NBC shows being on iTunes isn’t a case of NBC begging Apple to let it come back, but a case of Apple caving into some of NBC’s demands. Let’s all predict Apple’s imminent demise!
NBC left iTunes last year because Apple didn’t let it set its own prices for its content. That has now changed. NBC said that it’ll be selling certain, older TV shows for 99 cents a pop versus the “normal,” Apple-set price of $1.99. NBC is also toying with the idea of creating “best of” collections that it would sell at a price of its choosing. For example, maybe the five best episodes of The Office for $5 instead of $10.
Consumers, so far, actually come out on top in this arrangement.
As far as the bigger picture goes, this means that Apple doesn’t quite have the stranglehold over Hollywood that many have thought in the past. Though you wonder why NBC even bothered with going back to iTunes if it’s so confident in Hulu.
What are you smoking in your pipe or is flamebait your vocation? The pricing on iTunes has hardly changed, they just added HD pricing that cost $2.99 (that comes with the SD version for the iPod). The SD pricing is the same. ALL the pricing for all the networks is the same across the board.
More likely is NBC saw hardly any income from Zune and Hulu and watched as their competitors were making money. They decided to eat some crow and come back to charging iTunes customers for what is available over the broadcast air and on BitTorrent for FREE. With iTunes huge library of content they were hardly missed.
I think NBC Zucker-ed UP! OK you can use this for your next headline!
Or maybe it’s NBC that caved and went ahead and is charging LESS for content as Apple had demanded rather than more! So that people who have an automatic bias against anything Apple will assume and spread the word that Apple caved, when in reality it was NBC.
Why in the world would Apple not allow 99 cent movies? That helps sell iPods a lot more than all the movies and TV shows going for $1.99 up to $4.99 which no doubt is what NBC wanted in the first place.
I have no proof? Neither does CrunchGear. And let’s not even mention this story is hardly an original take on the situation.
To use the most popular phrase of the day, “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”
How does that relate to this post? Not at all, but I thought I’d toss it out there anyway…because this post and its conjectures don’t relate to anything either!!
OBTW, I may not vote for her or think she has any reason to be Vice President, but I’d tap that Palin’s ass is New York minute…that woman has got that hot little librarian look that’s tearing me up! Black-rimmed glasses have got be at the top of Amazon’s sales list.
NBC ate some serious crow here. Prices are still the same. Did you do any research? NBC wanted to charge more for hot new shows and bundle certain shows and not allow individual shows to be sold outside of the bundles. Didn’t happen.
Yes, old, “Classic” show are now selling for .99¢. I don’t think NBC was holding out for 9 months for less money.
According to Newsweek, Apple is now selling or renting 50,000 movies a day, so who’s your daddy? NBC or Apple?
Just because NBC said they got “pretty much” what they wanted, doesn’t mean they got it. Go back and look at the quotes of what they asked for; not the revisionist stuff that they’re putting out today about what they asked for.
NBC wanted to bundle shows to sell at a higher price. Hasn’t happened. NBC wanted better protection against privacy, which has been interpreted as iPods not playing pirated content. Hasn’t happened. NBC wanted to variable pricing, i.e., higher prices for new shows. Partially happened in that they get lower prices on older shows but new SD shows still $1.99. Note Apple already gave HBO higher prices for some shows, and all would agree that Apple would’ve priced HD shows at higher prices (just like they did for movies) without NBC’s tantrum.
Some said NBC wanted to sell season passes for less. But Apple already does this so that seems neither here nor there.
I really don’t see how Apple caved. Could we get some real evidence and not just the NBC spokesperson.
NBC caved. Apple always had flexible pricing and packages – what NBC/GE really wanted was a % of ipod revenue, they said it but clearly the ipod didn’t need NBC and after the Olympics, NBC could see where mobile TV is heading – why not GET itunes revenues + Hulu revenue (and NBC.com revenue)? It was never either or – Apple could care less where else you sell something – they don’t need to care. NBC started to realize trying to sell on Xbox, Unbox and others was an excerise in futility … consumers have chosen ipod as the portable medium.
(plus NBC execs wanted iphones but now it’s okay :-) )