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August 31, 2007

itunes_store

Peacock ruffles Apple’s feathers; Apple takes chomp out of peacock

Posted Aug. 31, ’07, 9:49 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

NBC officeHoly cow, Steve Jobs must be pissed. This morning, we saw that NBC was planning on dropping its shows from the iTunes Store in a dispute over pricing and bundling. Now, Apple’s fired back press release style, announcing that instead of waiting until December, when the deal with NBC expires, they’ll drop the shows as of September, so that they won’t disappear in the middle of the season.

As if that preemptive strike wasn’t enough, Apple’s also laid out exactly where the dispute with NBC came in. I’m just going to repeat what they said here, since my jaw has not yet returned to its fully upright and locked position:

The move follows NBC’s decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99. ABC, CBS, FOX and The CW, along with more than 50 cable networks, are signed up to sell TV shows from their upcoming season on iTunes at $1.99 per episode.
Damn. I’m surprised they didn’t toss a “yo mama” joke in NBC’s direction while they were at it.

If what Apple’s saying is true—and, of course, they have a vested interest in presenting it as if it’s totally NBC’s fault—then, well, all the better: I wouldn’t pay $5 for the shows I like on television these days, much less the drivel that constitutes most of it. I have a feeling this isn’t the end of the story, though, so stay tuned.


1 Comments

jonvdveen said:

If the thought of handing over 5 of one's hard-earned shekels is not unpalatable enough, consider this: at a penny under five dollars per episode, a loyal fan of an NBC show such the Office will spend $114.77 for a 23-episode season. Wowzers! Me thinks that is a touch pricier than, say, a full-resolution, boxed DVD copy of those same shows. In fact, at $100+, I would expect a boxed season of the Office to come with posters, a box of Dunder Mifflin's finest recycled paper and a voucher for dinner with Steve Carell at an upscale Scranton restaurant. Hopefully the folks at NBC pull out their abaci/abacuses and realize that their demands are rather unreasonable.

Mind you, all my ranting is in vain anyways. I live in Canada, and apparently NBC and the rest of the iTunes crew don't even want to sell me half the content available on the iTunes USA store. (Canadians, please use other door.)

August 31, 2007 1:45 PM

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