“Fans of such hit shows as ‘The Office’ are angry because Apple, feuding with NBC Universal over pricing, pulled all current NBC shows from the popular iTunes music store,” Frank Ahrens reports for The Washington Post.
“And after Dec. 1, when Apple’s contract with NBC expires, all shows that NBC Universal owns, past and present, will disappear from the site. That includes shows from Sci Fi, USA and Bravo cable channels,” Ahrens reports. “NBC Universal confirmed that it sent a letter on Oct. 9 asserting that Apple is in breach of contract, though it is unlikely to pursue legal action. The two sides have stopped negotiating and there appears to be no resolution in sight.”
“NBC said that before the breakup, its shows accounted for 40 percent of all the television programs purchased on iTunes; Apple said the number was closer to 30 percent,” Ahrens reports. “NBC proposed a range of prices and packaging of shows on iTunes from 99 cents to $2.99, said a source close to the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the proposal was confidential. Apple refused. In a press release, Apple said NBC proposed selling some shows for as high as $4.99, which NBC denies.
“NBC Universal’s take from selling its shows on iTunes last year was far less than 1 percent of the company’s total revenue — only about $15 million, according to a source close to the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the number has not been made public,” Ahrens reports.
Ahrens reports, “NBC Universal spokesman Cory Shields said his company’s programs help drive the sales of iPods. ‘The iPod is only as good as the content on it,’ he said.”
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “PK” for the heads up.]
How quickly they forget: “NBC is confident that the iPod exposure contributed to the rise [in ratings for ‘The Office’},” Daisy Whitney reported for TV Week on January 17, 2006. Full article: NBC: Apple’s iTunes, iPod powering broadcast ratings for ‘The Office’.
Buy elgato eye TV and record it for the iPod.
Except of course these days our Macs can just encode anything we record or rip into an iPod compatible format much quicker than they used to. If there’s no content directly for sale, we can make our own.
The Office isn’t funny, so, who really cares?
Some of the other shows will be missed though…..BitTorrent will supply that for people I am sure….
That doesn’t make sense to tell someone who invented the product what to do. Demand someone to do their way. It is very unlikely how the partnership should work.
If NBC wants to sell TV contents on iPod, NBC should build its own server and sell m4v based video.
I think that would be solve the problem.???
(MDN magic word – somewhat)
tivotool, tvshows.app, eyetv…
+
visual hub.
who the hell cares if the shirts at NBC are as dumb as rocks?
Someone needs to tell NBC that if they don’t want to sell us their “content”, we’ll be happy to get it other ways. I am perfectly willing to pay for The Office, but I’m not going to be forced to watch adds. Not anymore.
Every episode is available within a day or two on Limewire or Bittorrent. I encourage everyone to help end Universal’s tyranny of the entertainment content industry.
NBC and Universal need to wrap their minds around the future of TV and music, and that future doesn’t involve broadcast times or CD’s. Their feuds with Apple will only hurt themselves in the end.
“NBC Universal’s take from selling its shows on iTunes last year was far less than 1 percent of the company’s total revenue — only about $15 million”
Herein lies the shortsightedness of the soulless suits at NBC. This outlet is a promotional vehicle for the shows, not an end. This should be seen as a vehicle to drive higher viewership on the network itself, not an end to money making.
I for one will not pay anything more than a couple bucks for a show because to me its an impulse buy. Once they take it out of that category, I’m far less likely to buy. And by ‘far’ i mean never.
I always love it when dirty laundry gets aired: “we wanted shows between $.99 and $2.99,” according to NBC. “We were being forced to sell shows at $4.99” according to Apple. I have no idea what the truth of the matter is, but from past experience of my own, I’m 99.9% sure it’s not either of these cases. Ahhh, business negotiations!
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@ Moorghan
Agreed. To the torrent sites everyone. If they don’t want to play fair, than neither should we.
F-em.
What Apple should do is add DVR capability to AppleTV, and add a special menu to the screen to record any NBC show automatically. And then tell NBC to stuff it.
I’m looking forward to the next phase of iTunes. Not sure exactly what it will be…but I feel it coming.
NBC. Fuckem
Screw NBC – make them pay for what they’ve done. Hulu? Please.
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Just guessing, tho.
@John: Actually, the error is in this re-cap article. The press realese indicates that the $4.99 price was because NBC wanted to bundle ‘hit’ shows with garbage shows for a ‘total package’ of $4.99, without offering a way to just but the hit show. Apple’s point was that the effective price (assuming you throw away the garbage show) was $4.99, and NBC claims thay you get 2 shows, so the price is really $1.99 + $2.99 for 2 ‘great’ shows.
“Shields said his company’s programs help drive the sales of iPods.”
So NBC’s absence will make iPods less attractive? Get real!
I love how NBC is so concerned about getting money from us on shows that we watch for free anyway. I DVR everything I watch and FF through commercials. If a commercial looks interesting, I’ll play it. Other than that, I just watch my show.
The only show on NBC I watch is Heroes. I was going to watch Bionic Woman until I saw a 15 minute preview. That kille dit for me.
If you listen closely, you can almost hear the bit torrent data streaming getting louder and LOUDER….
“That includes shows from Sci Fi, USA and Bravo cable channels, Ahrens reports.”
That’s a shame. I have Top Chef from Bravo on my iPhone right now. I guess I’ll have to find another way.
As if iPods only started selling when NBCs programs appeared on the iTunes Music store.
Stupid, just STUPID. I’m not payin 2.99 for an NBC show, they aren’t that good.
The world is changing, these old school media companies are going to have to realize that if they treat people as criminals they are going to behave that way. Additionally, if you want to sell content that knowledgeable users can get for free, you can’t be jacking with the price.
If NBC wants to make more money, maybe they sould have a few big wigs take a pay cut and MAKE BETTER SHOWS!!!
J
“Apple, feuding with NBC Universal over pricing”
Talk about ‘spin-doctoring’. Apple was happy with the current pricing. It is NBC who is feuding with Apple to introduce variable pricing.
It doesn’t surprise me that NBC wants to call the shots with pricing, distribution, etc. even though their demands are probably ridiculous. Every business wants to have “control” over every aspect of their product—just like Apple.
However, pulling their shows off iTMS before they’ve even come close to developing an alternate digital distribution network or two just seems plain dumb. $15 million is still $15 million no matter how big your budget is.
I still don’t understand why the TV networks and the record companies don’t just start their own online media stores, charge a reasonable price and ditch DRM. Then they could keep 100% of the profit and not be beholden to any software (Apple, Real, MS), hardware (iPods), retail (Walmart, Target, etc.)
I guess that’s too rational
Screw NBC! Here’s my solution: 1) Record NBC shows on a Series 2 Tivo, 2) transfer to Mac using TivoDecode Manager (iPod setting), import to iTunes, 4) watch on Mac or transfer to iPhone or iPod, 5) always, ALWAYS, skip through the commercials.
And what’s with the assertion that NBC content drives the sales of iPods? What incredible hubris. The only reason The Office is still on the air is because of Apple and its customers. What a bunch of wankers we have over at Universal-NBC. Tools!