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NBC Universal Drops iTunes
An anonymous reader writes "NBC Universal has cancelled its iTunes contract and will withdraw the television shows it currently offers through the service in December, when the current contract expires. This is a huge blow for the service, as NBC is the controlling interest in Apple customer-friendly intellectual properties like The Office, Battlestar Galactica, My Name is Earl and Heroes. From the article: 'The decision to withdraw the content follows disagreements between the two firms. Apple is thought to have rejected NBC's demands for more restrictive DRM and the introduction of flexible pricing. Apple was informed of NBC Universal's decision late last night. The report states that neither Apple nor NBC Universal would comment on the matter, but said they continue to talk, "free of acrimony".'" Hey NBC: I have chosen not to have cable, but want to pay you for Heroes. Guess what my only alternative will be if you pull it from iTunes?
Uh, watching it for free over-the-air?
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1) Use an Antenna. It's called broadcast TV.
2) Go to a friends house. You do have friends right?
3) Go out to a public place that has Heroes on their TV.
4) Wait to buy the DVD's.
Most of these options don't even involve paying NBC.
Yes, a little hyperbole in my reply, but no more than "Guess what my only alternative will be".
Maybe you should educate the morons of tomorrow so they'll stop believing the leaders of tomorrow. - Dogbert
While its a blow to Apple, Universal is turning it's back an a huge revenue source. I think Apple is number 3 in all music sales right now. This should be good! Pop some popcorn, Folks, a corporate UFC is about to ensue!
Buy DVD's?
Rent from NetFlix?
Watch it on your Xbox 360?
Or use that crazy thing called an "antenna"?
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
"Hey NBC: I have chosen not to have cable, but want to pay you for Heroes. Guess what my only alternative will be if you pull it from iTunes?"
Getting cable.
I'm broke, and I have CHOSEN to not get a job, so my only alternative is to steal? Rubbish.
I have spoken'eth.
I'm sure there will be other alternatives like antenna or going somewhere else but the fact remains:
1) I paid for a ton of NBC shows on itunes the last few seasons, literally spending hundreds of dollars. I did this because I liked having them in reasonably high def, commercial free, reasonably close to the time of initial broadcast and using a program I already was comfortable with little or no work on my part past the initial purchase.
2) I had planned to do it again.
3) Now I probably will either not watch the shows at all. The next most likely solution is to download a torrent.
Its not that there arn't other ways to watch it. Its that none of the other ways to watch it provide the right mix of convienence, quality and lack of interruption. Having the shows on itunes didn't give me exactly what I wanted, but it gave me enough that I was willing to pay for it. If I have to install another program(and its associated additional drm and god knows what else), or put up with ads, or put up with low quality broadcasts, or put up with having to watch it at a specific time, or put up with a cable provider/dvr, or wait 6-18 months for a DVD or any of that other stuff, then its just not worth the time or the money.
I want it on my computer, when its released, with minimal hassle and no interruption. For that service, I'm willing to pay. Otherwise, its not worth it.
Watch it for free over-the-air? No such thing in Canada (the channels list is pathetic).
Watch it free on NBC's website? No, they filter IPs and only allow americans.
Buy it on the iTunes Store? Nope, we still don't have movies and TV shows in the Canadian store.
My only other options are either cable or satellite, and both are forcing us to pay for "packages" that include 200 channels we don't want to get the 10 channels we want.
Guess what's my other alternative?
One of the reasons given was that NBC Universal wanted to add more restrictive DRM to the shows and Apple said no.
If Universal would win that battle, then WE ALL lose out. Remember, this is the same network that f*cked with its time schedule so shows ended at 8:31 and such to try and f*ck Tivo owners. That shows you just what they think about the viewer. I'm sure the new DRM ideas would have us in mind, as in how can we make this experience more painful for the content viewer.
This will just make it more likely that I won't watch NBC shows. I am personally tired of networks dictating what time and where I should be watching their content. That's so last century thinking. Yeah, you can go to NBC.com, if you don't mind being tethered to streaming content, which sucks if you're not on the net when you have time/want to watch a show.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
I've got to say, I'm pretty lost as to why some people keep making these comments?
