I don't think anybody likes DRM. Customers certainly don't like it: they want to listen to music and watch video where and when they please. I don't think it's that popular with the content providers, either, because it's not a perfect solution. It might cut down on some piracy, but by no means eliminates it entirely.

DRM has come up recently in a few places, and companies have set up camps at two ends of the spectrum. Amazon.com is doing a booming business selling DRM-free music, sometimes for better prices than at the iTunes Store. On the other hand, we have NBC, who may or may not be partnering with Microsoft to create device software that (somehow) determines if a particular music or video file has been stolen.

As much as I'm sure that both Zune users would appreciate having access to NBC's video library, the problem remains of how exactly Microsoft would do that, aside from splashing giant watermarks across everything. My money's on unicorn tears.

How much more investment will there be in DRM before content providers realize it's an inefficient, ineffective way of deterring piracy? Sound off in comments.

We heard it from a guy (thanks, Jeff K!) who heard it from another guy who basically speculated from comments made by two other guys that, surprise surprise, NBC and iTunes are on the road to reconciliation. Ok, so it isn't really a surprise-- the odds are really good that as long as there is NBC and iTunes, they'll eventually end up together. There's been some posturing in their past, but really, both have way more to gain together than apart.

Not to mention that the NBC Direct service never quite panned out correctly. Of course, neither NBC nor iTunes is clearly hurting for one another. But there's so much benefit for both to make a deal that it's not hard to expect them back together by the time new Office episodes get back on the air.

A report issued by Forrester Research suggests that contrary to conventional wisdom (or at least the comments here at TUAW), Apple is the loser in their feud with NBC-Universal. The on-going fight, which reached fruition last week, as all all NBC-Universal content was removed from iTunes, hurts Apple more than it hurts NBC. James McQuivey, an analyst for Forrest Research, urges Apple to make-up with NBC, otherwise they risk losing their spot as a major source in the distribution of online broadcast content. Why? Because although iTunes dominates the world of digital music sales, the same cannot be said for iTunes video downloads.

According to the report, which was quoted by CNET, Apple relies on NBC to deliver 30% of their video download sales. This is in line with the 40% figure claimed by NBC in October (I say we split the difference at 35 or call it a third). Furthermore, a Forrester study revealed that only 19% of users buy video content (either TV shows or full length movies) from iTunes and of that 19%, the average amount spent on videos is $30. Meanwhile, competing pay services like Amazon Unbox and the free offerings provided by the networks own websites and through services like the Fox and NBC collaboration Hulu.com make paying for an iTunes download, just so you can watch it on an iPod or Apple TV, less inviting or appealing to users.

Now that December has arrived and NBC's contract has expired, all of their content has been removed from the iTunes Store, as promised. That means no more Bravo, mun2, NBC, NBC News, CNBC, NBC Sports, Sci Fi, Sleuth, Telemundo or USA Network (Go ahead and look. We'll wait).

It looks like the two companies were unable to patch things up, not surprising considering their ugly, public fighting. Good luck to NBC with hulu and that wonderful NBC Direct service, which sounds great.

It requires Internet Explorer, the NBC Direct Player (Windows only) and the latest .Net framework. Videos are available for only 7 days after they initially air, and disappear from your computer 48 hours after you begin watching them (unless you remember to renew your license before then). Also, videos will only play on the computer used for the initial download.

Mac users cannot use the service, though NBC says a Mac version is "...planned for 2008." Finally, downloads cannot be transferred to portable devices.

Awesome.

[Via MacDailyNews]

As several readers have pointed out, the latest episodes of Scrubs (which started its final *sniff* season last week) are available on iTunes. But how can that be, Scrubs airs on NBC? Yes, yes - but thanks to the magic of large media conglomerates, Scrubs is not actually an NBC show.

Scrubs is owned/produced by Disney (which owns ABC), via their Touchstone Television division ABC Television division, meaning they are not part of the NBC Universal contract with iTunes. This is why it took so long for Scrubs to appear on iTunes in the first place (fellow Scrubs fans will remember how mad we were at iTunes/ABC over this issue). Now, in this final seventh season, things become a bit more complicated; NBC now shares profits with Scrubs (before they didn't get anything from syndication or DVD sales), as a condition for renewal, and you can watch full episodes on NBC's website (which you could not do before), but this is still an ABC show in terms of iTunes arrangements. It is my understanding that iTunes contracts are with the studios that produce the shows, not the networks that air the shows - which is not always the same thing.

