NBC to Apple: Build antipiracy into iTunes
SAN FRANCISCO--NBC Universal would like to have its TV shows distributed once again through Apple's iTunes service, a top executive said Wednesday, but he called for antipiracy measures to help protect his business' revenue.
George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer at NBC Universal, didn't specifically mention Apple by name in his request, but it was clear he had the iPod maker in mind when it came to combating people's consumption of pirated content.
George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer at NBC Universal
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)"If you look at studies about MP3 players, especially leading MP3 players and what portion of that content is pirated, and think about how that content gets onto that device, it has to go through a gatekeeping piece of software, which would be a convenient place to put some antipiracy measures," Kliavkoff said in an onstage interview at the Ad:Tech conference here. "One of the big issues for NBC is piracy. We are financially harmed every day by piracy. It results in us not being able to invest as much money in the next generation of film and TV products."
Apple's iTunes service has become the largest music retailer in the United States, but relations between Apple and NBC Universal are strained. In 2007, NBC Universal pulled its TV content from iTunes when the two companies disagreed about pricing. Kliavkoff made it clear that he'd like the conduit back, though.
"We'd love to be on iTunes. It has a great customer experience. We'd love to figure out a way to distribute our content on iTunes," he said, but wouldn't comment on any negotiations. "We have film distribution with iTunes so yes, we do talk to Apple," he said.
Price appears still to be a sticking point. NBC Universal sets a wholesale price for content it offers to distributors, and then distributors are free to set the retail price.
"They can mark up the price and make a profit or use it as a loss leader to get people in the door," Kliavkoff said. "It's really difficult for us to work with any distribution partner who says 'Here's the wholesale price and the retail price,' especially when the price doesn't reflect the full value of the product."
"The music industry guys would have something to say about how the pricing has affected their product over the last few years," he added.
The Apple-NBC Universal spat has been a game of brinksmanship over which company needs the other more. Analysts at Forrester Research think Apple needs the content more than NBC needs the distribution.
NBC Universal, through a 50-50 partnership with NBC and News Corp., has its own mechanism to view entertainment TV shows on the Web: Hulu. However, the site doesn't offer downloads and doesn't support mobile devices, at least today.
Hulu is in part an attempt to combat piracy on Google's YouTube, Kliavkoff said.
"It used to be that at the end of Saturday Night Live, YouTube would have clips up faster. You can fight that all you want, but until you provide a place to go at 1:05 a.m. Eastern time that has the digital short, you won't get anywhere." Now, with Hulu, viewers can get the same content through legitimate channels.
YouTube, he added, is a "fantastic promotional vehicle for some of our product," such as trailers. And it's the "market leader for amateur content." But sites like Hulu will change its position for professionally produced video, he predicted.
"I think that balance will shift a little bit. I think at the end of the day people, more often than now, will want to see professionally produced content," Kliavkoff said.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
DRM? This article makes it seem that Kliavkoff hasn't got a clue
how his product is marketed.
only accept DRMed tunes (or video). I think he wants tunes you get
"over the transom" to not play on your Mac or iPod.
No way. Go away.
played through the audio jack, giving you near-DVD quality video
that can be recorded by a digital or DVD recorder. This is why
rentals do not play on the 5th gen.......I can see an issue on why
you wouldn't like this if you are RENTING movies, but on a DRM'd
copy of a show you purchased? Seriously, what is his real beef?
how [iTunes] pricing has affected their product over the last few
years,"
So what would these 'industry guys' say about Russian MP3
sites, torrents sites or the thousands of blogs that routinely give
away full albums? How do those affect the bottom line?
Kliavkoff looks more and more like an idiot every time he opens
his mouth.
"internets" work, you will be amazed what those people will
answer....
NBC actually SOLD their shows online (through the iTunes store)
instead of choosing to go to the expense of building their own
site where they give them away for free and pay for the streaming
bandwidth all by themselves. Besides, iTunes TV shows ARE copy
protected.
that isn't DRMed onto an iPod.
iTunes against content from bittorrent and the like. And heck,
while we've got Apple's ear, why not cripple the whole OS with
anti-piracy measures? Or maybe just turn iTunes into its own
operating system. What the heck... while we're at it.
