NBC responds: nuh-uh

" Ahh, another one of those Mac World, Vs. PC worlds things. Two corps complain about the other.. on the PC side, we all assume MS is in the wrong (ie. Activision charges $6 for 3 songs on Xbox live Marketplace... this is all MS's fault) and on the Mac side, We all assume Apple is in the right.

I have to wonder, because i don't have such blind fanboyism, when I have to pay at least $250 for a iPod that has video capabilities. I mean, what makes you assume that Lord Jobs is really giving that much to content providers? On top of that, you can ONLY play this stuff on iPods, which undercuts the rest of the market. Apple is easily as monopolistic as any other company would be.

So NBC/Universal makes a bad buiesness move right? That's assumeing THEY are making alot from iTunes sales. compared to DVD sales and Ad Revenue. I'd guess Apple is still making the bear's shae of profit themselves, instead of NBC/Universal."


Yet another post that lamely descends into "Apple fanboy" accusations. Please, get over it already.

Are there a huge number or even several posts here that suddenly go and say that MS is in the wrong?

Whether you like Apple products or not, it is clear that $1.99 is a popular and reasonable price for most people (read: not just "Apple Zealots").

Nobody is putting a gun to your head and asking you to buy an iPod video or iTunes Store stuff. If NBC had a compelling offering right now that would be good, but think about it. How does pulling something which is clearly somewhat or maybe very successful, and providing an alternative business model which at this stage, involves, oh *no* reasonable alternative, make NBC any money?

Nevermind Apple, NBC is at this stage anyway, clearly not benefitting from pulling out of iTunes Store. Whatever their reason.

Ahh, another one of those Mac World, Vs. PC worlds things. Two corps complain about the other.. on the PC side, we all assume MS is in the wrong (ie. Activision charges $6 for 3 songs on Xbox live Marketplace... this is all MS's fault) and on the Mac side, We all assume Apple is in the right.

I have to wonder, because i don't have such blind fanboyism, when I have to pay at least $250 for a iPod that has video capabilities. I mean, what makes you assume that Lord Jobs is really giving that much to content providers? On top of that, you can ONLY play this stuff on iPods, which undercuts the rest of the market. Apple is easily as monopolistic as any other company would be.

So NBC/Universal makes a bad buiesness move right? That's assumeing THEY are making alot from iTunes sales. compared to DVD sales and Ad Revenue. I'd guess Apple is still making the bear's shae of profit themselves, instead of NBC/Universal.

Mike; I really don't think the Russian sites in question is a very good example. If that model is so great, I think those sites should commission original works and sell them with the business model they are using. But they don't have to if they can take a licensing deal intended for radio over cable and pretend it's a setup that to allow sales of discrete audio tracks.

peternj; the thing is, I don't understand what you say because it contradicts other things I've seen. For one, NBC is getting maybe $1.50 per downloaded episode, which I am certain is more money than NBC gets per viewer for the advertising on the whole show. So your claim that NBC's "subsidizing" iPod doesn't ring true. Not only that, iPods sell well even when there is no video store in the country in question. The last time I saw any survey on the subject, the average iPod user used their iPod for video less than 5% of the time, the rest was mostly music.

Well if NBC doesnt want my money thats fine. They can open up as many alternative online vendors as they want but im not going to use them. Not because im that much of an apple fanboy but because i jsut dont care enough to go jumping through a bunch of hoops to buy something im going to delete 5 minutes after watching it. When i buy anything from itunes its merely for the convenience. When you take away that convenience or price it too high then i have no motive whatsoever to purchase your content. If you make me exert too much effort ill just wait for reruns or que up bitrocket.

Another thing...

NBC is blaming Apple for not doing enough to stop privacy. They stated that "since the majority of content on iPods is not purchased" they want stronger DRM, such as iPods that cannot play nonDRMd files.

Well, why don't they apply the same logic to TV? They can lock whatever they want in "online marketplaces" but, as someone rightly stated, the majority of pirated content out there comes from what THEY BROADCAST ON TV. Try to increase prices for networks to air their shows, instead of aksing iTunes to do that! They simply will not succeed! (I ask you twice as many million dollars to air "Heroes" because it will be pirated, the network will answer the same way Apple did: go and etc. yourselves (GOAFY)).

They'll never do that. So please, don't start acting like you want to stop piracy, because you CANNOT. Get over it... You'll have a much better live. Once you got over it ask yourselves, SERIOUSLY, what benefits do people who legally buy your shows get.(Not which benefits YOU GET, which ones WE GET). That will allow you to create a strategy

"You see hardly any pirate MP4 videos on the file-sharing networks, and of those None are from the iTS. The majority are from TV Rips (which are legal to obtain, but illegal to share), with a few Pre-Screeners...."

