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September 5, 2007

video

Peacock-a-thon: NBC rebounds into Amazon’s arms

Posted Sep. 5, ’07, 8:31 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Video

NBC UnboxThe must see drama continues. NBC, having fired back at Apple’s retaliation for long-term contract negotiations, has decided to seek solace with one of Apple’s rivals: Amazon Unbox. As of today, the NBC shows that so recently graced the virtual aisles of the iTunes Store are now to be found in Jeff Bezos’s empire. What does Amazon have that Apple doesn’t, you might ask?

The media conglomerate, part of General Electric, said yesterday that Amazon had agreed to give it something that Apple would not: greater flexibility in the pricing and packaging of video downloads.
Of course, Amazon can afford to give those up, since it thinks that attracting NBC to its stable of content may actually give it a chance to make a dent in iTunes’s marketshare.

Well, it’s a good theory. So far, I’m not seeing much in the way of variable pricing: Heroes, The Office, and 30 Rock all still seem to be at the same $1.99 price point as they were on iTunes, but the Times says ” Amazon is still working to determine pricing.”

However, what you get along with that price (absolutely free of charge) are irritating restrictions on what you can and can’t do with your content. While Unbox lets you download videos to your TiVo or WMA-compatible device, Amazon’s DRM enforces a strict limit of two different computers or TiVos and two different portable devices. Not that it really matters for most of us, since the system as a whole is not compatible with the iPod or the, and I quote, “Apple/MacIntosh hardware and computer systems.” Touché, Amazon, touché.

Who’ll win this game of video download chicken? Well, much of that depends on what Apple rolls out at its special event, just a couple of hours for now, but I can tell you what Bruno, my very pleasant bookie in Las Vegas, is putting my money on.


2 Comments

fletcher Author Profile Page said:

I think NBC will be at home on Amazon. Unbox videos work on "Plays for Sure" devices! From Microsoft! If it's got that you can be sure it plays on anything! It's backed by Microsoft. You know, Microsoft. It will play for sure on the Creative Zen and the Zune, urr, umm, no, iPod, no?, oh well.

September 5, 2007 9:00 AM
Mike said:

Sorry fletcher, Play-4-Sure does not work on the Zune.

September 5, 2007 9:39 AM

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