Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iTS, Video
NBC, CBS passing on iTunes?
Both NBC and CBS announced on Monday that they will be making reruns of some of their most popular shows available for purchase at $0.99 each, commercial-free, early next year. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, two versions of Law &
Order (SVU and Criminal Intent), The Office and Surface will be available initially. Also, USA Network's Monk (one of my favorite shows) and the Si Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica will be a part of the deal. More after the jump.Soon after the initial airing of each show, they will be stripped of commercials and sent to customers' DirecTV Plus DVRs, where they can then be viewed for $0.99. CNN's Money notes that CSI, NCIS, Survivor and The Amazing Race will only be available to CBS-owned TV stations served by Comcast, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Baltimore and some outlying suburbs of New York City. In other words, if you live in Atlanta, you're out of luck.
What does this mean for the future of NBC and CBS shows in iTunes? Well, their price of $0.99 is pretty nice, and makes Apple's two bucks looks like highway robbery. I can't imagine CSI being available for $0.99 via On Demand and $1.99 via iTunes simultaneously. Of course, shows purchased via On Demand aren't jettisoned to your iPod as easily as ITMS purchases, but I imagine that the majority of "television on demand" customers want to watch their shows on a television anyway.
Let's hope Steve has something up his sleeve for Macworld in January. I want the ease and convenience of having all my shows available for purchase from a single location.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jimmy said 12:38PM on 11-08-2005
I read that the $1.99 per show on iTunes wasn't Steve's idea, rather it was ABC's. If Steve had his way, he'd sell vids for $0.99 because he knows people would eat it up.
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Kyle said 12:48PM on 11-08-2005
I don't think they are stripping the commercials. Some articles mention that they are, some do not. I think the price point indicates that they will keep the commercials in. Also if it works like traditional on-demand content you lose it a week later. The $1.99 per show still wins out in that case.
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Mark said 12:50PM on 11-08-2005
Paying $0.99 for something OnDemand, on Comcast anyway, is MUCH different than owning a file for $1.99.
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Jumi said 12:51PM on 11-08-2005
One big problem with CBS' plans in comparison to ITMS offerings, though, is that, according to reports, their offerings are not only limited to Comcast customers in a few geographic areas, but will self-destruct 24 hours after downloading -- hmmm. If I was a Comcast customer, and happened to live in a "special" area, that would be the real killer for me. NBC doesn't seem to be limiting their viewers to 24 hours, but what if you aren't a DirectTV viewer? Neither model allows the majority to access the offerings, and CBS' 24 hour restriction is absurd..
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Nathan said 12:51PM on 11-08-2005
Yes the $0.99 is nice, but do you OWN the recording? Can you transfer it to a PMP? Or does it expire after 1 viewing or a time period?
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Jesse said 12:57PM on 11-08-2005
you have neglected to mention that these shows will only be available for 24 hours, before they are deleted forever. i would take my itunes shows (which i get to keep) over this scheme anyday. of course, i will have to wait until apple starts selling tv shows here in canada! maybe jobs will announce expansion plans in january!
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Jamie said 1:04PM on 11-08-2005
Smoke, mirrors and hot air. Keep moving along, nothing to see here : )
And, anyway, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that NBC is close to a deal with Apple for the iTMS. CBS will follow along in good time. Perhaps Fox too, although they might be corporately tied to the parent company's DirectTV crud.
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rjlawrencejr said 1:12PM on 11-08-2005
Who are they kidding? This deal is laughable for a myriad of reasons and it's not because they chose not to go with iTunes. Instead, it's because they aren't listening to the marketplace. A growing number of consumers are not only asking for timeshifting, they are asking for placeshifting as well and neither the CBS or NBC deals give the consumer the ability to decide when and where he or she wants to view content.
What people are forgetting is that while Apple definitely wants you to purchase a 5G iPod to view their video selections, a computer with iTunes will work fine too. Unfortunately, both CBS and NBC require that I must be a subscriber, I must pay additonal fees, and I will be tehtered to my couch watching it to boot.
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Navypoo said 1:58PM on 11-08-2005
I can almost guarantee these files will be WMV with some freaky, Windows-only DRM.
