Excite News – Apple Escalates NBC Spat Over iTunes — This is typical of the way boneheads operate. Good for Apple doing this.

Apple Inc. AAPL AAPL escalated a dispute with NBC Universal over the pricing of television shows by announcing Friday it would not sell any of NBCs programs for this fall season on iTunes.

Earlier, NBC had told Apple that it would no longer allow its programs to be sold via iTunes at the end of the year. NBC Universal-controlled television programming accounts for an estimated 40 percent of the video downloads on iTunes.

“We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase,” said Eddy Cue, Apples vice president of iTunes. “We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers.”

Rather than cut off NBC programs in the middle of the season, Apple decided to stop before the new fall episodes premiere next month, he said. That would be a blow to fourth-place NBC, which could use the buzz provided by Internet sales for its programming – not to mention the money.

ABC, CBS, Fox and the CW, and 50 other cable networks, have deals in place to sell fall shows at iTunes current price of $1.99 per episode, Apple said. NBC wanted Apple to pay more than double its wholesale price for the material, which would have resulted in the retail price increasing to $4.99, Apple said.



  1. GigG says:

    What in God’s name makes NBC, the 4th ranked network, think their shows should cost more than all of the other networks?

    I could understand this if it was a bunch of Hollywood types making the decision but this is GE are real company that deals in the real world most of the time.

  2. moss says:

    The dodos at the network channels still think it’s 1951.

    CBS is another winner. At the moment, they have a couple of successes. So, instead of working to build their distribution through all the sources that don’t belong to their subsidiaries, e.g., cable and satellite – they have refused contracts with about half these providers – unless they’re paid more than anyone else.

    They would have invented DRM if the dinosaurs in the RIAA and MPAA didn’t beat them to it.

  3. bill says:

    I just looked at the list of shows ‘available’ from NBC on iTunes…
    I won’t miss any of them.

    They arn’t worth $4.99

    I magine that even at $1.99 it was really profitable for them. I mean where are the distribution costs?

    Time to ‘lock out’ NBC on the telly…
    8^(

  4. echeola says:

    What a bunch of losers. I’ve spent over $100 on shows that I missed when they aired. Now, unless they have an easy and inexpensive way to download and view them, I may just use a torrent.

    I saw they wanted to more than double the price to 4.99. Come on!!! Over $100 for a season. These guys are so stupid.

  5. sirfelix says:

    FINALLY! Someone willing to make a decision with their wallets.

    Corporations will continue to make/provide crap if you, the public, continue to buy crap. Europe has figured this out and as a result have access to better content, products and technology. Wake up America.

    My wife and I refuse to pay $50/month for commercial-filled cable tv.
    Offer it to us for $10/month and we’ll think about it.

  6. Hoamer says:

    #6: While I applaud what appears to be a noble move on your part (speaking with your wallet), you are missing out on all kinds of good stuff on cable every month.

    And if you are waiting for $10 per month cable, you are waiting for Godot. It aint gonna happen, friend.

  7. KagatoAMV says:

    $1.99 seems like just the right price point for me to buy individual TV programs. I haven’t bought a lot of them, few Venture Bros, Heroes and South Parks, but $4.99? Doesn’t seem worth it at all.

    I’m curious if NBC will expect $4.99 from whatever service they move to? Or did they just want the extra money out of Apple?

  8. Peter iNova says:

    We are in last place among our peers! Whine, whine. We need more money. Whine, whine. We need to shoot ourselves in the foot and cheese off the folks who have helped us the most. Whine, whine.

    Seriously. This could topple the Head of NBC. It’s not just an underlings move that can be corrected with a bunch of middle management or even second-tier executives head-rollings.

    For a company that stands to gain so much by patience and tolerance, NBC has demonstrated that it understands little, but covets much.

    What they really need to do is sell their TV shows for 99 cents. Or 69 cents. And grow the audience while embracing the changing universe of media instead of taking their ball and going home in a snit.

    NBC/Universal/Vivendi is either the smartest guy in the room or the dunce. We know what their opinion of themselves is, but…

    So far their duncical tendencies outweigh any concept of their being the smartest guys in the room. If they had been smart, they would have been in first place, not last.

