NBC Universal is not renewing its contract with iTunes. According to Reuters, the studio is iTunes' number-one supplier of digital videos, including popular TV shows like Heroes, 30 Rock, and The Office.
NBC reportedly wants Apple to pay an inflated fee for the content, which would result in an increase in the price customers pay for downloads (supposedly US$4.99 per episode instead of US$1.99). Apple says sorry, that won't fly.
Nothing more fun that watching two big companies play hardball. NBC's attitude is especially entertaining.
Christine from Marketnews postulates that NBC Universal plans to launch its own downloading site, from which they can get the per-episode price they want.
That assumes that NBC is capable of making shows that people are actually willing to watch, let alone pay for.
Good luck, they'll need it.
3 comments:
So somebody at the executive board meeting said, "Have you seen the latest numbers for our download distribution? Can you imagine what we would have made if we had doubled our fees?"
And there was no one in the room smart enough to say, "We would have made less because people would have used the illegal download sites instead if paying that much."
Once again the "old guys" in the media game demonstrate their one-dimensional thinking. The era of controlled and exclusive distribution channels is dead. All the content providers can do now is try to offer their content in ways that encourage consumers to choose their distribution stream instead of others.
And what about the issue of user platform choice? I doubt Apple will easily allow NBC the access and support necessary to make an iPod user's experience with NBC as easy and accessible as what they already experience with iTunes.
I hope NBC stubs their toe HARD on this one. I'm still ticked off at them for cancelling Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Seems to me the execs at NBC have forgotten the first goal of the entertainment business.
"Bums on seats, luv. That's what it's all about." - Liam Neeson to Clint Eastwood in "The Dead Pool".
'Nuff said!
You have to wonder what is going on at NBC. To say no to iTunes is to loose a major partner in the future of media distribution. And they also picked the worst time, they dropped iTunes when Apple has become the leader of innovation in North America. And Apple is about to redesign the iPod.
Isn't it obvious?!?
They are building a cash war chest to woo Katie Couric back.
-CF
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