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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?
Lets face it, Universal own the content, and content rules. They haven't been able to distribute the content how they want with Apple, so they are calling Apples bluff. The thing is, if they market another service well enough (and it does come down to marketing) and that service has the content, then they will get exactly what they want - more than one service selling prime content and therefore a competitive market for selling content meaning better margin for them.
Universal are in a losing situation by having their content in only one marketplace.
As much as I love Apple and their ethics, it was overdue. The only way that Universal can lose is if they fail to market the new service they have selling the content.
OP is a bit naive thinking he won't be able to buy Universal content any more!!
As other posters have rightly pointed out, the free/ad-supported shows streamed from the website basically suck big rocks, quality-wise. Actually, watching a few eps of Heroes that way was what got me to buy the whole season off of iTunes -- because I wanted it with good quality, and no ads. I'm not morally outraged that NBC has pulled it -- they're welcome to cut their throats however they like. But I probably will d/l full-rez, ad-free video instead of watching the crap teaser-quality stuff on the NBC site. Yes, as the grandparent says, NBC is effectively daring me to do this, whether you like it or not. As others have pointed out, this is just market and technological reality.
By the way, do you know Zonk personally, that you're in a position to call him a liar? Or are you just being a knee-jerk stuffed shirt DRM apologist and going on the attack?