    But one thing is for sure. They have managed to piss off the smartest guy in the room. Big Time.

    NBC-Zune, anyone?

  9. ikelleigh says:

    $115 for an entire season of Heroes, when I can buy the DVD set for under $50?

    Has logic just gone out the door for these people?

  10. Don says:

    Look, I am no fan of Apple, but this move is just brilliant on their part.

    1) They look like the good guy for trying to stand up for the little guy.

    2) They are only loosing content from the suckiest of the big 4 networks.

    3) They are establishing that they control pricing on their system.

    4) NBC has no real alternative that will give them the numbers they can get from itunes.

    NBC is just shooting off another toe. I wonder how many they have left.

    Don

  11. Peter iNova says:

    NBC/Universal’s distribution site is Hulu.

    Wow. They lie to me before they even are up and running.

    “Our hope is that Hulu will embody our (admittedly ambitious) never-ending mission, which is to help you find and enjoy the world’s premier content when, where and how you want it.

    The second bit of news is that we are now accepting sign-ups at hulu.com for invitations to our web site’s private beta.”

    Jason Kilar
    CEO, Hulu
    jason.kilar@hulu.com

    ——————–
    When and how I want it is not to give you all my data so you can spam the hell out of my email with your junk before you launch this, then charge me 250% of the going rate for programs.

    Kilar’s days at NBC/Universal/Hulu may be as numbered as Jeff Zucker’s (he’s the head of NBC).

    Operation Clean Sweep at NBC starts today.

  12. ECA says:

    WHEn is the FCC going to ENFORCE cable to sell individual channels?

  13. Freebie says:

    Dunno ’bout you kids, but — the good shows are available for free on BitTorrent feeds. Since it’s broadcast, I consider it free, and I’m not paying anybody for the download. I wouldn’t buy the show, but will certainly watch it and encourage other people to watch it and/or download it. They owe me a check for promoting their programming.

  14. Dale Huber says:

    The only show I find worth watching on NBC is 30 Rock. I would love to see Tina Fey write into the show scenes were the cast is watching iPods or talking on iPhones. This show takes shots at GE all the time, if she did that I might buy that episode (but only from iTunes at $1.99). Wait I just went to the shows website and you can watch it there for free. Who would pay $4.99? That is crazy!!!!!

  15. zaw says:

    idoits buy shows form iTunes! Get a Tivo!

  16. Undissembled says:

    Who gives a rip? You can go on nbc.com and watch all there shit on demand for free. iTune sheep.

  17. MikeN says:

    This is 40 percent of the itunes programming, so isn’t this a bad move on Apple’s part? If NBC thinks they can get that much for their shows, Apple should let them.

  18. jlm says:

    wait wait wait, people actually pay money to see NBCs crappy shows? NBC should be thankful for anything they get

  19. Aaron Davies says:

    I can almost hear the Battlestar Galactica fans racing to their bittorrent clients. I guess NBC thinks that $0 is better then $2.

    Aaron

  20. eggfou says:

    I don’t have cable. I am much happier just paying for and downloading the shows I actually want from iTunes. Its easy enough to watch them on my TV. At 4.99 though, I will just go to the torrents. Apple understands this. Why doesn’t NBC?

  21. Matt says:

    Did John just commend Apple?

  22. Dave says:

    I buy Macs because it’s the best hardware and software on the market. If these idiots make things harder for me to use my equipment, I’ll drop all of their products. More and more people are turning to the better experience with Apple products. I do not think that it is a good market strategy to attack us.

  23. GregA says:

    Well since all this content is now available on xbox in HD, without the hassle of installing iTunes, and having quick time break ie, I think it is a good thing that someone finally put Apple in their place.

    Besides, NBC wants to be on the number one video download service which happens to also be the xbox, and not tied into some exclusive deal with iTunes.

    Bravo for NBC!! I was just looking at the download rankings and Heroes HD is currently the number one television video on XBLM.

  24. J says:

    First

    These shows air for FREE. You can record them in HD or standard and either skip past the commercials or edit the commercials completely out. Or you can even just watch them when they are on or not watch them at all. They must have a laugh when they see that people are willing to pay for something they already get for free.

