Booted out of Apple’s iTunes Store for excessive greed, NBC has evidently decided to attempt to “punish” Mac and iPod users by moving their TV shows to Amazon’s “Unbox” outift.
MacDailyNews Note: NBC wanted more than double the wholesale price from Apple which would have resulted in TV shows that cost US$4.99 an episode! TV shows from ABC, CBS, FOX, The CW, and more than 50 cable networks, sell new episodes of their TV shows via Apple’s iTunes Store for $1.99 per episode. Inexplicably, NBC is selling their shows via Unbox for $1.99 per episode. Apple and NBC continue to negotiate according to reports.
The Amazon Unbox video player is incompatible with Apple Macs, working only on PCs running the Windows XP operating system. Amazon Unbox video content is iPod-incompatible, working only with also-ran “Plays for Sure” devices (they still make those things?). Amazon also “rents” content: The license for Rental Digital Content is limited in its term and duration to thirty (30) days from your payment of the rental fee or twenty-four (24) hours from the time you start viewing the Rental Digital Content, whichever is sooner. Amazon may automatically delete Rental Digital Content that is beyond its limited license term from your “Plays For Sure” Authorized Device, and, by “renting,” you consent to such automatic deletion. You may not copy or move Rental Digital Content from its originally stored location on your “Plays For Sure” Authorized Device.
Since its debut, Amazon Unbox has earned some, uh, interesting reviews:
• Fortune: Amazon Unbox movie service ‘unfun,’ a horror show, two thumbs down – September 19, 2006
• Amazon Unbox generates resounding yawns; analyst: ‘too little too early’ – September 11, 2006
• CNET Alpha Blog: absolutely do not try Amazon Unbox – September 09, 2006
• Analyst: ‘Amazon Unbox – Well that didn’t work at all’ – September 09, 2006
• Analysts: Amazon’s ‘Unbox’ to be ‘Unsuccessful’ vs. Apple – September 08, 2006
Sounds like Windows XP sufferers, owners of also-ran media players, and lovers of obscure, walking-dead formats will just love Unbox (if they haven’t yet tried iTunes, that is).
Evidently Mac and iPod users who still want NBC content will have to find “other” ways to access it.
I want NBC content back and I will get it via Torrents if I cannot buy it on iTunes.
NBC will soon reap the rewards of planting seeds on rocky ground.
Get your NBC shows from TVShows for free. NBC has shot themselves in the foot.
Bit Torrent
NBC screwed themselves
Are the NBC shows $4.99 there?
The truth is we don’t really know the truth. We’ve only seen bits and pieces of a spat between the two companies – Apple and NBC. It’s so easy for us to take sides and blame the other, in this case NBC, for greedy and selfish, but look at nearly everyone here — they will steal it if they can’t get it through iTunes. Talk about greed and selfishness.
Here’s where a larger installed base of users will come back to bite a company that does this, right in the arse.
Someone at NBC will end up getting fired/resigning over this.
“Bit Torrent NBC screwed themselves”
If you are going to steal shows after this announcement, you were probably already stealing them before, so are no loss to either Apple or NBC.
“Evidently Mac and iPod users who still want NBC content will have to find “other” ways to access it.”
I hear there’s a new fangled device out there called a Television.
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Ya think it might catch on?
NBC are the ones that shot themselves in the foot.
Wait till later today…
You know not what you speak of….
I have purchased half a dozen movies and probably 20-30 TV shows from iTunes in the past year. Not a lot, but I have already set TVShows to subscribe to the office, and Raines. These are shows that I purchased from iTunes last season. That and Andy Richter PI. I will buy if it is possible on iTunes. There is no other way for me to legally purchase content on-line. HBO should also get their act together, I’ve had to Bittorrent the Flight of the Conchords because it is not available on iTunes. Get with the program people! I haven’t illegally downloaded music since the inception of the iTunes store because it is readily available legally.
NBC: Jumpin’ the Shark!
@ Thieving
I think people will pay a fair price for entertainment. This is why iTunes is so successful. But when the consumer starts to feel gouged, them they will revolt and feel justified in taking revenge.
