NBC Runs From iTunes Into The Arms Of Amazon
Nick Gonzalez
24 comments »
Last week a lot of drama developed between Apple and NBC over who broke up with who. All we really know is that the pair allegedly split over conflicts around DRM and pricing control. It was quite a hit for Apple, with NBC making up 40% or iTune’s digital video downloads.
Today NBC found a friend in Amazon, announcing a deal to sell the network’s digital TV content. Amazon already sells NBC Universal’s movies. NBC shows available on Amazon Unbox will include The Office, Heroes, and 30 Rock. They will also be selling content from their subsidiaries: USA Network, SCI FI Channel, Bravo, Telemundo, mun2, NBC Sports, and NBC News.
Beginning on September 10, Amazon Unbox customers will download for free — in advance of their network premieres — the pilot episodes of NBC’s new shows Bionic Woman, Chuck, Journeyman and Life. New episodes will be available for purchase on Amazon Unbox the day after they air on TV. Complete seasons may be purchased as soon as the season concludes.
The deal is yet another twist in NBC’s ongoing plans to monetize their content online. NBC has already announced plans to release the same content on their new site Hulu, with no word on how the new deal will affect the offering. (Bit Torrent, however, is still up and running)
NBC Univeral is really stupid here. Amazon has you sign an agreement that videos can be sold through it’s content partners. Amazon’s CEO has close ties with Apple. If Apple ones they can be an amazon content partner and put NBC videos (from amazon) onto itunes.
So September 11th on torrent. Cheers Amazon, NBC and Apple!
It looks like a really good move for amazon. They are going to snatch that 40% revenue that Apple would have been getting.
Does this mean NBC got its $4.99 price tag?
considering that Hulu and Amazon are not the only threats to Itunes, i don´t see a problem, it is truly the end of the itunes era..
Amazon
Hulu
gbox
walmart
Sony new store
nokia OVI
the real-mtv gig
Zune marketplace
Xbox live marketplace
Once again the consumer wins… or not.
It’s a good thing that buying videos online is an established and successful business, one that can clearly weather providing a single option for purchasing videos online.
Here’s an idea - why not sell shows on Amazon as well as iTunes, and perhaps one or two ad supported options to boot?
Sigh.
Can NBC keep the number of its program download at the current level without iTunes? How many people who downloaded NBC shows on iTunes will download the shows from Amazon or Hulu? I’m interested to find out who is the King, the content provider or the distributor? I will put my money on Apple.
John Gruber’s just pointed out that the DRM restrictions on Unbox are amazingly vicious. And it’s Windows only.
So wait, let me get this straight… Now, even if I buy it legally, I have even less device freedom than before? I can’t even play it on my iPod?!? And this is supposed to PREVENT illegal downloading of these TV shows?
too bad that amazon unbox sucks. i installed the player, but it kept crashing anytime i tried to watch a video.
amazon’s response? “no refund”
pass.
I’m going to laugh so hard when NBC’s video revenue drops, or they find that in quantity they’re selling a lot less than before. Why wouldn’t they have it on both platforms? Marketing people need to stop making stupid decisions and try to actually understand the consumer.
MacNN asserts that the price on Unbox will be… $1.99 an episode.
So let me get this straight. They throw a temper tanturm over pricing, then go to another service with less market penetration in order to offer their content for the same price?
Is it just me, or…
Good for them!
They will also be coming to xBox Live!
Serves Apple right, wanting to keep prices low, do away with DRM!
Who the H*ll do they think they are?
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
I’ve gotta wonder about NBC’s positioning on this move… Sell your programs via amazon who’s gotta be giving them 90% profits since they’ve got the S3 service to handle bandwidth concerns and would take the traffic in a heartbeat…
I see hulu opening up to mac and ipod users soon. It’s a huge market and even NBC isn’t oblivious to the profits they can make in this market..
It’s apple that screwed themselves here by losing first NBC as a partner, and then who’s next… ABC… CBS…. ??
Build a distribution network on your own, control your costs, and produce higher profit margins.
the price on Unbox is $1.99 an epiosode and season’s passes are 30% discounted. The seasons passes are discounted 30%. I didn’t find that the player was bad — but the files are huge (even bigger than iTunes) a 44+ minute episode of Heroes was 865MB!
On the plus side the season’s pass is actually cheaper than the DVD Box on Amazon (at least in the case of Heroes Season 1, $38.99 for the DVD vs $31.99 for the season pass).
They also include a smaller (in this example 201MB) file for portable devices, but of course, there isn’t an iPod (and certainly not an iPhone) to be found in the list of compatible devices. I didn’t see Zune either though.
There are more DRM limitations than on iTunes. Crazy to punish the people who are actually willing to pay. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen how this movie ends.
FairUse4WM works on Amazon Unbox …….No DRM restrictions to worry about .
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=127943