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.
32,
You are right, I live on $750 amonth…
But then the channels that ARE almost, or Fully free to cable can be sent out for about $10 per month.
29 They must have a laugh when they see that people are willing to pay for something they already get for free.
Not only that…
They think iTunes customers are stupid enough to pay even more for what they already can get for free.
The only thing stupider than iTunes customers are NBC’s advertisers.
NBC gets the 1st set of advertisers to pay for the entire cost of the shows – when they air on the network – then they get a 2nd set of advertisers to pay them money [pure profit] when the shows are streamed from NBC’s website.
And then NBC gets even more money from the stupid people who buy the entire season on DVD.
The world is just full of stupid people. 🙂
Well since all this content is now available on xbox in HD, without the hassle of installing iTunes,
Hassle?? GregA, you really are a moron aren’t you. Both politically and technically.
#35 – J
“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?”
Hmm. Considering that those are some of the leading software packages used in the production industry – and of course you omit those that better on the Mac, or Mac-only – wouldn’t you think that the massive market share the Mac has in video, audio, photography, 2D & 3D graphics and science – in contrast to the
Oops, that damn ‘selected-text-deleted-when-posted’ bug done bit me…
…
Hmm. Considering that those are some of the leading software packages used in the production industry – and of course you omit those that better on the Mac, or Mac-only – wouldn’t you think that the massive market share the Mac has in video, audio, photography, 2D & 3D graphics and science – in contrast to the
Why wouldn’t they think ipod customers would pay more. Apple people pay more for macs and get less and brag about it.
ARRGGGH – gotta love how you can’t use the gahddam less-than or greater-than signs by themselves.
LESS THAN 5% market share in the general nonprofessional consumer market – must be composed of idiots not as sharp as you? That they find that the many other benefits of the hardware platform and / or the OS far outweigh the ability to use bleeding-edge video cards?
Wonder why Premiere is once again on the Mac? I mean, besides having been originally a Mac-only app just like After Effects… Could it be that Adobe caved in and put lotsa resources into reviving the Mac version because the market for it is that lucrative and demanded it? Huh?
I know what I use. I know what most of the pros I respect use. They’re usually the same thing. The % of pros who use Macs would be considerably higher when you add those who only use PCs because of availability of apps critical to their workflow, not because they actually want to.
But, hope springs eternal, as does rationalization. 🙂
No, it’s called thinking WordPress can’t check if a less than sign is matched with a corresponding greater than sign later, and if so, if what’s between is valid HTML – and if not, treat it as plain text. It’s called sloppy programming.
#35
Don’t forget that every time Apple makes a “new” version of OSX (insert pussycat name) you have to buy the extra expensive graphic design software AGAIN.
Lauren
Instead of making ad hominem attack why don’t you list the Software on the Mac that is Mac only that is dominant in the production industry?
I will save you some time. Final Cut is not dominate. Avid still controls the market by almost 85%
The truth of the matter is even Pixar was and still is using PC hardware in their render farm so that should tell you something.
Lucas Films entire render farm network is PC now. It used to be SGI.
Products like flint, flame, and smoke have NO equivalent in the Mac World and there is no argument that they are dominant in the Commercial production industry.
Every product I listed is without question is responsible for 90% or more of the production in film, games, and commercials that you see. Most of those products don’t run on OSX or run poorly on OSX or are several versions behind
THOSE ARE THE FACTS!!
“That they find that the many other benefits of the hardware platform and / or the OS far outweigh the ability to use bleeding-edge video cards?”
Bullshit! You know nothing about film and commercial production. It is obvious when you make such an obviously erroneous statement.
“Wonder why Premiere is once again on the Mac? I mean, besides having been originally a Mac-only app just like After Effects”
The problem with most Mac people is that they are still living in the past.
“I know what I use. I know what most of the pros I respect use. ”
So you admit you are not a professional.
“The % of pros who use Macs would be considerably higher when you add those who only use PCs because of availability of apps critical to their workflow, not because they actually want to.”
Just plain nonsense!!!
I have worked in LA, San Francisco, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, and Chicago. Theses are the hubs of film, game, and commercial production. I assure you. You are very mistaken. Mac’s are used there is no question to that but the bulk of the work is done on PC’s running Windows or Linux.
Hey like I said I love OSX and I own many Mac’s. It is pretty and it is very comfortable but I don’t let my bias for it get in the way of facts. Unlike you seem to be doing
Now back to the Itunes NBC issue. I am very glad Apple is standing it’s ground NBC/Universal is being a little paranoid and greedy
NBC = Nothing But Crap
or, Nothing But Comercials
It is funny how Apple fanboys bristle when you point out that the xbox has surpassed the iTunes for video downloads, and it hasn’t been out for even a single year, with a quarter of the content.
Now iTunes has lost a significant part of their video catalog, and it looks like it is all going xbox. All the movie studios are going xbox, why even in the physical format war, it looks like movie studios are dumping bluray for the xbox format.
Just imagine what happens next year when microsoft is no longer shackled by the anti-trust settlement.
And the extra bitter irony for the blog community is, you guys were wrong, nearly entirely all wrong. Just a few months ago, bloggers were declaring Microsoft dead, and here they are dominant in yet another industry, and no one saw it coming.
LOL, losers.
Hahaha, in doing research for this story I found this FORBES article on how Microsofts media offering crush and obliterate Apples consumer media offerings.
http://members.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0917/064.html
Lol, Pwnd
OMG, even funnier. The guy who wrote the FORBES rewiew was Fake Steve Jobbs
GreagA, Do you work for microsoft or did you just drink all bill’s Kool-
Aid.