For example, NBC Universal owns/produces the show House, which airs on FOX. Thus, the current season of House in unavailable on iTunes. Conversely, FOX owns/produces My Name is Earl, for NBC, and like Scrubs, current episodes are available on iTunes. Weirdly enough, Ugly Betty, which is now also fully owned by NBC (because the chairman and head of programming for NBC is the owner of Reveille, which produces Ugly Betty and The Office, among others) does have its new episodes on iTunes - only because I assume they signed an agreement with Apple before NBC bought the company.

Of course, if the WGA does indeed strike, not much of this will matter anyway, because none of our new shows will be on TV or iTunes for us to watch. This concludes today's lesson in Television Business in the Digital Age.

Update: As our commenters have pointed out, the two premieres now appearing in the iTunes store -- although broadcast by NBC in the US -- are actually produced by other studios such as Fox and Warner Brothers. Since the online distribution rights are separate from the broadcast rights, it would seem that the content owners are more than happy to have their shows sold in iTunes. Unfortunately for fans of Heroes, Law & Order, The Office and 30 Rock, all those shows are produced by NBC/Universal and they are, as expected, not updating with the current season's content.

Original post: When NBC announced their intention to pull their content from the US iTunes Store by December, Apple promised to make that happen much sooner:

"Apple has decided to not offer NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season beginning in September."

A few hours later, NBC stated that their new shows will be available in the US iTunes Store. Today, I found Journeyman [iTunes link] and Chuck [iTunes link], two brand new shows, ready to go. I bet other hits like My Name is Earl and The Office, which premiere on Thursday night, will also be posted.

Why? I imagine a boardroom conversation that sounded something like this:

• NBC Exec. A: Heh. We showed them. We'll make a bundle on the new stuff and then, bam! We slam the door in December. Cha-ching!
• NBC Exec. B: Um, sir? They're going to pull all of our stuff immediately. No new shows.
• NBC Exec. A: *Wilhelm scream* B-But, they can't do that.
• NBC Exec. B: It's done, sir.
• NBC Exec. A: Damn. Get Jobs on the phone.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

I'm not sure what happened to the memo from top NBC brass, after the iTunes negotiations broke down, saying that Apple was firma non grata... but it clearly didn't make it to the Warner Bros. production offices of Chuck in time to excise all the Mac gear from the geek-themed spy comedy's pilot episode. The corporate rage may have found some outlet, however, in the sheer destructive energy expended on the show's poor, defenseless Macs. Even the presence of a nasty Windows virus (the kind that causes laptops to emit smoke and sparks!) as a plot point doesn't make up for the carnage.

There's the protagonist's doomed home machine, a G5 tower with a convenient sticker over the side logo -- which a) must be a lot lighter than a production model, seeing how it got tossed about; and b) suffers a grim fate as a gravity-test victim/close-combat weapon -- and earlier, there's another Mac that makes a key appearance in the opening sequence before getting blown to smithereens. (OK, seriously now, the CIA and NSA keep all their classified information -- all of it -- on one lonely Mac Plus? I sincerely doubt it.)

You can review the carnage at NBC's full-episode playback page; the Mac Plus detonation is in the first four minutes, and the G5 breakdown is at about 16 minutes in. Too bad you can't watch it on your iPhone, unless of course you EyeTV'ed it last night. Also spotted during this week's premieres: Emmy-nominee Doogie Neil Patrick Harris sporting an iPhone on How I Met Your Mother, an iPhone in the time-traveling toolkit of Journeyman star Kevin McKidd (more on this later), and another iPhone gag on the Simpsons season premiere. It's looking like a good year for Apple on TV; send us your spotter reports in the comments, or add your sightings to our "appleontv" Flickr pool.

Our best posts of the week, all organized in one post for your perusal. Erica's passed the baton off to me for this edition yet again, and here we go.

Apple looks out for my best interests
And by that, Erica means they don't.