Hulu's quality is poor to very poor, you can't download or use it
mobile. It has embedded commercial. Come on NBC let me pay
1.99 for something I'd actually like to watch.
lowest mind on the planet, perhaps someone would want to buy
their 'entertainment'. As it stands, die dinosaur, die.
that content on MP3 players is pirated. I know that people think
this is true but I have never seen any evidence of it.
"Oh come, you know that's how people do it."
No, I don't. The music on my iPod comes either from iTunes
Music Store or my own CDs. The same is true of my friends. At
$.99 a song, $9.99 an album, it is simply too easy to buy the
music/videos.
I think the real issue for NBC is the same as it is for the music
industry. They simply cannot stand the thought that they might
be losing control of pricing. Market forces are providing
alternative methods of distribution and with them come
alternatives in pricing. The music industry initially thought 99
cents a song sounded great in contrast to zero cents a song
they were getting from Napster et al. Now that the model is
proven, they want to take back control of pricing. Oops.
The dinosaurs are stuck in the tar. It's only a matter of time.
somebody, so... it is all Apples fault. They will not let us take control
of iTunes. They would not bend over and let us screw them and thus
screw the consumer.
Build more antipiracy into downloads? NBC has compleatly lost it's
mind.
Lets see, a iTunes video download will only play on a iPod/iPhone or
computer. It will only playback on a television via AppleTV.
The user cannot copy it, or put it on another branded digital player.
How much more restrictive does NBC want to be.
It appears that NBC is holding out a artificial olive branch that no
company in its right mind would accept. However, to its share
holders NBC can say hey at least we tried. They refused to talk to us.
It is that damn Steve Jobs. Its all Apples fault.
other sources and if it lacks DRM information, it can't be played.
Which is an affront on your freedoms. It would prohibit you from
creating your own content with your own camera!!!
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/4/zucker_hulu_sold_out_still_talking_to_cbs_viacom
be moaning for payment for shows that would have already
otherwise been underwritten by selling ad time.
Unless they want to offer a way to view ALL their daily content
through a channel sub that is COMMERCIAL-FREE, then they can go
fly a kite, imho...
value of the product."???? How can he begin to say what the value
of a product is? The value is determined by what someone is willing
to pay for it. Just because this idiot believes some moron is willing
to pay $44.95 for a season of The Office doesn't mean everyone
will. I'd like to see the next headline read "Apple to NBC... where are
you in the ratings again?!?"
1000% more people to actually buy their season ticket will get their
bottom lines much quicker back in order than trying to trick a few
stupid DAU's into paying their prices....
We need more programming that has this level of character development and complexity of plot. Like "Deal or No Deal" this program caters to those of us with a good education and an excellent income. I am glad to see NBC purchase programs for people who like to buy 100k cars. This will keep your advertisers happy.
person doesn't allow you to get movies or TV shows legally...!!!
think about that...
and in europe rights are so messed up that there's only the
dubbed version and the original soundtrack is omitted...!!! even
though itunes is capable of handling various sound tracks!!!
how stupid is that???
and ?2,50 for a show??? no thnx...
$1,99 is ?1,25, not ?2,50 that they're charging right now for tv
series in germany!!!
figure out how to disable the fast-forward button on the iPod
during video playback, rather than any anti-piracy software
which could be hacked almost immediately. I don't have cable,
and I love Hulu, LOVE it. I think if there could be a model where
I had to view those ads while watching content for free on a
video player, I would jump at it in a second, and I think NBC
would too. The only way to truly combat piracy is make it as
easy to get the content, and make it as close to free (or free),
eliminating a crave to go into a dark alley and torrent it. NBC
counted on their content being more valuable than it was,
bringing Apple to its knees. Instead, it only pushed Apple into
offering movie rentals, making them even stronger. Now the
fourth-place network (that is hard to say) is trying to talk
everyone into joining them, hoping to salvage the bad tatic......
watch the ads? Yeah, we have that. It's called television. It sucks.