#52,
What part of that did you miss? FAKE STEVE JOBS thinks vista+xbox is a better consumer multimedia platform than the Macintosh. It doesn’t get any more decisive than that.
Bzzzzzzt. OMG! You lose! No cool aid there at all.
#52, he is drinking something of Bill’s, but I’m not sure its koolaid.
#55,
I guess I am just forced to assume that little bit of gay bashing there means I won yet another argument on this website.
But I’v got to warn you… You have also proven to be a republican sympathizer, and nowadays when I republican starts gay bashing, I have to wonder where their sexual tendencies lay.
So is there anything you want to come clean about?
I won yet another argument on this website.
Keep dreaming.
You know the old saying, when you argue on a message board even if you win you still look like a ass.
And you have won many arguments…hmmm
What Apple should do – what they should have done from the beginning – is make AppleTV WITH A DVR. And a DVD player. What better way to put the fear of the Almighty Dollar into these idiots?
Personally, I hope this is a wake up call for Steve Jobs. He really needs to stop pretending that this situation is ever going to get better. He’s been pinning a large share of the company’s future on remaking the success of the iPod/audio paradigm in video, and it just ain’t going to happen the way he’s been playing it. The hollywood studios are just too paranoid of Apple’s success – and power – at the expense of the record companies. It doesn’t matter that he’s practically saved the music industry from financial oblivion (or at least delayed it). The CEOs of these video/movie companies would rather have the ship they sail hit the shoals than give up that kind of control to one man/one company – even if it is in their shareholder’s best interests.
Jobs has been pussy-footing around this fact for too long. As a studio exec himself, he’s been ‘self-indentifying’ with them way too much. What’s good for Apple should be his focus. And what’s best for his Apple customers – not for his country-club cohorts – is what’s good for his company.
I’ve said it countless times before here, and I’m going to say it again: The iPod/iTunes system works BECAUSE the system allows you to record and/or rip your own audio and do what you want with it. The record companies don’t dare leave iTunes now because they know that people will have absolutely no incentive to buy from them otherwise – the hardware and technology Apple provides makes it easy to make them irrelevant if they try to gouge their customers.
The same thing – and ONLY the same thing – will work with video. Only when companies like NBC/Universal come to fear an AppleTV DVR, with all the software polish that only Apple can bring to bear, as well as a built in DVD player that makes ripping a snap (even if Apple doesn’t provide the software for that themselves), will they begin to negotiate with Jobs in good faith. They will do so for the same reason the record companies do now; to do otherwise is to accelerate the coming of the day when they can’t make money on selling movies or TV shows any longer.
C’mon Jobs. What more is it gonna take? How much more do you need to see? Leave the DRM shit behind. Don’t screw us over like that. Forget about tying your customers to iTunes first & foremost. If you give them the easiest way ever seen, to record their own pre-owned or already freely obtained content, then – just as with audio & the iPod – everything ‘video’ will fall into place.
All you have to do is JUST DO IT
#59,
So what you are saying is that Apple should copy the Vista+xbox combo.
Um, right.
Now it is becoming clear why NBC is dumping the inferior iTunes video store, and jumping ship to the superior xbox marketplace.
Gottcha.
Odyssey67 –
Ya. Apple very much has dropped the ball on many aspects of this whole media revolution. Plenty of things they should be doing, and some that they shouldn’t.
But even with their many fuckups, they’re still on top and poised to remain there – because the others fuck up so much more. 😉
#63,
Actually all this is happening right now for a reason. In a couple of weeks Apple will be announcing a new video iPod, I am sure to much hyperbole in the Apple friendly blogosphere. A place filled with personalities that like to hear themselves talk(when they are not complaining). Otherwise, Apples demographic. By moving now, the media companies will seriously blunt the coming apple PR stunt. Who cares about the next gen video ipod when there is no content for it?
From other things happening, look for FOX to announce they are dumping iTunes in the coming weeks as well. The pattern is clear now. They launch programs on the XBox, then with a couple of weeks sales they lose interest in iTunes sales potential. Basically because Apple has so far failed to deliver a seamless path to the living room television set with mass market appeal.
Oddly Apples business decisions seem more motivated more by Steve Jobs pride than any other factor. Just look at the Apple TV, it is apparent now that piece of shit was designed to fail so Steve Jobs could say to the networks with maniacal eye, “SEE our consumers are not interested in watching tv in their living room, because their living room television is not an elegant Macintosh computer!”
But mostly this is happening as a result of Apples near total failure to capitalize on iTunes video. The fact of the matter is, the all important male 18-49 demographic (read “people with money”) are more than willing to rent HD download movies for $5 a pop, and buy a HD television show for $5 an episode. My proof of this the xbox media center has, in less than a year, become the dominant movie download service as well as the dominant HD on demand server (besting not only apple in total downloads, but besting the CABLE companies in HD downloads).
It is unfortunate for the bloggosphere, that during these very public negotiations they have shown their true colors. Which is, they want their tv shows without commercials and free. I am certain that the cacaphony of posters threating to use bittorent instead of pay for content is not lost on these media companies.
Hello!! How about reading NBC as MSNBC!!! Look
hard enough and you’ll find Microsoft behind this.
I suspect Microsoft thinks they can handle the sales
and take it away from Apple.