“Apple has taken issue with NBC’s claims that the media conglomerate was able to change pricing policy at Apple,” Greg Sandoval reports for CNET.
“NBC Universal executives have suggested that they agreed to start selling downloads of TV shows on iTunes only after being allowed more flexibility to set prices for its wares on iTunes. That’s just not correct, Eddy Cue, the vice president in charge of Apple’s iTunes Store, told CNET News on Wednesday evening,” Sandoval reports.
“Cue pointed out that while most TV shows sell for $1.99 on iTunes, retailers have always been allowed to sell videos for less. He said Viacom has offered many of its shows for 99 cents, including episodes of South Park and MTV’s The Hills. The History Channel has offered shows such as Ice Road Truckers and Ax Men,” Sandoval reports. “‘We’ve never told anyone they can’t lower prices,’ Cue said.”
“Cue said that the $2.99 price NBC is selling its HD content for is the same price for all HD content. ‘People can see (Showtime’s) Californication in HD live right now on the site,’ Cue said. And when it comes to packages, Cue said there have been packages on iTunes before,” Sandoval reports.
Cue told CNET, “‘We’re glad to have NBC back and they are participating under the same terms with all of the other content providers,'” Sandoval reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MacVicta” for the heads up.]
And the reason Cue called Sandoval was because of Sandoval’s September 9th reprinting of NBC PR’s talking points — so obvious and stupid that we just ignored it at the time — “Apple yields to NBC Universal on price, packaging.” You left that part out, Greg.
As we said the minute that NBC’s return to iTunes Store was announced: “Jobs won as usual.”
Thank you Apple for not caving in on this issue.
They should continue to push harder for lower prices though, I am glad they allow lower prices, more providers should lower their prices, most shows are not worth the maximum price.
Lower prices will lower piracy as well, as lower prices encourage buying instead of stealing. Many steal because the price is too high for what you get, so it makes it easier to rationalize getting it another way.
Lately, I’ve been watching shows, ten minutes at a time, on YouTube.
“Frankly, ever since we dropped our relationship with Apple last fall, they have made a gradual progression culminating in (Tuesday’s announcement that NBC was returning to iTunes),” Perrette told CNET. “Originally, Apple had no film content (from the major motion picture studios) on the service because they were asking the film studios for years to accept a price that was below their DVD price.
“Apple realized it wasn’t worth the fight anymore,” Perrette continued. “They were better off to just have the content. So they agreed to the pricing that was at least equal to the DVD pricing.”
______
Where’d this Perrette guy come from? He’s cruising for a bruising. Sure he may be right but what’s an NBC exec and iTunes partner doing making comments like that?
I don’t think the prices are unreasonable. iTunes is my own source of video content these days. I spend anywhere from $4 to $10 a day for TV shows and movies. If I feel it’s getting too expensive, I just stop pressing the “Buy” button. I’m in control of my monthly bill.
It’s a different model and it’ll take a while for the general population to adjust to it. Rather than $50 for cable that gets used or not, and hours of wasted airtime with commercials that make up the difference in cost, now we consumers pay the costs directly and get our time back.
I spend anywhere from $4 to $10 a day for TV shows and movies. If I feel it’s getting too expensive, I just stop pressing the “Buy” button. I’m in control of my monthly bill. It’s a different model and it’ll take a while for the general population to adjust to it. Rather than $50 for cable that gets used or not
Dude, you’re a genius! Rather than spending $50/month you’ve found a way to spend… lessee.. oh, wait… is that right… 4 x 30… okay so $120 to $300 a month?
Whoa. Well done.
Apple should kick them off again until NBC fires their stupid executives.
Won’t anyone ever learn?
Crossing Apple means crossing Steve – and we all know what he does to halfwits and heathens…
@ Nerd Beautiful,
I thought it was just me who read coolfactor’s comment and thought, whoa, I’d rather spend $50 than more than twice to six times that.
$4 to $10 a day? I’m sure Apple and the studios are happy to have customers like that.
And soooo… How long will NBC be with iTunes this time?
I agree with R2. This Perrette guy claims that Apple agreed to the same or higher prices than DVD. He must be complete idiot! It takes about 30 seconds to find out that this is a lie.
Check a new, current movie on iTunes: “Baby Mama” (An Universal release, no less) – $14.99. Same thing on DVD on Amazon: $17.99 (plus shipping).
Keep checking and you’ll see the same thing.
Here’s the big clue NBC didn’t get anything from Apple – NO TIED BUNDLES!. That is, having to buy crap programming along with the hits.