The state of the iTouch jailbreak
Is not good, unfortunately.

Metaliveblogging's Apple's "Mum is no longer the word" event
Is it wrong of me to wish every post from Nik started with the words, "Good morning, TUAW readers. London calling"?

Run widgets (kinda) on your iPhone
Erica's (kinda) hackaround lets you have a portable Dashboard.

Coming in iPhone 1.1.1, probably
A short look at what might be in the next iPhone update.

TUAW + iPhone turns your loved ones into pirates
Yaaar maties, Talk Like a Pirate... and look like one, too. Smelling like a pirate is up to you.

iTunes: Free Thursday
Including the Prison Break season premiere. I haven't seen it in a while-- is he still following that tattoo map or are they past that?

iTunes: Free Friday
More freebies, including a few frepeats (TM).

Radiohead ditches iTunes to keep album complete
Fighting for the consumer is great-- except when you're fighting against the artist?

Orange gets French iPhone in November
And our French readers say oui.

Mac 101: Three Dock tips
Get to know your Dock. All over again.

NBC to offer content, DRM via NBC Direct
NBC plans their own player, and no one cares.

Ask TUAW: Automounting a network drive, iPhone flash memory, XMP photo metadata and more
You ask, we answer. Coming soon: TUAW Direct, where you'll only be able to read our answers, and no one else's. Plus, special this week Ask TUAW, Round II.

iPod touch dark screen problems
Quality control problem messing up iPod touch screens? Lame.

The latest news in the NBC/Apple battle? NBC is going to make their own iTunes. With blackjack! And women! In fact, forget the blackjack and the women-- they're calling it "NBC Direct," and a brand new player (not available on Mac for a little while, go figure) will be used to download and play television shows just as soon as they finish airing on television.

Sounds cool, right? What's the catch? The player is NBC only, and heavy DRM in there keeps it from playing anything else at all, including that scary "stolen copyrighted material." If you're going to use their player, you'll have to watch their shows, or else. I'd make a prediction that someone will hack it to play other stuff, but frankly, who cares. If NBC wants to go play in their own (non-Mac pool) let 'em, I say.

They also say that, in the future, they may even offer download-to-own, rental, and subscription business models. If only there was a well-designed, very established and compatible, widespread piece of software out there that let them easily do that right now. Oh well. Good luck, NBC. Say hi to Tina Fey for me, and tell her I'll see her on bittorrent.

[via MacRumors]

NBC has gotten all the press in their big fight with Apple, but a few other companies are currently considering their options about what to do with iTunes pricing.

News Corp is apparently ready to draw a line in the sand. Their COO Peter Chernin says "negotiations will be prickly and dicey and contentious, like all negotiation are and like all negotiations should be." Interesting point of view there. He earlier promised that they wouldn't be pulling content from iTunes like NBC is (or at least says they are-- the content is still there for now, but on the way out soon), but says that they should be the ones determining prices for their products, not Apple. Which is true-- unless Apple believes otherwise. If Apple offers you $1 per song or nothing, Chernin, which one are you going to take?

And CBS, on the other hand, is asking everyone to just chill, OK? CEO Les Moonves is the only one that actually sounds like he knows what's going on at the iTunes store: "We look at iTunes as much as a promotional vehicle for our shows as a financial vehicle." That's exactly how everyone should see it-- we can watch these shows for free (with advertising) on television, or pay a nominal fee to watch them later on iTunes.

This doesn't help with NBC of course-- they're going to do what they want (including go to Amazon) no matter what CBS says. They are competitors, after all, but whether NBC pulls out or not, the Store isn't going anywhere-- there are lots of content providers still interested in it.

[via MacBytes]

Following NBC's split with Apple, NewsCorp (Fox's parent) has announced their intention to keep top shows like 24 and Prison Break in the iTunes Store. According to president Peter Chernin, his company's relationship with Apple is just peachy:

"Right now we have a perfectly good relationship with Apple."

But don't get a warm fuzzy in your heart just yet. While things are good, they could be better. Cherin adds that NewsCorp wants more control over the cost of their content - an opinion other media outlets share, most notably NBC.

Most of my friends offer the media giants the same response: "If I don't get it from iTunes, I'll get it somewhere else," with "somewhere else" meaning "torrent."