Nobody likes it. That's why I like iTunes Music Store. For two
bucks I can watch the program all I want, when I want without
commercials.
The way to combat piracy is to provide compelling programming
at a reasonable price. Which is what iTunes Store does.
Next.
not fast forward, not anything...
apple needs to get rid of the DRM in their vidoes ASAP>>>!!!
free! What a bunch of doofuses.
MP3 player (or more importantly to NBC, and mp4 player...). The
iPod is sort of a special case, but even then there are third party
ways to do just about anything to an iPod.
If iTunes becomes a nanny app, it will be worse than it already is.
NBC can go sit in the corner. They don't have much content worth
watching anyway...
began restricting the ability of fans to receive baseball
broadcasts from radio stations over the internet.
Since I no longer spend most of my time in an area where I can
receive the free radio broadcasts I just watch occasionally when
they are on TV.
He is all about squeezing money out of customers any way he
can. He would probably charge an old lady to help her cross
the street.
Apple: "Already tried DRM, failed dismally as it is impossible by nature."
NBC: "Well, we won't allow our content to be sold unless it works!"
Apple: "Then it won't be sold... you lose."
month old story quoting a Forrester analyst saying that Apple
needs NBC more than NBC needs Apple.
Events of the succeeding months seem to have patently
disproved this: iTunes and Apple have managed to become more
powerful than ever without NBC and it's fourth-place
programming.
Unless I'm missing something, it's NBC execs that keep talking
about finding ways to get back on iTunes, not Apple's.
since there is zero physical inventory and Apple handled all the
cost of doing business and the messy actual sales and retail
hassles of handling thousands and thousands of small credit
card charges.
I'm sure they are making up for losing all that money by selling
LOTS more DVDs. OK, since the DVD's don't come out until
way AFTER THE WHOLE SEASON IS OVER there might be a little
tiny drop off in interest, but after all, DVDs are copy protected
(which seems to be the ONLY important thing), so what could
possibly go wrong with their new brilliant strategy? They must
be making money hand over fist! Let's check their stock price.
Let's see, NBC-Universal doesn't have it's own stock. Seems it
is owned by GE. Whatever COULD have caused GE's stock price
to tank? Way lower per share earnings along with way lower
per share projected earnings going forward! Sheesh.....
If they really knew anything, they'd have created iTunes themselves.
producing quality shows instead of the crap they've been foisting
on the public for years. Then maybe their share will stop leaking
off to cable nets like HBO and Showtime who *do* bother to
produce quality programming.
On fox, the Sarah Connor Chronicles was disappointingly good. I was hoping that the show would bite the big pickle. Bad scifi is better than no scifi. Now that the show has committed the crime of being good, they will cancel it as well.
Asking for anti-piracy in MP3/digital content players is like asking that DVD or CD players only play "verified" content. You know in order to thwart pirated movies or music. It is an outrageous and ignorant request.
This guys has lost touch with reality. Pulling your content from iTunes...stupid. Thinking Hulu is going to be anything other than a black hole to through money down...dumb. Opening your trap to speak...very questionable.
If I were and NBC Universal shareholder I would start clamoring for this guy's head. Geez where do they find these gems?
back at the helm! Their ship (iTunes) sailed a long time ago without
them! Go HULU NBC!
- Same Old, Same Old . . . Media
- by jypeterson April 16, 2008 5:22 PM PDT
- We are no longer the consumers of a timeframe of shows on primetime. He even pointed it out with YouTube.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
Showing 1 of 2 pages (71 Comments)We are a nation of instant gratification, but only for a price. NBC wanted to charge higher prices, but Apple knows what consumers wants (and they have repeatedly shown this over and over again) and kicked NBC out of the iTunes world. With the continued proliferation of wireless iPods and iPhones, we will continue to see the instant consumerism prevail. Those who do not play nicely with Apple will loose.