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August 31, 2007

itunes_store

NBC pulling out of iTunes, BSG fans everywhere cry

Posted Aug. 31, ’07, 6:04 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

NBC Universal According to a report by the New York Times, NBC Universal has decided to end its contract to sell its television shows through the store. This is a major blow for the media store because NBC accounts for a staggering 40% of all video sales. While many analysts believe that Apple makes little/nothing on iTunes Store sales, losing a large chunk of content makes the store that much less useful. And it’s good content.

Among the most popular NBC Universal shows available for sale on iTunes are “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Office” and “Heroes.”

I watch all these shows. Clearly NBC is being run by Cylons. Ok, so I record them myself straight off the air and I probably never will buy them off iTunes, but it gave me a warm fuzzy to know that I could. The Times also mentions NBC’s upcoming Hulu.com, which is aimed at being sort of a YouTube competitor. Great, so now you’ll have to be online to watch. That’s real convenient. It also means no more iPod and iPhone compatibility.

You may be wondering what NBC wanted to do that Apple refused to go along with.

NBC Universal and other companies say they want to increase prices by packaging content— say an episode of “The Office” with the movie “The 40- Year-Old Virgin,” because they both star the comedian Steve Carell.

In other words, in order to buy a simple episode of “The Office”, you’ll need to pay multiple times that price and buy a movie as well. On this front, I think we can all agree to tell NBC to get bent.


10 Comments

Walt Author Profile Page said:

If they do pull out (man.... what would Michael Scott say to that? haha), NBC will money from me. I had plans on buying all of Heroes and BSG (if they are referring to the new one) over the next season hiatus. I've already bought all of The Office.

August 31, 2007 6:38 AM
Anonymous said:

Oh well. Back to BitTorrent for me :(

Smart move, NBC.

August 31, 2007 7:44 AM
Fletcher said:

BSG is one of the only shows I have purchased on iTunes. It was good to be able to catch up on a couple episodes we missed during the season.

The bundling option sounds like something thought up by MBAs. If you like Battlestar, you'll love Stand and Deliver!

I think its sad that the media companies appear more interested in causing damage to Apple than in serving their mutual customers well. It's like a crab pot where anyone with any success is pulled to the bottom.

August 31, 2007 8:27 AM
Dave-O said:

Well, there's only one more season of BSG. But no more Eureka, Monk, or Psych? There goes any hope that I'd drop cable.

August 31, 2007 8:28 AM
Jay said:

I agree with Anonymous, I didnt mind buying fairly priced movies and tv shows. But these money grubing fools are just going to overprice or try to gouge and guess what,

WE WILL GO GET IT FOR FREEE THEN!!!

Smooth move x-lax err NBC.

August 31, 2007 8:33 AM
Nick said:

I'm so tired of those corporate power struggle games. As usual, we are the ones getting hit.

Why can't NBC lick its wounds and hurt ego and play along with Apple? Are they afraid Apple will get too big and abuse its position? Coming from a monopoly like theirs, that would be funny.

Just let us have entertainment and stop playing your little soldiers wars on my turf!

August 31, 2007 9:24 AM
Jamie said:

Dave-O might had stumbled on to the real reason for the NBC announcement and reluctance of media companies to engage iTuness completely. I have often thought of ditching cable and buying my content. I would save a tremendous amount of money on monthly cable costs.

There is the rub. Media companies do not want to give up the monthly recurring cable fees. That is their bread and butter so to speak. They dump to me loads of content that I will not watch or at times I cannot watch it. My ability to time-shift or purchase individual content hurts their bottom line.

At the moment, I am spending extra dollars to watch what I want, when I want.

August 31, 2007 9:35 AM
Donn said:

It's not really clear to me what NBC Universal is intending to do. They can't seriously be worried that availability on iTunes increases piracy. Given the comments I've read, if anything it decreases it. (Apple's point with it's firm low pricing, in fact.) So it's purely greed.

So, they are willing to forgo the iTunes profit for... what? More eyeballs on cable/broadcast? NO. Folks who bought on iTunes were willing to pay a price to NOT watch it via the commercial airwaves. More eyeballs on their website, then? Doubtful. People were mostly willing to pay to OWN it. Let us download and save it to disk from the website, and we'll talk.

I recently ditched digital TV in favor of web-based acquisition. Without iTunes, I'll try out watching Heroes on the website, but if it sucks, it's antenna, or that other alternative...

August 31, 2007 11:30 AM
BoiseGuy said:

I hope NBC-U come crawling back to The Almighty Steve soon. I've bought episodes in the past as needed when I missed a show - trying to stay righteous and not rely on Torrent sites. Come on NBC - you want $5 per episode! Give it up, no show in your lineup, not even Heroes is worth $5 per episode. I'll just be patient and wait a year for the series to show up on NetFlix.

August 31, 2007 1:21 PM
Timothy James McNeely CFP® said:

Feeling shafted by NBC’s proposed $4.99 an episode price hike that got their new fall season kicked out of iTunes?

Kevin Wick has been kind enough to look up the contact information for the NBC Executives that are key to getting this situation reversed.

Amy Zelvin, NBC Universal Digital Media Communications, (212) 664-7436 amy.zelvin@nbcuni.com
Joe Libonati, NBC Universal Television Group Publicity, (818) 840-3050 joe.libonati@nbcuni.com

(edit) Some additions-

Jeff Zucker, President and Chief Executive Officer, NBC Universal (212) 664-4444 jeff.zucker@nbcuni.com
Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio ben.silverman@nbcuni.com

Now, please don’t call these people and threaten them, cuss them, or yell at them. That’s not going to get anything accomplished.

If, however, you want to politely let them know how you feel about their suggested price increase, and subsequent removal from iTunes, it might actually have some affect.

If enough people call, NBC just might listen…you never know.

August 31, 2007 8:34 PM

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