I know iTunes and Windows Vista had some issues - but that's not really shocking, considering how many other things aren't quite Vista compatible.
Overall though, geez... Quicktime player has been used in Windows since version 3.1, as a de-facto standard for playing multimedia files off CD. It's not exactly something Apple just "slapped together to say they had a Windows version".
Safari for Windows? Nothing special there, but it's also a very first attempt at doing it for the platform, and it's FREE software too. As others pointed out, it's probably relased right now mainly to allow easier development for the iPhone from a Windows box, plus giving people the option to use the same browser they have on their Mac, if they so desire. Apple's not auto-deleting your copies of Firefox and IE 7 just because you installed it or anything, so why the big fuss?
I fail to see how a competitive market is better (better margins) for the competitors. I see how it could be better for the consumer, but I would think the competitors themselves would much prefer a monopoly.
Of course there are, but they all revolve around NBC wanting more money and more control over how, where and when you can watch their shows.
I bought every season available of Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, The Office, and My Name is Earl on iTunes. I like the shows, but apparently, that's not good enough. Apparently, NBC wants me to be so desperate to watch the shows that I would support their outright greed.
Well I for one am not a slave to my television. Unless NBC shapes up and gives me the opportunity to pay a reasonable price for seeing their shows in a timely manner and in a fashion that I wish, I guess I won't be watching them any more. Oh well, I guess that frees up more time that I can use for other interesting things.
These networks and media companies just kill me. They act like if they only provide one expensive and inconvenient legal avenue for me to watch their shows, I'll just have to suck it up because they say so. Then you have the people like the submitter who imply that they'll just resort to illegal avenues to watch the show.
Everyone seems to be forgetting option number three, the option I'll be choosing should NBC keep this silliness up: Simply don't watch the shows. Frankly, it looks to me like that is NBC's ultimate goal, and if that's the case, I'm happy to oblige.
So basically they will encode six episodes of a season, release four, delay the last two, delay them again, and then remove the four they had previously released.
And [god of choice] help any show that starts with an 'F' in the name or has Nathan Fillion in it.
Hmm, $5 per Show, 4 times the month= 20$
HBO subscription = 12$
Save $8 and watch better shows!
While one Superbowl ad may cost 2.4million, an average TV spot during primetime is bound to be considerably lower-priced. Secondly, NBC is averaging 5.6 million viewers, a far cry from the Superbowl's 90 million. Another factor is that overall TV viewership is dropping. One could put all that together and consider that this may not be directly a per-episode or per-viewer cost consideration.
NBC might be concerned that affordable access to ad-free versions of their shows will harm something they've worked very hard to program into their viewers: The concept of watching ads to get shows. A glimmer of that danger shows up in this article. Apparently, NBC is already finding it difficult to gain enough advertising to put on good drama during primetime. If the advertising money dries up entirely, NBC--and others--as a company will need to do something very different. The move they've tried to pull is likely to have been an attempt at preserving their business model.
Just another "DOJ fascist authoritarian totalitarian bootlicker" -- Zeio
Buying them legally from a store might also be another idea, novel as it may be.
Let me offer a variation on that. Buy them legally from a different online store. Why is it that only Apple can offer such products, why is a defacto monopoly by Apple OK? If NBC doesn't like Apple's terms they should backout, contract with a competitor who they can come to terms with, or start their own.
Personally I see history repeating itself. Apple pioneers something, validates the product or business model, develops a commanding lead with early adopters, then missteps and get beaten by others as the bulk of the market beings using the product or service. Apple has "been there, done that" with respect to personal computers, the graphical interface, etc. I wish it were otherwise, I wish Apple could come to terms and maintain their position as the bulk of the market enters, as they may have with iPod - we aren't that far beyond early adopters though, but its Apple so I am not optimistic - changing their position would go against Steve's vision.