[Via AppleInsider]

Turns out that iPhone will play a major role in the upcoming NBC show Journeyman. When the show debuts on September 24, keep your eyes open to spot the iPhone as it repeatedly appears on-screen performing such vital acts as losing network connectivity through time travel and having visual voicemail work as an indicator of missing time. The iPhone reportedly follows the method and insisted on not bathing and gaining 20 lbs before its scenes were shot.

TUAW mourns the early passing of Adam Finley

Update: Reader Mike passed along this amusing screen shot showing a Journeyman hand actor holding the iPhone upside down with a screen mockup added in postproduction. Mike notes that the iPhone is encased with the Griffin Clear Case.

The Apple/NBC drama continues with this latest report from Variety. Sources tell Variety that Apple proposed to the studios that TV show prices on iTunes should be lowered from $1.99 each to $.99, to which NBC said, 'No thanks!' NBC is pushing for 'flexible pricing' meaning that new shows would cost more than older shows which makes sense to me if the prices are reasonable (i.e. not $4.99 for new shows) and this scheme is actually already in place in the iTunes Store.

What?! I thought Steve was all about one price or nothing, I hear you say. Yes, that would seem to be the case if one looks only at TV shows and music, which account for most of iTunes purchases but one shouldn't forget that Apple also sells movies . Newly released, or hot, movies cost $14.99 to download while older movies cost just $9.99. Oh, the confusion a buyer must feel when faced with these differing price points!

I predict that in the near future all the studios (including NBC) will agree to sell their shows via iTunes with new shows getting $1.99 an episode and with older shows going to $.99. That way the newer downloads won't compete with DVD sales, and the older stuff will suddenly become more appealing.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Here's a quick recap of the NBC/Apple tussle, for those who are tuning in late:

1. NBC says Apple is mean and won't renew their contract ('These shows are my toys and I'm going home!').
2. Apple says NBC is a stupidhead, and NBC's shiny new shows won't be available in iTunes ('How are those toys now? Taste a little better with the salt from your tears, NBC?').
3. NBC and Amazon become BFF's. NBC no longer makes eye contact with Apple when they meet in the hallway between classes.

That's right, NBC's upcoming season of shows may not be available via iTunes (pending contract negotiations), but they will be available at Amazon Unbox. What's Amazon Unbox you ask? It is ok not to recognize it, since few people actually use it (and even fewer Mac users, since it is PC only). Unbox is Amazon's video download service that allows you to rent or buy movies and tv shows which you can then play back on authorized devices (rentals can play back on one device, while the things you buy can be played on two computers and two portable devices but no iPods since they aren't supported).

NBC went with Amazon, reports the New York Times, because Amazon agreed to be flexible with pricing. This translates to higher prices for more recent shows, with the back catalog being cheaper (which is what I assume NBC wanted Apple to do all along). Amazon Unbox will also offer up free previews of NBC's upcoming shows, as well as a discount for people buying whole seasons worth of shows (does any of this sound familiar?).

The coolest part of all this is that you can download these shows to your Tivo, though if you have a Tivo why wouldn't you just set it to record these NBC shows for free, like Nik suggests?

Within the last week, news that Apple and NBC had failed to renew their agreement for TV show distribution via the iTunes Store is undoubtedly big news. An NBC Universal spokesman has been quoted by the New York Times as claiming that the iTunes Store's raison d'etre "[The iTunes Store] is designed to drive sales of Apple devices at the expense of those who create the content that make these devices worth buying." In some regards, it is a fair point: Apple needs content to offer so as to allow it to continue marketing and developing new iPods.

But at what price? Setting a price at resale, or retail for that matter, and then raising it is not only unreasonable, but generally not accepted by us, the paying customer. In an age where we routinely put up with the demands of the networks and labels, and their interesting ideas on DRM, in order to legitimately obtain content online the prices that Apple touted as NBC's preference are simply unacceptable. Sure, variable pricing sounds fair, in theory, but cynics of NBC's supposed "variable pricing" (I include myself in this group) argue that giving the network carte blanche with pricing would not, in fact, lead to any cheaper content - such is the distrust held against the media companies.