Nah, Predrag, Perrette was right there. Jobs wanted $9.99 movies on iTunes (which is what they should be). He caved in order to get his foot in the door.
Perrette has no business discussing that matter, however. He should’ve kept his mouth shut. You didn’t see Eddy Cue going on about NBC’s affairs (like their piss poor ratings).
R2,
The thing is, he’s talking about their initial negotiations, two years ago. Jobs wanted the pricing to be totally simple – Albums, Movies, same thing – $10. Nice, round number. That obviously didn’t work – the studios were just too dumb and greedy to get that.
Where Perrette is lying is about the final “triumph” of the studios, having iTunes pricing same or higher (!!) than DVD. Other than new releases most movies are $10 after all. On Amazon, you’ll be hard pressed to find a movie that sells for less than it does on iTunes (of course, there are movies that are cheaper than $10 on Amazon, but they aren’t available on iTunes – yet).
While negotiating for movies on iTunes, Jobs may have caved in the end. However, he didn’t even blink since NBC left and they just came back crawling with their tail between their legs.
This is the sweet victory for Apple that Perrette just can’t accept, so he lies outright.
NBC is irrelevant. In the very near future, all television production will be distributed digitally directly from the studios that make them in the first place. At that time, NBC will be promptly located where they should always have been: up Shit Creek without rabbit ears.
A few free HD episodes
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-10039059-58.html
seriously though…$3 an episode is just too much when you can work marginally harder and find the same content for “free” via P2P. Both the movie studios AND the record companies still don’t get it. they need to price this stuff so low that the hassle of the torrent sites just isn’t worth it. HD TV shows should be $1 and songs should be $0.25 ea. Sure they would lose money from each individual sale BUT I know they’d more than make that up with the volume of sales.
Lessee…. torrent sites…
I tried to fetch season 4 of a show I enjoy, using torrents, and after 7 days (computer running and d/l’ing 24/7), I had received 1.06 GB of data.
Before I’d even got a single episode (torrents don’t send files “streamed” for viewing, you get bits and pieces of files), NBC came back and BAM! My show was back.
I downloaded season 4 while I was at work that day.
Torrents=days (weeks!) to get content.
iTMS=Click, go to work (or to sleep), and by the time you’re home (or awake), you’ve got what you want.
@sixvodkas
Put down the bottle and learn how to use your software. You can easily get Bittorrent to get complete episodes by prioritizing them.
The Windows Shills and apologist are spinning the story that Apple did in the blogosphere. Tools.
Thank God for Piracy!!!!
Thank you Apple for all the great ideas on iTunes
My cost per week?
Free
How many millions in revenue did NBC lose by pulling out of iTunes ?
Any questions about why NBC came back?
Lets compare, on one hand, millions and millions in revenue, on the other hand, zero dollars …..hmmmmmmm, this is a tough one.
The pinhead at NBC who picked ZERO should be fired!
Torrents are great for the latest season of a show which just came out on DVD. Older seasons often do not have enough seeders. If you stay current, though, you can download a complete season of a show (15 episodes of 20 min each) in just one evening. They come in as ~200 MB AVI files. iSquint converts them to mp4 in 6-8 minutes, good enough for regular viewing. It’s not DVD quality, but most network programming is not DVD quality in the first place.
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Now, of course, I would never do this, but I know a guy who does
$4 – $10 per day to watch TV sounds good to me. You get to watch what you want, when you want it, and it’s commercial-free.
I don’t watch TV every day, so I’m not paying for content on the days that the television is just sitting there. And you’re not paying a cable bill every month so that helps.
It beats watching TV on DVD box sets, which is what I’ve been doing for a few years (iTunes is cheaper and more up to date than watching TV on DVD).
Okay, so it won’t work for TV grazers, couch potatoes and families with kids.
So, the truth is revealed. I knew that the NBC press release was fog from the a**.
NBC is so stupid!
“It’s a different model and it’ll take a while for the general population to adjust to it. Rather than $50 for cable that gets used or not, and hours of wasted airtime with commercials that make up the difference in cost, now we consumers pay the costs directly and get our time back.”
Why does anyone have to “adjust” to anything? What you (and so many others who carry on about this kind of stuff being the new way of doing things that is going to sweep way the old way of doing things) don’t seem to get is that what works for you doesn’t necessarily work for everyone else.
I like my DirecTV setup and have absolutely zip interest in AppleTV, and any TV shows or movies available on iTunes. I don’t waste money “renting” and digital files aren’t worth the prices… even Apple’s prices.
That’s what’s great about our modern technology, you know… it doesn’t have to be an either/or world.
You get what you like, I get what I like, and we both get them just the ways we we prefer to.