NBC Takes Its Shows Off iTunes And Goes Home

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1. Chris R.
   

   December 3rd, 2007 at 8:42 am

   “Who thinks NBC will bring its toys back to iTunes within a year?”

   I do. Did you know iTunes users in Canada couldn’t even download that stuff to begin with?
   When you use iTunes in Canada, you lose like half the store, and if you try to purchase it anyway it will give you the “f off dumb Canadian” message.

2. CasaMan
   

   December 3rd, 2007 at 8:42 am

   “Mac users will just have to wait” or use BitTorrent…

3. Angry NBC Consumer
   

   December 3rd, 2007 at 8:43 am

   NBC has certainly given Mac consumers the middle finger. I was happy to pay 1.99 for my episodes of Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, and the Office. Now that they are no longer available well I suppose I’ll have to turn somewhere else. Let me take this time to tell everyone about The Piratebay, where you can find all your favorite NBC shows and download them for free, and while you’re downloading them for free you can stick it to NBC. Hopefully the retards over at NBC will correct their error and put their content back on iTunes before Battlestar Galactica Season 3 starts, otherwise I’ll be turning to Piratebay or Tivo to record my shows and then just skip past their advertisements, either way they loose.

4. Chris R.
   

   December 3rd, 2007 at 8:45 am

   I’m going to give TPB some TC PR love
   http://thepiratebay.org/

   There.

5. Rob Walters
   

   December 3rd, 2007 at 8:48 am

   So much for watching NBC on my iPod while on the train. Good thing there is millions of hours of other content available.

6. Tonto
   

   December 3rd, 2007 at 8:53 am

   This article (still) says it all:

   http://www.ilounge.com/index.p.....nes-store/

   NBC just doesn’t get it. They should be for charging consumers less. Not more.

7. HyperChris
   

   December 3rd, 2007 at 8:54 am

   Wake up NBC. Look to iTunes as a way to create even more money from your content rather than as a threat. Go ahead and build your own download site, but keep your content with itunes and simply collect another rev stream. Just make sure you offer more value via your own site… lower pricing, and other engaging reasons as to why I should d/l direct rather than via itunes.

   Reminds me of the early ecom days with offline retail seeing online as a threat to their revenue streams, rather than a new rev stream to suppliement thier own offering.

8. PXLated
   

   December 3rd, 2007 at 9:01 am

   As you mention, this game ain’t over. It will be interesting to watch over the next year. Personally I think NBC will come crawling back to the iTunes fold, humbled by their misadventures.

9. Maplist
   

   December 3rd, 2007 at 9:01 am

   I bet NBC won’t be back to iTunes

10. HyperChris
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 9:02 am

    Maplist - any reasons to backup your statement?

11. No Surprise
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 9:04 am

    Who really cares? I don’t!

12. HmmConvenient
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 9:07 am

    Erick,

    A quick view of the NBC Direct FAQ would have shown you that MAC support is coming. What gives?

13. Rick Curran
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 9:13 am

    Mmm, great. Windows only AND only available in the states.

14. Rahul Dighe
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 9:17 am

    why should the apple decide how much to charge for downloads? i think its perfectly okay for nbc to take off it shoes if it believes it can make more money elsewhere.

15. JT
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 9:17 am

    Some NBC stuff is still available. NBC shows that aren’t produced by NBC themselves are still available and being sold through iTunes. Example - Chuck and Journeyman. Both on NBC but produced by Warner Bros. and Fox Studios.

16. DannyK
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 9:25 am

    Finally NBC and the rest caught up to the idea that creating a content distribution system (like iTunes) is a lot easier/cheaper then creating content itself.
    If they create content they DON’T need a middle man to distribute it!

17. Matt
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 9:37 am

    They won’t go back to itunes. There are alot of people moving away from itunes for a reason…

18. Brian Andrews
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 9:38 am

    I agree with Rob–no is the time to support and embrace indie content. There is a wealth of great content out there that deserves an audience. Check out http://www.hungryflix.com for great indie films for the iPod.

    As for iTunes…I think we are seeing the impact of Steve Jobs’ ego. As great as he is, this is where he hurts Apple–in making and keeping partners happy. It’s Steve’s way or the highway. The good news is that digital downloads of TV is such a small market that it really won’t Apple’s bottom line, but it may hurt perception and eventually hurt the iPod. We are already seeing the record companies move away from iTunes. This may be Apple’s third turn at grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory.

