As announced three months ago, NBC Universal TV channels (Bravo, mun2, NBC, NBC News, CNBC, NBC Sports, Sci Fi, Sleuth, Telemundo and USA) have disappeared from the networks available on Apple’s U.S. iTunes Store.
As the noted today by the Italian-language Website setteB.IT, some shows that are broadcast on NBC are still available on U.S. iTunes Store because they are produced from other Hollywood studios, like 20th Century Fox, ABC, Disney, Viacom, etc.
Full article (Google Italian-English translation) here.
Little addition to the offering content in downloadable formats.
TV studios are just as slow in getting into the downloads as record companies. Only difference is that, making a TV show takes always takes so much more personnel than making a record. One man can make a complete album, while making a TV show one man wont get that far, so they don’t have worry about losing artists.
But I honestly think that those TV studios, that reinvent their business model now and invest in to downloadable formats, are going to be major players in half a decade from now.
Kids who were born after ’97 in industrial western countries, they don’t know the world without internet. Some of them can’t even imagine it. And actually, you don’t have to be that young.
I thought Apple removed NBC shows from iTunes before the fall season started.
Scoop!
Paul McCartney talks Steves Jobs, iTunes etc.
Google cache
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:0xwrMZ6cfzgJ:www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-1202_mccartneydec02,1,5265007.story+mccartney+:+Artists+taking+back+control+of+music+business&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1
what exactly was NBC’s cost on this? aside from the writers (who they weren’t paying for internet stuff) what is the cost to take a show you are making anyway and put it on iTunes?
isn’t this basically free money they are giving away?
nothing about TV or the recording industry makes sense to me. this is a lot like how 6 idiots get millions a show for weekly crap, but the writers get minimum wage for putting words in their mouths.
if these companies had any honor at all their CEO’s would be taking the first pay cut when things go south rather than jumping out the window with a 40 million dollar chute……
what does the head of this “company” make a year? yeah, i thought so…..
Pete: Thanks for the link to the Chicago Tribune story. It makes for some fascinating reading — especially the relationship between McCartney and Jobs. Even if you don’t like McCartney at least he gets it when it comes to modern music distribution. And he’s 65 years old!
NBC = Now Bittorrent Comes
Let’s those greedy dumbass at Universial know they’re fscking things up by messing with …
hahaha
🙁
Stargate Atlantis . . . is gone.
Download it all for free and send a message to NBC. Maybe then they will get someone on their decision making committee who understands tech.
Why do NBC, Universal, Warner Bros. Music, etc. not like iTunes? It’s not just the fixed pricing, although that has a small kernel of truth.
The biggest fear is that sites like iTunes will make the big distribution companies irrelevant, particularly in music. If an artist could go to a studio, cut an album, and have it posted to iTunes without involving the music label, why wouldn’t they? Then they get the money from the music sales as well as the concert sales.
This will be much more difficult to do with TV shows due to production costs being significantly higher than for music and a much larger group of people being needed to make a TV show.
Movies are the interesting point. Recall that Pixar had to cut a sweetheart deal with Disney when it started just to get Toy Story and other movies in the theaters. Once Pixar had made several smash hits in a row, Disney almost lost the gig due to Michael Eisner’s stupid attitude.
Now imagine an upstart Pixar or other movie production company bypassing the major distributors and selling its first movie or several on iTunes. As popularity builds, the major distributors will have to cut a good deal for the company or the theater industry may bypass the major distributors and screen the film anyway.
iTunes has the possibility of blowing up the entertainment distribution channels as we know them, which scares the hell out of those companies. They’re circling the wagons and trying to deny iTunes content, but it won’t work. People have had a taste, and as technology improves, they will only want more and more content producers will find ways to get their product on iTunes.
Got my Hulu account now. Man, is it ever boring. Non-HD shows, so everything is grainy. Oh, yeah, and it creashed my browser. NBCU is really cheap and lame.
Did you notice how 3 of the NBC shows this year, Journeyman, Bionic Woman and Chuck are the exact same show/premise? “individual has extreme powers- only a trusted few know the truth” – the mix being that Chuck is comdrama, Journeyman more serious and Bionic Woman more violent…
ABC.com is more fun to watch, Hi-Def shows, quick commercials. The Jobs effect is in full force.
