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.
And also because Apple will keep our prices lower than NBC/Universal would.
The truth is I don’t watch TV shows or movies on my iPods. Novel idea at the time, didn’t catch on in our house. The DVR works well enough that I don’t need an Apple TV either.
Coolfactor and thieving:
I purchased episodes of scrubs and 30rock from iTunes because I missed episodes. I purchased them because they were available for sale, they worked on my iPod and my computer.
Now I cannot buy them(I use Macs), If I did use unbox I still could not put them on my iPod.
So now I will torrent them because I do not own a DVR.
coolfactor said
“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.”
Bull, the content has already been paid for by advertisers, and released into the wild for free, yes, take a moment, let it sink in FREE! It happen through a little thing called broadcast TV. Its already been paid for, its been released for free. If you have a VCR, DVR, TiVo, PVR or whatever its not illegal to revord and use for personal use.
Torrent away. If NBC doesn’t want to take a share of 95Million shows sold on the iTunes store, its their loss. Let ’em go.
Apple proved people would pay a reasonable price if the delivery system didn’t suck. (That would be the iTunes Store for the slow kids in class) UnBox may start cheap, but they are a PITA to use, loss of customers right there. When NBC starts bundling the show you want with a chunck -o-crap you don’t, and expect you to pay $3,$4, or $5 for it, there goes the rest of the few remaining customers.
NBC screwed the pooch big time.
With the release of the new iPods….NBC,s CEO is probably cutting is nutts!!!…another CEO who would be fired. I was used to buy NBC’s show, but now I’ll get them for free!!!
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Wait, I just heard that BSG will not be sold on iTunes anymore??? That SUCKS!!!