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.