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NBC to Offer Free Video Download Service

Posted by samzenpus on from the must-see-internet-tv dept.

Damocles the Elder writes "Apparently NBC realized that people on the internet do watch TV, because after breaking up with Apple over iTunes pricing schemes, they're setting up their own free service." From the article "NBC first contracted with Amazon to offer its programs for sale to downloading devices like MP3 players. Now it is establishing its own downloading service, which NBC executives say they expect to become a viable competitor to iTunes. "With the creation of this new service, we are acknowledging that now, more than ever, viewers want to be in control of how, when and where they consume their favorite entertainment," said Vivi Zigler, the executive vice president of NBC Digital Entertainment. "Not only does this feature give them more control, but it also gives them a higher quality video experience."

10 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. Wait for comcast! by gravos · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Cue Comcast and other ISPs complaining that NBC is taking advantage of the bandwidth they provide and should be forced to pay in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

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  2. Yeah, whatever... by technothrasher · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "With the creation of this new service, we are acknowledging that now, more than ever, viewers want to be in control of how, when and where they consume their favorite entertainment,"

    ...

    Commercials will be embedded in the programs and viewers will not be able to skip through them.


    1. Re:Yeah, whatever... by speaker+of+the+truth · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Commercials will be embedded, just like on television. Either tape it off your television or wait for the commercial to finish. Or wait for it to be released on DVD and buy it. Yeeesh, some of you people just don't want your content producers to make money, do you?

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    2. Re:Yeah, whatever... by Ajehals · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I was going to say "how long till they put adverts (other than trailers) on to DVD's (there is nothing stopping them after all..) then I realised that children's DVD's are already littered with them (I put a postman pat DVD on for my son a while back, the feature is maybe 60 / 90 Minutes (3x 20 or 30 minute episodes) and there is at least 25 minutes of advertising material at the beginning, some of it totally inappropriate for really young kids (in terms of cartoon violence but still, its a Postman Pat DVD I wouldn't expect *any* violence* cartoon or otherwise) not to mention its is really annoying to have 2x 3 minute adverts for the same thing 5 minutes apart on a single DVD. Thankfully I can skip all of that, but I would hat to be someone who has a regular DVD player that honours whatever non-skip protection is on those Disks.

      *Except in "Pat and the Armed Post Office Robbery" where Pat foils a terrorist plot to rob the Post Office and use the proceeds to blow up the viaduct, or in "Pat goes Postal" which should be self explanatory... :)

  3. From free to pay...eventually? by Hamster+Lover · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From TFA:

    Commercials will be embedded in the programs and viewers will not be able to skip through them...

    Further into the article:

    But NBC intends to transform the service into a model similar to iTunes by the middle of 2008 -- that is, consumers will pay NBC directly to download episodes of the shows. "We did this to eliminate the middleman," said Jeff Gaspin, the president of NBC's digital division.

    That's fine and dandy, but will the paid version of the episode come complete with ads or is this just an interim solution until the paid model is in place, because I sure as hell wouldn't want to pay for episodes if they contained unskippable ads.

  4. Commercials you can't skip? by Dekortage · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the article:

    ...the files, which would be downloaded overnight to home computers, would contain commercials that viewers would not be able to skip through. And the file would not be transferable to a disk or to another computer.

    The files would degrade after the seven-day period and be unwatchable. "Kind of like 'Mission: Impossible,' only I don't think there would be any explosion and smoke," Mr. Gaspin said.

    The programs will initially be downloadable only to PCs with the Windows operating system, but NBC said it planned to make the service available to Mac computers and iPods later.

    You can't skip through the commercials? Can't transfer them to a disk or other computer? Any bets on how long this will last?

    But maybe this will help...

    In a second phase of the NBC rollout, customers would pay a fee for downloads of episodes that they would then own, and the files would be transferable to other devices. NBC hopes to offer this service by mid-2008, depending on how quickly the company can put in place the secure software necessary to allow payment by credit card. [emphasis added]

    Right, because online payment systems are magical. Only the top wizards understand the spells that make them work. That's why nobody except Apple has secure software to allow payment by credit cards: Steve Jobs is the toppest of the top wizards.

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  5. I suspect it'll only apply to US and maybe europe by Bazar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've tried downloading/watching heroes from NBC before.
    Because i was accessing it from a non-american IP address, they locked me out, citing no advertisers for my region (New Zealand)

    Talking of which, they previous/already offered the ability to watch previous episodes of heroes before, what exactly has changed?
    Isn't this just a rehash of what they already have, just with plans to turn it into an iTunes competitor later next year?

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  6. Re:AntiTrust yet again.... by tkrotchko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ultimately this is a good thing; it forces NBC to be better than Apple or they fail. It then forces Apple to be better than NBC. Which forces everybody else to be better. Because everybody is competing with free. You've got to be good to compete with free.

    Now the trouble is, companies hate competing, so ideally, Congress will ignore the whining of these big companies as they ask for laws to shield them from competition. It should also look aggressively at these companies if they try to work together to avoid competing with each other.

    This should be interesting to watch.

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  7. Gee, too bad no one has tried this before... by bockelboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now it is establishing its own downloading service, which NBC executives say they expect to become a viable competitor to iTunes

    Suuure. A viable competitor - but without a quarter of the video content, no music, probably crap software, lousy integrated experience, and no iPod support. It's as if they just opened a new brick and mortar NBC store which sells laser disks.

    Let me know how that goes for you.
  8. Re:AntiTrust yet again.... by uptownguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As proved by MS. Actually, Windows has improved leaps and bounds since Linux took off, so I guess your point stands.

    As proved by MS. Actually, Windows has improved leaps and bounds since Linux^h^h^h^h^hMac OS took off^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^hstarted eating into their market share

    There you go. Fixed that for you.

    Seriously... Apple is poised to become a fierce competitor once again. Look at the shares of MacBook sales. Linux? I know this is Slashdot and I know we're all pulling for Linux but honstly, "The Year of Linux" is a looooooooooooooong way off.

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