    NBC won’t be back on iTunes unless they get major concessions from Apple. Don’t forget, NBC doesn’t view digital downloads as a revenue opportunity. They view it as losing ad revenue, which to them, is a much bigger risk. These guys want to control when and how you watch their content. It’s all about tracking and measuring every eyeball.

19. Jack
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 9:38 am

    For you mac lovers out there, consider NBC’s position - focus on 95% of the market or 5%. I think if you were in their shoes, you would have focussed on the 95% as well.

20. Joey
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 10:09 am

    who else is moving away from iTunes? and what would that reason be?

21. JT
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 10:11 am

    I’ve moved away from iTunes for music. I check Amazon first before buying from iTunes.

22. AnonTroll
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 10:15 am

    Now that NBC is finally exploring their own options with Hulu, I doubt they would go back to iTunes. Truth be told though, they should also use iTunes as another distribution channel.

23. Michael
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 10:28 am

    This sucks, I have been watching Eureka! and now it looks like Amazon Unbox! is the only place to get it. Not anywhere from NBC, Hulu has a weird gap from ep 4 - ep 9. Joy, joy. NBC: if you are gonna pull this crap, at least leave people some alternative.

24. Fabian
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 10:50 am

    I am confused about the “Windows only” statement. I tried NBC Direct last night after reading about this and it worked fine on my Macbook. What am I missing?

25. Erik Schwartz
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 10:59 am

    Apple is able to dominate in music because the brands in music are centered on the artists, not the labels. There is not a strong consumer association between artists and labels.

    Television networks have strong brands, and series are strongly associated with their network brand. It’s not hard to figure out where to go in order to get NBC programming online.

    Finally, the power of iTunes is the tight integration with the iPod. But video on the iPod still sucks.

26. scratchiti
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 11:14 am

    I agree with DannyK (@16) - why does NBC need a middle man?

27. Zac Garrett
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 11:24 am

    You are wrong about not supporting the mac. I’ve been using NBC direct on my macbook pro with firefox for a few months now without issue. When I reformatting when upgrading to Leopard I ran firefox in a fairly vanilla state and the player worked just fine.

    I’ve yet to run the site on safari, but the player is just flash so it should work without a problem. If you have any problems just change the user agent to look like another browser and surf away.

28. kit
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 11:32 am

    I love this post, especially the part where it says giving Mac users double fingers. Yay!

29. iProtestant
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 11:39 am

    well i guess this sucks for the mac+itunes customers. this is not a big deal to canadians as we can’t get the video content up here because of territory distribution bullshit. so…

    ATTENTION NBC:

    you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. the reason itunes is the ONLY successful digital distribution channel is because it’s the nicest to it’s customers. we have allowances to do with what we want with our purchased content, it’s reasonably cheap (could be cheaper), and EASY TO USE.

    and as far as distributing content internationally, get with it!

    if what you say is true (that canada is a haven for piracy (bs, btw)) then make your stuff available. i for one have been WAITING to PAY YOU MONEY for ‘the office,’ ‘heroes,’ and ‘BSG.’ i don’t want to download it thru bittorrent, but you leave me no choice. i don’t want to pay $100 a month for cable because there is only shite 95% of the time. i’d gladly pay that money to a content provider, such as yourself, to watch only the shows i give a crap about.

    I AM NOT ALONE HERE!

    this row with apple is stupid. STUPID.

    thanks to the writers strike, and possibly an actor’s strike afterwards, and now cutting off your biggest digital distributor’s channel, NBC will cease to be significant within a year.

    i’m glad i’m not a stock holder.

30. john
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 12:06 pm

    hmmm well as a mac user, I now have no option to purchase any NBC content legally (and PAY you $$)… so you have basically forced me to download your content (for free) through bittorrent.

    terrible move NBC. Good luck catching up to everyone in the future.

31. Lou Cabron
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 12:25 pm

    Um, you can watch NBC’s shows on NBC’s web site.

    So what’s the big deal?

32. Scott
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 12:35 pm

    Yes, I was able to watch Project Runway for free at BravoTV.com, from my mac. I would say that is a better deal. I am not big into paying for TV content that I will only watch once. Rather see a few ads. Last season I bought all the shows from iTunes. This worked better…

33. techmine
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 12:38 pm

    NBC won’t come ever back. I don’t want them to come back. I want this whole iTunes empire to collapse. The attack is on. We shall see iTunes going from top to bottom in 1 year.

