“Users of Apple’s popular digital storefront had no problem relocating NBC Uni’s TV shows now that a new deal between the companies on Sept. 9 restored episodes. More than 1 million downloads for NBC Uni TV properties have been tallied since then, according to Apple,” Andrew Wallenstein reports for The Hollywood Reporter.
MacDailyNews Note: NBC Universal has been offering one free episode from each of their top series, available in either SD or HD, on the iTunes Store for a two-week period that began September 9th. [Thanks, Wade.]
Wallenstein continues, “On iTunes, about 30% of the top-selling episodes and season passes now comprise shows either airing on or produced by NBC Uni. The conglomerate pulled its TV programming off iTunes last summer in an effort to get more pricing flexibility, which it got some small measure of last week with new multiepisode packages and $2.99 high-definition episodes.”
MacDailyNews Take: False. Both higher pricing for HD content (via Apple TV’s connection to iTunes Store) and multiepisode packages existed before NBC came crawling back to Apple. We’re sick and tired of NBC’s lame and untrue spin that they got Apple to “concede” anything. Unless NBC held out for almost a year in order to secure 99-cent prices for old episodes of “The A-Team,” Apple gave NBC nothing but the opportunity to again participate in the world’s market-dominating digital download store. So, NBC, call off your spinners, shut your traps, and concentrate on creating good content for Apple to sell for you.
Wallenstein continues, “Also notable about the renewed strength of NBC Uni programming on iTunes is that much of its fall season fare, expected to be a driver for digital consumption, has yet to premiere.”
Full article here.
[Attribution: AppleInsider. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MacVicta” for the heads up.]
Many downloads were absolutely free, don’t forget.
i thought we all agreed to never buy from NBC again. thanks for dropping the ball [people
Yeah, free and HD.
f NBC.
NBC = Nothing But Crap.
wow Peruchito, hope you aren’t a parent….
see if you don’t buy to punish them for taking their shows away from iTunes, then you can stop when they put them back. you can’t punish them for doing the right thing.
i am glad too, cause my wife watches a few of their shows, and it has been hard holding the line on not hitting their site/channels/that useless MS store they had going.
I took advantage of the free episodes to download Eureka in both SD and HD. I don’t have an Apple TV, so I viewed them on my iMac. Funny thing is the HD looks like a typical SD DVD, while the SD looks sub-DVD quality. Has anyone noticed anything like that?
It may mostly be the free episodes but who cares? That’s 1 million new pieces of NBC content on people’s computers. That’s 1 million more people who may become dedicated viewers of NBC and it’s other stations.
Those who write this off because of the free episodes make the same mistake Jeff Zucker did when he thought he didn’t need iTunes because of what seemed like little revenue from episode sales. It’s not all about the upfront money.
@Peruchito;
Get your facts straight, muffinhead.
We said we’d never buy anything from NBC (Hulu, anyone?) nor their advertisers UNTIL NBC came back to the iTunes store.
BTW… Anyone here have figures for the ZunLoo (ie WhoLoo) only experiment?
My guess is that the iTMS will bring in more cold, hard cash to NBC’s bottom line, in 60 days, than the newzoorevueloo store did over its entire lifespan.
NBC is dumb.
The best way to teach NBC a lesson is to subscribe and once they start raking it in, someone might realize and add up HOW MUCH THEY HAVE LOST in the interim, money that they will never get back.
Your iMac screen is much higher res than your HDTV.
Play them in QuickTime Player. Watch them in Actual Size not Full Screen. You’ll see a big difference in size and quality.
The moral of this saga should never be allowed to be forgotten: Apple won and NBC came crawling back, conceding on EVERY point, while Apple stood ground.
We also need to make sure we NEVER buy from Amazon’s download store. I like Amazon, and their store is quite good. The problem is, Amazon is a trojan horse for consumers. Apple and iTunes are on the consumers’ side today. They represent our rights and are fighting to elliminate DRM.
Labels offered unprecended deal to Amazon only so that they could chip away at iTunes dominance. That is the ONLY reason they allowed DRM-free music. As soon as iTunes loses its dominance, DRM will be right back, and more restrictive than ever before.
We must make sure that iTunes continues to thoroughly dominate the music retail business. Right now, this is the ONLY way we can protect us as consumers against the greed of labels, as well as studios.
When I emailed NBC, I said I personally would boycott watching their shows unless they came back to iTunes store. I also said I would pass the word to all my friends to do the same, which i did. Now that they are back; i’ve got my dvr set to record Heroes new episode on the 22, and am going to buy it online as well for my comp.
@ pedrag:
And exactly HOW MANY tunes on the ITS are DRM free???
I’d hold your statements until ALL of the music is DRM free. I don’t see the number of tunes in the Plus section as being all that high when compared to the rest of the ITS tunes catalog.
@GregoriusM;
Please reread predrag
“Labels offered unprecended deal to Amazon only so that they could chip away at iTunes dominance. That is the ONLY reason they allowed DRM-free music. As soon as iTunes loses its dominance, DRM will be right back, and more restrictive than ever before.”
When you support Amazon, you are doing exactly as the labels tell you to do. The labels WON’T ALLOW Apple to sell DRM free, because the labels are trying to bring Apple down, and if they succeed, you’ll be DRM’d forever.
Apple sells, DRM free, EVERY TRACK that they’re ALLOWED to sell without restrictions, and they’ve called for those restrictions to be lifted.
This is about freedom of choice, don’t the the labels tell you where to shop.