NBC Universal are playing with fire. How do they expect to compete going to Unbox?
Stupid, mindless business decisions always lead to failure. This will come back to haunt them.
And yes, you can get the same shows through other sources for free anyway. For me it’s even easier – I have an eyeTV, so I’ll just record the damn shows and transfer them to iTunes.
I’ve removed all the TVs from my house. I have my 20″ iMac set up where I can watch content on the screen from my bed if I like. If I want to watch a TV show, I buy it from iTunes. I don’t use those “other” means. With all the content available on iTunes, free and for pay, I have plenty of choices.
So for me NBC has removed the shows from my list of choices. Good luck with Unbox — I’m sure they will get more per episode but sell so much less resulting in far less total revenue.
MW= progress
So is NBC wanting that extra cost demand only from Apple? Or does the content on unbox cost $5 also? I mean if they were only wanting this extra cost from Apple, that seems pretty blatant there is some sorta agenda. None of the other content providers are demanding the price hike. WTF?? A decision I feel will be regretted, but not admittedly tho.
@coolfactor,
You’re rite, we don’t know the whole truth. But it does seem kinda interesting that NBC is the only one that is demanding the higher price. We don’t know the entire reason for that. Maybe Apple is “pulling a wal-mart” and demanding unreasonable pricing. Just seems that it would be more across the board if that were the case tho.
I think, for now, I’m gonna have to side with Apple on this… at least until I know more about the reasons behind it all (which will prob never happen).
Just checked. The prices are the same as iTunes. Also, if you have a Tivo Series 2 or 3, you can use that.
I would have thought that NBC would have known the business basics of ‘sell your product at an acceptable customer price and sell loads and not sell your product at a high price and sell hardly any’.
Basic rules of business – All customers have a maximum price that they will pay for anything. Go over that acceptable price and you will lose your customers.
Really, really simple stuff this – every businessman knows this rule.
Steve Jobs did the correct thing – a partner got greedy and steve ditched them because he knew that if he gave in to NBC he would have all the other companies on his tail wanting to do the same thing.
The end result of that is that iTunes store customers would leave in droves and therefore the iTunes store would be on a downward spiral to losing massive market share.
NBC may have delibrately demanded the high price because they wanted to terminate their contract anyway, which is a possibility, but to me its far better NBC made some money than nothing at all.
And that is exactly what they are making now on iTunes – fsck all – and its their greed and studity that has lost them $30 million of business off iTunes every year.
What a bunch of losers.
We should send them something… like Jericho fans did to CBS… what about fliers from apple stores?
NBC who?
Hey maybe they should do a subscription thing? Not.
Bad move… but well hell will freeze over first.
Oh man, can’t wait to see all these ZunePhonie Fans download all the TV shows from NBC with their new device. Boy they’re livin’ the dream – eh?
APPLE is showing the WORLD that consumers want it their way. When and how they want it… and that at a REGULATED fair price on par over all WE will PAY for the items.
AND this is why… everywhere you look for a MAC the price is basically the same… a VAR sells the device for the same price as Apple… no mark-up as I understand. It’s Fair. As is FairPlay, as is 1.99 per episode.
But all yoou here know this already.
NBC really are greedy.
They kept the prices the same on UnBox but you can only have the show for 30 days.
Plus its heavy with DRM, can’t save on your iPod and can only play it from your computer, although I heard you can play it on Tivo.
Now I have EyeTV which records it and can convert it to iPod formats but I didn’t mind buying it and saving cpu time on the convert process.
Now I’ll save myself some money and use EyeTV, NBC is really clueless.
Now that I look at it, 30 Rock is $5.00 cheaper on Amazon for the full first season.
They list 22 episodes vs 21 on iTunes.
Then, I notice Amazon skipped the number ‘9’ on the list.
Accident?
Coincidence?
better is “you know not of what you speak”
Again, to quote Letterman (in his ‘dumb guy’ voice) about General Electric taking over NBC –
“We know all about making refrigerators, so let’s run a TV network”
BC
When are they getting pulled from iTunes?
I just checked and they are still there..