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Wry Cooter said 2:38PM on 11-08-2005
Myth TV is looking better and better. I don't want a pay per view model. That is pay for inconvenience. I will pay for convenience. I will accept a pay for portability model, or simply edit and make portable paying with my own time. The point is to make the content shiftable to the time and place where you can actually watch it.
Here is the model that will catch the eyeballs. Tivo ease of use for capturing content, with add an external drive ease of expandibility and backup. iMovie ease of editing. iTunes iPod level portabiliity, to Pod, PSP whatever. Stick in a memory stick, and iPod, grab your shows and go. Better Quality and added features via commercial DVD and HD-DVD whatever. None of these cannibalize existing markets or hurt advertising yet potentially expand viewer base.
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Brady J. Frey said 2:47PM on 11-08-2005
Pay 99cents for something you own ONLY for 24 hours?! That's just plain dumb! I forget my netflix for a couple days atleast half the time -- the first time I buy it and get busy, happen to forget it's on there and figure I'll watch it tomorrow... but no, I don't own it. I just paid 99 cents to rent it for one day -- that's robbery.
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coal said 3:31PM on 11-08-2005
OMG - Someone needs to be fired at CBS. I tunes has proven itself over and over again, it was a winning formula and CBS are going to roll the dice and if they roll the dice long enough they are going to loose. I thought the biggest looser of 2005 was going to be Madonna , but she saw the light , so I guess it is going to be CBS looser of the year.
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Bruce M. said 3:52PM on 11-08-2005
The CBS announcement today is just marketing, trying to show they are "hip" to the digital generation. They'll start to make money once they join up with iTunes and offer their best shows for puchase. Hopefully the television industry won't follow the music industry and try and do this all on their own -- i.e. all the failed music industry sponsored websites that have miserably flopped. Just create create content, and distribute it via great technology. They are deluded if they think anyone but Apple (at this point in time) can provide consumers with a compelling, seamless experience for the purchase and consumption of digital media.
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Dev said 3:54PM on 11-08-2005
It's obvious the people who designed this deal truly don't understand the concept. If people already own a DirecTV DVR, why in Bog's name would they pluck down a dollar to record a show?
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Adam said 4:49PM on 11-08-2005
Everyone who thinks this is sacrilege has obviosuly never been to blockbuster. Same idea, and I'm sure that's how they see it. Missed it? Well, we recorded it and you can rent it if you'd like.
iTunes is an entirely different structure, and I'm sure they know that.
But it's not such a horrible, horrible rape of television as some of you seem to think.
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Porchland said 6:30PM on 11-08-2005
I don't read the CBS and NBC announcements to say that the networks intend these pay-per-views to be exclusive of other distribution models like iTunes. These announcements are just TV time-shifting, though I don't really understand how Comcast will convince people to buy something with the same DVR/digital box they could use to record it for free.
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coal said 8:16PM on 11-08-2005
OMG - Someone needs to be fired at CBS. I tunes has proven itself over and over again, it was a winning formula and CBS are going to roll the dice and if they roll the dice long enough they are going to loose. I thought the biggest looser of 2005 was going to be Madonna , but she saw the light , so I guess it is going to be CBS looser of the year.
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KirbyMeister said 10:53PM on 11-08-2005
I can rent an episode for a buck, buy it with iTunes for two, or if I already have the DVD set, convert it to the iPod's format.
Most customers will go for the latter 2, for reasons of convenience, preference of buying over renting, and other things.
Of course, Blockbuster makes money somehow so...
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Charles P said 11:59PM on 11-08-2005
Somewhere I read this story and it mentioned that NBC is still in works on a deal with Apple. Can't remember which site mentioned that though.
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Al said 2:07PM on 11-10-2005
Somehow this plan just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.... I mean, from what I understand anyone who can use this service already has a dvr... and the 99 cents your paying only gives you a limited window to view content that still includes commercials and is not easily transferable to portable media.
What WOULD have made much more sense IMHO opinion would be placing these shows in a free on demand format (the way Time Warner does for a lot of programming including anime and bbc programming), itunes like pc downloads (2.99 is only twice the 99cents... and yet it's actually a purchase, not a rental, of something that is a better product (content minus commercials)
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