Comments on: Apple slaps back at NBC in iTunes spat

A day after reports said NBC would not renew its iTunes contract, Apple counters by announcing it will not offer NBC's new TV shows.

[WJeansonne]

NBC is Dead Network Anyway, Who Cares.

Their ratings are falling every day and I too say good riddance to that left leaning network.

[john55440]

Temper Tantrum By Smug Bully Steve Jobs

The action is a temper tantrum by the smug bully Steve Jobs, who insists that everyone shut up, and do exactly what he wants them to do.

[MacVet]

Hate Apple much?

Perfectly predictable comment from YOU! Read the rest of the posts-- the overwhelming majority have the common sense to see that Apple's stance is pro-customer and NBC's is anti-customer and a clear intent to gouge. Ever hear of biting the hand that feeds you?

[pugscanfly]

Think before you post...

and you would realize that smug bully Steve Jobs is fighting for a
fair deal for consumers.

What motivated such a ignorant response John?

[dominicsotirescu]

Apple is not the only source of content for iPod

"If you don't have access to the top rated content, what's the point?"

The point is that Apple is not the only source for content! How many of the songs on an iPod, on average, come from Apple's iTunes?

[TV James]

You miss the point.

You're comparing apples to oranges.

The goal of radio stations is to sell ads. The goal of music publishers is to sell music. They give it to the radio stations and hope you like it enough to buy it.

The goal of TV stations/networks is to sell ads. The goal of TV show producers is to sell the shows to a network in hopes that enough people will watch it to eventually buy the DVDs.

DVDs are an added bonus profit center while CDs (or equivalent) are the main profit center.

iTunes allows the networks to immediately recognize another revenue stream -- selling something they just showed last night for "free."

True, iTunes is not the only source of content for your iPod. It's also not the only legal source of content for your iPod.

But (and to Apple's credit) what it is the only inexpensive, effortless, consumer-centric don't-make-me-think model. I open iTunes, I find what I'm looking for, I buy it. It's slurped right onto my iPod.

No watching it in 10 minute chunks someone's pirated onto YouTube (are you listening CBS and Amazing Race producers?), no buying it in some other store (if it exists for legal purchase!) and then trying to import into iTunes. No ripping it from DVD, no capturing it from the network site, no watching your back for the RIAA* while you download from limewire or bittorent. No decoding, encoding, transfering, copying, whatever.

While I find Apple's products to be overpriced (my iPod was a gift I'd never have been able to afford on my own) and many Apple fans to be arrogant and aloof (ok, iPod and iPhone have led to a more down-to-earth regular-joe customer for Apple), there's something to be said for Apple. It just works.

*Yes, I know they don't police TV shows, but they're real bastards and they'll take any chance they can to screw with you and accuse you of piracy.

[beatmoses]

NBC Greedy like Record Industry. They don't get it!

it only makes this old quote more interesting:
I'm not sure that we'd still have the show on the air" without the
iTunes boost, says Angela Bromstead, president of NBC Universal
Television Studio, which owns and produces "The Office." "The
network had only ordered so many episodes, but when it went on
iTunes and really started taking off, that gave us another way to
see the true potential other than just Nielsen. It just kind of
happened at a great time."

[mwyner]

NBC Smoking Crack?

There's nothing that could get me to pay $4.99 per episode for an NBC show, no matter how good it is. At that price, I might as well just wait for the DVD box set, where the price works out to roughly.... $1.99/episode.

NBC stop being greedy.

[jrpollard1]

Ummm James...

What "high quality" content are you talking about? The Office! That
only became poplular BECAUSE of iTunes. Not the other way
around.

Sorry, but NBC can go crawl back in their cave for all I care...

[TV James]

Maybe Fake Steve Jobs *should* be running Apple

I thought this was smart:
http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/08/content-bastards-think-theyve-got-us-by.html

Sadly, I see he's now added:
http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/08/take-that-nbc.html

[alchemistmuffin]

Universal Music Dispute, now NBC Universal Dispute

I knew it....

Once the Univesal Music dispute started, it would spread to TV as well....

NBC, YOU WILL GO DOWN THE DRAIN....
AND I'M NOT JOKING...

I believe this is part of NBC's budget cut by raising prices, but you made the wrong decision to raise the prices.....

consumers want cheap, TV shows that lasts forever without commercials.....

Well, NBC, you just lost one audicence member. I'm watching ABC!

[ackmondual]

"consumers want cheap, TV shows that lasts forever without commercials..."

^^

Does that really describe ABC? Somehow I doubt it.

[fred dunn]

NBC Shows are amongst my favorites...

So I guess I will be going with which ever store NBC contracts with.

[mrzonker]

Apple DVR might change the negotiation...

So ipods originally benefited from a ton of mp3's on peoples computers - after all everyone had all their old cds to rip and listen to. My hunch is that ipod video never took off because nobody has a bunch of digital video files (and you can't legally convert dvds).

Apple TV seems to be conspicuously missing DVR capability, and that's really what Apple needs to make the ipod video thing happen. I bet they'll release a DVR version of Apple TV pretty soon and if they do, they have a much stronger bargaining position for NBC and other uppity content providers. At that point, NBC's stuff is going on the ipod, whether the users buy it or just "tape it". And as long as Apple is selling ipods and apple tv units- and maybe even biting farther into PC market share- the sales on iTunes are icing on the cake.

[hal Summers]

M$-NBC

Isn't NBC the network that partnered with M$?

Hmmmm. I wonder if that has anything to do with this?

[make_or_break]

Give it a rest

If you want to assign blame, look no farther than parent company GE. It's EASY ENOUGH to figure out that they're plain tired of the weak numbers (ratings AND profits) that NBC is bringing in. And as far as the parent is concerned, they'd EAT Microsoft for lunch before allowing some other [i]outside[/i] entity to dictate policy over TV show downloads. Your childish conspiracy theories fail to take into account that GE is an even larger behemoth than MSFT is.

[jyroflux]

Maybe 99 Cents Per Episode

I tell you. The NBC suits need to get out among regular people
more often. As if I'd really pay $5 for one single episode of a small,
compressed image. If I really wanted to see that I could just copy it
from my DVR to VHS. And it would probably look better.

[gggg sssss]

TIVO PVR etc

Who would pay for this stuff. Most people already pay for cable. A few will get it over the air. Maybe when they finally get the all digital-to-the-display thing going this might not work, but that is a pipe dream anyway.

[Heebee Jeebies]

Oh, NBC makes Apples stuff valuable but...

Not priceless. $4.99 for an episode I can record from TV and convert for free for my iPod or Apple TV unit. Doesn't the greed ever stop.

And, lets not forget that NBC needs all the viewers it can get. It isn't like any of the networks really are flushed with good programming. $4.99 per crap episode, they need to get real. But, then I wouldn't pay $1.99 per episode either.

Robert

[the Otter]

Good riddance.

NBC jumped the shark about five years ago. Every time I?ve tried
to watch an NBC show since then, I?ve had to turn it off halfway
through due to explicit language, explicit sex scenes, or just
plain offensive content. CBS and Fox have screwed up with a lot
of their shows too, but at least ?the Simpsons? and ?Shark? don?t
involve religious profanity and/or soft-core porn.

And yes, much as I *love* iTunes, $1.99 is more than I?d pay for
an episode of just about anything. If I want it that badly, I can
wait a few months for the DVD.