If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Posted on 08/31/2007 6:57:20 PM PDT by RayChuang88
NEW YORK (AP) — Apple Inc. escalated a dispute with NBC Universal over the pricing of television shows by announcing Friday it would not sell any of NBC's programs for this fall season on iTunes.
Earlier, NBC had told Apple that it would no longer allow its programs to be sold via iTunes at the end of the year. NBC Universal-controlled television programming accounts for an estimated 40 percent of the video downloads on iTunes.
"We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers."
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...
For example, NBC was on the verge of canceling the US version of The Office, but strong episode sales of the show through the iTunes Music Store actually helped increase ratings so that it is now one of NBC's highest-rated shows. Such sales has helped build "buzz" for such shows as Heroes, Battlestar Galactica (shown on the Sci-Fi Channel, an NBC Universal property), and several other shows. By losing this highly-desirable demographic, NBC could see its ratings fall even further, which would be a disaster for the company.
“announcing Friday it would not sell any of NBC’s programs for this fall season on iTunes.
Earlier, NBC had told Apple that it would no longer allow its programs to be sold via iTunes”
I think I’ve heard this dialogue somewhere before,
“I quit!”
“No, you’re fired!”
“No, I quit!”
“No, you’re fired!”
Jihad! Just don’t anybody start posting the photoshops of Steve Jobs head on a dog. It’s a very volatile situation.
Correct me if I’m wrong but the number one thing a content provider/seller needs is content, isn’t it?
They would seem to have three options. Deal with Apple, try to sell them themselves through a less popular channel, or just sit back and let folks steal the entertainment.
40% is huge. If they go to a less popular channel, it will become more popular.
Probably Steve Jobs will do what he did when he stole the Xerox interface, he’ll have his own rip off shows of the more popular NBC-Universal shows like The iWorkplace, The iBattle Space Ship Galactic:In iSpace!, and The iGuys with the Super Powers Like In the Comic Books:Xtreeeeeeme!.
Why do they pull this kind of crap after we decide to ditch satellite TV and go for digital downloads from iTunes?????
So you were the one that started this mess? :)
“I quit!”
“No, you’re fired!”
“No, I quit!”
“No, you’re fired!”
I want to spead more time with my family ....
“try to sell them themselves through a less popular channel, “
Well if NBC is now 40% of Apples video sales, any new channel that takes it over would immediately be 2/3 as popular as itunes.
Do you seriously believe that people who are just dying to watch a program on a 3 inch screen will think -— “ Gee, if I can’t buy SCRUBS from itunes, I just won’t watch it ? “
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Um, Apple paid money to Xerox to be allowed to use the interface. They didn’t steal it.
The license money Apple paid to XEROX PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) was what kept PARC going after the abject failure of their Star and Alto products.
It is kind of a funny situation. As the marketplace changes NBC also needs a way to get their product out there. So they both need each other, the question is who needs who more. I’m not sure what percentage of the digital tv show download market Apple has, but I would be willing to bet it is more than the 40% of the downloads that NBC is providing.
And of course Apple is framing this in their favor. “We really want to offer you this content, but that mean NBC won’t let us at a reasonable price. The same price that all other studios are offering at.”
If Apple had agreed to the price increase, NBC’s sales percentage probably would go down anyway.
Oddly enough, that’s exactly what’s happening. The market right now is essentially iTunes, then illegal downloads, then trailing both by a huge margin are all the other services.
Even Sony couldn’t make it work and has since killed their online music store. WalMart’s store is having similar problems.
Actually, what NBC was going to try to do was yank their shows in mid season, so as to force people already involved in the season’s plot- and story-lines to follow the shows to whereever NBC wanted (including those people who had already paid for the season). Apple, not being idiots wasn’t going to have any of that - so now NBC’s new season shows will not be carried at all.
It should also be noted that NBC also wants far more restrictive DRM on their shows.
Finally, iTunes has already saved at LEAST one show from extinction. The only reason The Office is still on the air at all was because so many people bought episodes from iTunes.
So far Apple has won every time a record label wanted to raise prices. Let’s see if they can win on Video, too.
One cool thing, don’t ever expect there to be a problem with ABC, ESPN, Lifetime, A&E, Touchstone, Hollywood pics, Miramax, and anything with the word “Disney” in it. Disney owns all or a significant part of all of that, and Jobs is on the Disney board as the single largest shareholder (7 percent!).
I’ll bet Jobs decided to sell Pixar to Disney just to get this leverage for Apple.
I think Jobs is also counting on all those people who have bought an Apple TV, or an iMac -- the thing looks just like an LCD TV anyway.
NBC seems to be as stupid financially as they are politically.
OK -
“Do you seriously believe that people who are just dying to watch a program on a 15.4 inch Dell laptop screen will think -— “ Gee, if I can’t buy SCRUBS from itunes, I just won’t watch it ? “
:-)
Point being, if these people want to watch the program, they will buy it from whatever service carries it - itunes is not the only software that can play downloaded movies.
Thanx for that info. I knew he was the largest shareholder but did not know what percent...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.