34. Adam Simon
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 12:39 pm

    @Erik Schwartz I disagree wholeheartedly that there’s a strong brand affiliation for television. For cable this may be true (HBO, Sci-Fi, Bravo), but not for networks. Their mainstream focus makes them fairly interchangeable - there’s no inherent reason why Heroes is on NBC and not ABC. The networks like to fool themselves that everyone knows what great shows they have on their network, but in truth most people associate the shows with a channel number, if anything. How many consumers do you know who say “gee, I love NBC,” rather than “gee, I love Heroes.” If anything, the brand is only as strong as the current shows. But I think even that’s stretching it.

    It started with DVRs (subscribing to shows, not networks), and of course iTunes is just another example of disassociating the shows from the networks. Things like Hulu will only succeed if they can get all the content, which they won’t because NBC’s competitors will be loath to participate. They may hate Apple, but iTunes is, at least, neutral territory. What they all refuse to admit is that they, like record labels, are just middle men on the consumer-facing side of the business. If they focused on producing top-quality content without regard to keeping control of distribution, the networks would already have arrived at their new business model, and wouldn’t be afraid of putting their content *everywhere* in hopes of figuring out what consumers want.

35. Ad Brite the hand that feeds them
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    I have Hulu and it’s awesome. If you’ve tried it you’ll have a sense that NBC has no plans to return to iTunes. This coming from a “Mac fanboy”.

36. BlogReader
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 1:05 pm

    How many consumers do you know who say “gee, I love NBC,” rather than “gee, I love Heroes.”

    A friend of mine summed it up nicely: “I don’t watch *television* I watch television *programs*”

    Perhaps there’s a market for brand identity with a network but can anyone tell me what network has the suckitude that is “2 And A Half Men” vs “Men in Trees” vs “The Signing Bee” Although in looking to see what networks offer programs NBC has the ones I like best.

37. Erik
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 3:17 pm

    @adam simon

    ….yet you knew Heros was on NBC, and I’ll bet you didn’t have to check.

38. Erik
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 3:21 pm

    Now quick, without checking.

    What label is Alicia Keys on?

39. HmmConvenient
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 4:03 pm

    NBC DIRECT IS NOT STREAMING! NBC Direct is a download client that is currently (in the BETA) Windows Only with Mac support coming in a future release.

    All of you that said it works fine on your MacBook are using the NBC Rewind product, which is a Flash 8/9 based streaming player.

    As far as international distribution is concerned, this is a repetitive request made by a community that does not understand the content rights process. It is not NBC that decides “where” or “how” content is available; there are many stakeholders in the value chain (most importantly, the content owner) that make these decisions.

    It’s amazing that after all this time, no one has ever made a blog post outlining the content windowing and rights process. Arrington, are you listening?

40. Nic Pfost
    

    December 3rd, 2007 at 9:45 pm

    too true, HmmConvenient, about NBC Direct. i’m not sure how the other guys missed that…

    also, to those of you get your tunes from Amazon instead of iTunes:
    you do it ’cause it’s cheaper, right? doesn’t that prove the whole iTunes business model absolutely correct? make it easy and make it cheap.

    like it or not, music and TV are commodity products. the cost will always be approaching zero.

    same to those of you who watch the NBC shows online, whether at Hulu, or NBC Rewind (NOT Direct), or BravoTV, or whatever. You’re proving iTunes’ point.

    just wait until you accidentally get more than a few weeks behind on your favorite TV show. or decide that you want to try to watch a new show, from the beginning (like i currently wish i could do with “Chuck”, without paying for it).

    NBC may never come back, but that will probably be more because TV as we know it is dying. i’m counting the days to the television’s demise. go WGA!

41. Steve Ballmer
    

    December 4th, 2007 at 6:22 am

    Just like I thought, the iTards resort to stealing if Steve Jobs doesnt sell it!

42. FJ
    

    December 4th, 2007 at 12:01 pm

    There are other options. For those not into capture cards and connecting their PC or Mac to their Entertainment Center, look into stand-alone MP4 recorders like the Neuros OSD. You can record your favorite shows and enjoy them on your iPod anytime.

43. WebSite Design Company
    

    December 17th, 2007 at 8:07 pm

    Yes you can use an Ipod