in theaters (see only 1 or 2 movies in theaters a year), the availibility to have your shows and movies be purchased on iTunes will not be missed, by me at least!
I do not own an iPod or iPhone, but I do have an iTunes account. I have only 'purchased' one movie since iTunes inception. The rest of my limited "collection" is of tv shows, music videos, and songs that were "priced" as 'free' at the time of 'purchase'...
Sorry, NBC, your tv shows, which I do not watch on tv now, and sorry, Universal, the movies I do not pay to see in theaters (see only 1 or 2 movies in theaters a year), the availibility to have your shows and movies be purchased on iTunes will not be missed, by me at least!
Nice one!
Anyways, I think it is really stupid if they pull their shows off of iTunes. At least for me they make DOUBLE the money off of me because I buy the whole season so I can watch the episodes the next day, then I buy it when it comes out on DVD so I can have an actual DVD because Apple will not let anyone burn shows onto DVD which pretty much sucks... Plus the quality is better on DVD as well as you get extra content that is not included with digital downloads.
However, now that I have an EyeTV Hybrid, I can record the shows instead of downloading them from iTunes and then buy the season on DVD when it comes out for the high quality content.
I agree with everyone here that is saying that NBC is crap... in fact the ONLY show I watch or download from NBC is The Office because Steve Carrell is so funny and I like the original UK version of The Office.
They are not actually pulling anything. Their contract runs until December. It is August now, and they haven't managed to come to an agreement yet how to go on after December. They have still over three months to come to an agreement without any problems, and if that stupid anonymous idiot had kept their mouth shut, nobody would know about it. We don't even know whether NBC and Apple are worried about this at all. Could be someone at Apple says "the contract runs out on the 13th of December, they'll probably sign a deal on the 11th or so". Even after the contract runs out, they'll probably have an agreement in place that films will still be sold for a while, except that negotiations will be a bit more urgent.
This is a situation where _any_ deal is better for both sides than _no deal_. NBC and Apple are both making money from this. Obviously NBC wants more than whatever they get, and obviously someone at NBC is doing his best to convince Apple to sign a deal that is better for NBC. But whatever happens, a deal will be signed.
Who Cares?
Wooopdefriggindo! Who really cares it's just TV shows. If you really want to watch the lame content then sit on the couch and turn on the TV otherwise get a life. I really never cared to begin with if iTunes had TV shows at all, it's just my opinion but anyone who has to buy a TV show that is already free on TV really needs to think about what they are doing in the first place.
Wooopdefriggindo! Who really cares it's just TV shows. If you really want to watch the lame content then sit on the couch and turn on the TV otherwise get a life. I really never cared to begin with if iTunes had TV shows at all, it's just my opinion but anyone who has to buy a TV show that is already free on TV really needs to think about what they are doing in the first place.
Isn't NBC Universal's launching Hulu, "a video joint effort", like Sony launching Sony Connect... and what happeded to Sony Connect???
(according to an article on macnn, Sonny Connect is shutting down in spring of '08)
iTV Finally Being Discontinued?
They want to make enough money for it to be worth it, but more specifically they want to have a good source of content for iPod/etc. buyers (now iPhone, AppleTV, Mac, etc.). Their goal is to sell more iPods, iPhones, Macs, AppleTV's, etc. etc.
Did the iTV end up selling more than 2 units this quarter?
Time to dump that heap of resources at Apple. What a bad joke that whole thing was from the beginning. OK Steve, you got us! A couple desperate Mac fans bought into your gimmick - you won your bet with Phil, it's safe to tell the world now that the iTV was only a joke to throw off the competition. Really, the sooner the better would be good so you can finally focus on your core customers with your real products.
I know Steve, you didn't plan on anyone actually buying one. But I promise, you'll only embarrass about 17 people that bought it. Don't worry, they'll just laugh it off. I mean, it wasn't a total waste of hundreds of dollars - obviously they were in on the joke too. I think you might have actually convinced a couple people that it did something, boy oh boy I wish I'd had seen their faces the first time they plugged it in. Wow, that must have been a real tickler. So anyways, it's been fun but really I think it's time to get back to your real work now. Thanks for the laughs!