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December 11, 2007

video

Peacock-a-thon: NBC is like the town bicycle

Posted Dec. 11, ’07, 12:07 PM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Video

NBC and SanDiskSometimes I miss the bumbling comedy and slapstick of vaudeville and early silent movies, but then I realize it’s still alive and kicking, thanks to the adventures of NBC. Not content to yank their video content from iTunes—which, may we remind you, is the foremost digital media store around—NBC’s putting out to every other venture with a fake smile and a “Step 3: Profit!” business plan.

The latest? SanDisk. Yes, SanDisk, the guys who make memory cards, flash drives, and media players. They’re launching their own media store, Fanfare, and NBC’s there to let its content run amok.

There’s something funny about this, if you ask me. NBC’s content is now, or will shortly be, available on—shall we count?—NBC Direct. Hulu. Netflix. Fanfare. In fact, almost every service except for the most popular one around.

This tells me a couple of interesting things: 1) seeing as how they’re spreading their content around in a fashion I can only call promiscuous, I can only conclude that the overhead cost for providing this content online is negligible. 2) If you think that money’s not changing hands between those services and NBC, you must be new to this world; clearly those services are forking over some cash here. If I may be allowed a slight digression, it’s just another piece of mounting evidence on how the studios are shafting the writers.

But it also makes a stark point about the mentality of the studios like NBC who clearly are more intent on serving their own best interests instead of their customers’.


5 Comments

fletcher Author Profile Page said:

Apple promotes a model of digital media ownership. This model closely parallels the traditional brick-and-mortar model of CDs and DVDs. NBC and Universal are trying to get out of paying royalties to the artists who created the songs, television shows, and movies which they distribute. In Apple's model it is easy to draw a direct correlation between a $10 download and a $15 CD and calculate what the royalties should be.

I believe the current idea is that they will distribute all that content as "promotional" materials through subscriptions and back-end deals with media player manufacturers and portals. Since, all the content will be provided gratis to the consumer there will be no need to send royalties to the artists.

Cutting the artists out of the loop represents a lot of money so it is worth screwing over the consumers to bring about this change.

Of course, I don't know what self respecting artist would continue to work with these companies after this land grab, but I suppose that's why we see Paul McCartney and others now signed on to the Starbucks label and many artists going to independent distributers.

December 11, 2007 12:17 PM
Emma said:

As a MAc user you guys make me feel embarrassed! This "Apple is holier than though" crap is pathetic.

What you forget is that NBC's content is available, free of charge, on national network television and is considerably higher quality than the dross that Apple puts out in the name of video provision.

Grow up!

December 12, 2007 4:17 AM
Dave-O said:

Well of course they are looking out for their interests. The deal is supposed to be that their interests lie in serving their customers so their customers fork out truck loads of cash. The question is, how can they be serving their own best interests if they are avoiding the number one online distributor?

December 12, 2007 6:45 AM
Dan Moren Author Profile Page said:

@Emma: Well, of course it's available on network television. But we're talking about the future of serialized video content here: time-shifting, place-shifting, etc. I agree that the quality on broadcast television is still higher than what you can get via iTunes, but that clearly won't be the case forever. I'm not saying Apple is holier than anybody, merely that it is—indisputably—the most popular online media store around, and that NBC's behavior is illogical.

@Dave-O: "The deal is supposed to be that their interests lie in serving their customers so their customers fork out truck loads of cash." I agree that it would seem like serving customers serves themselves, but one need look no further than the RIAA, the people who sue their own customers and tell people that ripping CDs for use on their iPods illegal to see that those two objectives don't always line up.

December 12, 2007 8:27 AM
Dave-O said:

And my point is that they aren't in fact serving themselves very well. Seems like stockholders should be pissed.

December 12, 2007 11:15 AM

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