    #27 Dave

    Not to start a flame war but don’t make me laugh. There are many software packages that out perform and are superior in version to their counter parts on the Mac. Adobe, Avid, Autodesk, ZBrush to name a few. Adobe doesnt even make certain CS3 products for the Mac at all.

    As far as Hardware LOL Let me know when Apple decides to put the Quadro FX 5600 in the Mac Pro. A card BTW that is 3 generations ahead of the FX 4500 they have now. The 3GHz x5365 has been available from BOXX for quite some time now so there is no advantage there on the Mac.

    I love Macs and I own 3 Mac Pro’s but they are not as advanced as my PC’s from BOXX. Not by a long shot!

  25. Lauren the Ghoti says:

    “I love Macs and I own 3 Mac Pro’s but they are not as advanced as my PC’s from BOXX. Not by a long shot!”

    AAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahaha!!!

    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

    OOO-HOOHOOHOOHOO!!! Stop it! You’re killing me!

    ¡Ai, caramba! ROFLMAO to the 3rd!

    I’ve waited all week for a gen-u-wine hoot like that! Thx! 😉

    As soon as your PCs run as many OSes as a Mac, come back and tell me how ‘advanced’ it is. There’s slightly more to a computer than video card support. 😉

  26. Lauren the Ghoti says:

    #28 – GregA

    “I think it is a good thing that someone finally put Apple in their place.”

    Yepperz, they sure did…

    Apple’s place in online media sales: First, by far.

    NBC’s place in TV market share: dead last.

    w00t NBC! 😉

  27. GigG says:

    #14 ECA, you couldn’t afford it.

  28. random_chevy says:

    NBC streams TV from it’s home page with commercials.

    I’m kinda cheep. My wish price per television episode is twenty-five cents. I haven’t been successful at realizing my wish and buy DVD season box sets at upwards of eighty-five cents per episode. I buy some box sets new and some used but like new. I have the entire series of Dark Angel and Roswell. I’m almost there with The OC (just waiting for the season four price to drop out of the stratosphere), and I have all the Renegade seasons available at this time.

    I wasn’t able to watch the show 24 back at it’s release because I’m into teen sci-fi and teen prime-time soaps and my plate was full. I can’t see paying for the series 24. That is not the type of content that I look forward to watching twice. Where I really lucked out is when Comcast announced A&E in Hi-Def, I found the series 24 was available from the beginning of the season one. I’ve DVR’d it all and now I am in the midst of season three. It’s not true Hi-Def, but it looks better than most standard-def played at 1080i. I’ve been careful and haven’t missed an episode DVR. The five episode per week pace is higher than the desired frequency and I can’t claim that I digest the content as intended, but DVR is so convenient.

  29. Don says:

    The proper way to watch 24 is to DVR the entire season, then sit down and watch the entire 24 hours matching the “Real Time” of the show.

    The amazing thing about that show is how they always seem to have a dramatic mini climax every 60 minutes.

    Don

  30. J says:

    #30 Lauren

    “There’s slightly more to a computer than video card support.”

    True there is support of software like Adobe On Location CS3 and Adobe Ultra CS3, 3D Studio, Softimage, Mudbox, Houdini,Toxik, Flint, Inferno, Flame, Smoke and Eyeon Digital Fusion All which do not run on OSX. Some REQUIRE A FX 5500 MIn to run on the PC

    Then there are software packages like. Maya, Zbrush, Avid, Boujou, and Photoshop that ether run like shit, don’t allow the use of all plugins or are a version OR MORE behind in OSX. Photoshop has a ton of plugins that don’t work with OSX.

    Considering that these are the leading software packages in the production industry and since the Mac Pro is marketed toward people who use such software. Wouldn’t you think that the graphic card is a bigger issue than you try to pass it off as?

    Before you go off on the fact that the Mac runs Window so you can run all of that stuff…….you should think again. If you do run Windows on a Mac you are still stuck with the FX4500 if you want to dual boot to OSX. So you have gained nothing.


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