Oh well, we never had them in Canada anyway.
Dragging.. feet….
I didn’t know DG had a music site . Gonna have to check it out. I still have a bunch of Karajan/Berlin performances on LaserDisc that are great. I’d like to have DVD versions without ripping and burning.
I liked the Scifi Channels shows too, in fact, they were some of the only ones offered that I personally was interested in. The whole point WAS to be able to watch them without advertising for me. I guess it’s back to bit torrent for me as well . . . I see that there are already rips of the special Battlestar Galactica DVD up. Dumb NBC. That could have been dollars in your pocket.
Oh well, there is bittorrent. The appeal with iTunes was that you could get the show, with no commercials, for a good price. Now, you’ll have to go to their site and watch episodes with crappy ads.
From NBC’s point of view, they make more money with Ads than they do actually selling the show for what it is worth ($1.99 an episode). It’s all about money. Not making good shows. This season of Hereos and the Office prove that.
Too bad, when this was first announced I started buying episodes of ‘Chuck’ hoping, like all good businesses, NBC would make decisions with their pocketbook. Guess my $15 bucks didn’t sway them
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No surprise, but from a big picture standpoint few will be able afford to pay $2 for every TV show they watch. If Internet distribution is going to succeed or supplant the existing broadcast model they will have to offer free viewing (with commercials of course).
The big advantage and attraction of the Internet model is that you can watch on demand. For avid show buffs the internet model could also be used to provide additional content like outtakes, cast interviews, alternate endings, interactive scenarios, etc..
AC:
Not yet, it’s not. I’m downloading the latest episode of Stargate Atlantis right now in iTunes.
Damn! Now where am I supposed to go to not buy Keith Olbermann’s show?
What? It wasn’t on iTunes anyhow?
This stinks of sour grapes. Zucker is about the biggest shithead in the entertainment industry right now and he’s trying to make a name for himself in the worst way possible. He clearly does not understand the importance of this technology and just wants to profit from it even more.
NBC has been battered in the ratings game so badly this year that at times Telemundo has eclipsed NBC (I believe they are both owned by NBC Universal). What does that say about Zucker and his organization? And aside from Battlestar Galactica and the Stargate saga, what else does the Sci-fi channel have to offer? Trash like Flash Gordon? (@TommyBoy – Razor on DVD this Tuesday! Can’t wait.).
CBS and Disney are embracing the model. Fox is supporting it. But NBC and Warner are not doing well, and they are looking for scapegoats. Don’t blame Apple, you foolish studio heads. Look at your programming and marketing departments and maybe you’ll get a better view of what’s really going on.
Apple officially dispatches NBC from iTunes Store
And there was much rejoicing.
Sorry, NBC. You wanna give Steve lousy content AND a one-sided contract? Fuhgeddaboutit!!
Maybe you can cut a deal with YouTube…
If NBC doesn’t want my money…thst’s fine by me.
NBC needs to know that the day where they dictate to me (the customer) on how and when I view my content are over.
New episodes of “Heroes” will be on my iPod. If NBC doesn’t want to get paid for it…that’s their problem.
I’ve subscribed to several TV shows on iTunes in the past … but now the networks are releasing them, themselves, for free on their own websites (for example you can watch Lost and Heroes this way). The only problem is that the bandwidth requirement is so high, I cannot watch them even with my broadband connection. So I have to resort to other means….
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what else does the Sci-fi channel have to offer?
Ok so this is BBC. Still good stuff.
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“As been said many times before, music and video are different, music you listen to more than twice, video not so much. In other words, I think a subscription model will work for movies and tv shows.”
It doesn’t make any difference how many times something has been said, saying it doesn’t make it so.
@davros,
My sincerest apologies. We must not forget the Doctor. Wish we weren’t a year behind the BBC but that’s life on both sides of the pond.
Can’t wait to see the Ood again! he he he
fm
oh… nbc = 4th in ratings world. obviously, nbc = nothing but crap. who cares about these nbc mac racist fools? not me
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