"NBC Universal also wants iTunes to stiffen anti-piracy provisions so computer users would not have easy access to illegal downloads."

So...They wanted Apple to load iTunes up with DRM lockdown that would prevent it playing anything other than DRM restricted files...."""


I think most people on these comments get it. Talk about NBC biting the hands that feed it.

WAKE THE F((( UP NBC, the major torrents are HDTV rips. Where do those come from? Certainly not the iTunes Store, unless it is from internal Apple leaked stuff.

But the easiest way is the most obvious. The moment it is shown on HDTV over-the-air or cable, etc. In a few hours a nice clean .XVID .MKV etc. pops up on BitTorrent.

Doesn't take a genius to figure out where the pirated videos are coming from, NBC. Wake up.

The music industry shutdown that site on Russia which was doing millions selling (YES, READ MY LIPS, I SAID SELLING) pirate music for a low price and was unable to understand what I will write again now: THE SITE WAS DOING MILLIONS SELLING MUSIC AT A LOW PRICE.

What they have learned? nothing. They are still trying to increase prices.

These guys are the responsible for the decline of music sells because they have greedy. They want to get all the money as fast as possible.

These guys on music/video industry are clueless and hopeless.

Some thoughts:

-Content providers already make money on the selling of hardware in Europe. France, Germany and others already have a "piracy tax" on DVD-R, iPods, even DVD burners. The excuse of that tax is that it compensates "possible priacy due revenue losses" and people have to pay it regardless whether they will ever use the devices illegaly. This tax (or rip off) goes directly in the pockets of "RIAA-like" associations all over Europe

- video capable iPod sales are strong in Europe, and this is NOT connected in any way to legal downloadable video content on iTMS (there isn't any here!!)

- quality of video sold on iTunes is "sub DVD". This basically means that prices have to be "in connection" with the benefits (ease of use, portability, flexibility). You can only charge a certain amount for that, not an indefinite, otherwise people will no longer see the benefit and look elswhere.

- NBC will suffer delay, people are not going to be able to watch their seasons from the start on Hulu.com (server crashes, bugs, etc.). Their platform has NOT EVEN BEEN RELEASED IN BETA prior to launch. Think about how many issues they will have! So people will feel cheated and more ripped off.

- Basical Hulu.com will be even more of a lock in for people. They will have stronger DRM, you will only be able to purchase NBC and ABC shows (nothing else, no music, no movies, nothing besides THEIR OWN CONTENT).

- Apple is making a lot of money, their model has proven to be successful. NBC and the others are struggling for their bottom line. Instead of asking themselves the reasons, they look at iTunes like the new cash cow, forgetting that there STILL are the free alternatives.

Apple is not "the good", but it is acting certainly more in favour of customers.

NBC and the other companies also forget that there is a lot of untapped markets (Europe and Asia come to mind) in which, if they break the deal with Apple, they will never be able to make money on iTunes. iTunes will be more than happy to make (if they are smart enough) content deals with European producers in Europe. People will be able to buy all European produced series on iTunes, plus major US series (excluding NBC's). So, at the end of the day, NBC might be in a position to loose huge amounts of money. But that goes beyond what we are talking here.

I remember that, in 2002, I worked at Paramount. Somebody (IN 2002!!!!!!!!!!!!) asked me to check where their TRAILERS where streamed illegaly to have a glimpse of the market.
I went to my boss and told him "why do you bother with tracking trailers when there are plenty of sites that allow you to download entire movies?". They didn't have a clue. And that was 2002. How can such managers be responsible of decisions when they have:
a) fear of innovation
b) no intention whatsoever to act in the long term (stock options last less than 4 years)
c) no idea of what technology is and how it works

They have plenty of "outsourced experts" because smart, tech knoledgeable people seldom work for these jaggernauts in which decisions take ages to be taken and there is always someone high up who has a "friend" that does things better (think Hulu.com, why not iTunes??? WHY HULU????). Smart, knowledgeable tech people work for Apple and the likes (Silicon valley is full of them).
The "outsourced experts" mentioned above always (since they are outsourced) have their own agenda and try to sell these guys stuff...

The movie company mentioned above, didn't even have a single person responsible for overseeing the movies' internet sites, just a dozen or more small companies each in charge of their own site. How can you manage that? Took this company some years to figure out they needed a new internet site because the old one was designed in "Front Page" like style.

I mentioned this, because I worked there, but guess others are the same.

Sorry for the long post.... I'll not write for the next 3 days...

BitTorrent is so nice in instances like these. I think I'll use it more often.