NBC Launches iTunes Competition
09.20.07 - 01:34pm
NBC pulled its shows from iTunes in a much heated dispute over pricing just a short time ago. Now, in a complete turnaround they are offering their shows, not for the $4.99 they wanted to charge on iTunes, but for free.
It seems to be a similar move that Universal pulled, when they didn’t renew their contract due to non-flexible pricing and then announced they would be allowing their songs to be downloaded at .99 cents, DRM free, with rival companies.
NBC is offering the free downloads as a way to promote their new service called “NBC Direct”. The catch on the free shows are that they are DRM coded to play for only for a week after the show has aired. The download also has embedded advertising the watcher cannot skip.
“With the creation of this new service, we are acknowledging that now, more than ever, viewers want to be in control of how, when and where they consumer their favorite entertainment,” said Vivi Zigler, executive vice president of NBC Digital Entertainment.
“NBC Direct” will launch in October with NBC’s most hyped shows available on the service. Office Space, Bionic Woman, Heroes, Friday Night Lights and more will showcase in the launch.
If the launch is a success it can be guaranteed that soon the shows will run with the varied pricing that NBC wants. Less for older shows and more for newer ones. NBC says that in the 2008 they will have varied business models including download-to-own, rental and subscription.
At the moment the shows can just be downloaded on Windows’based PCs, but NBC says they are expanding the initiative to include Macs, portable devices - such as your iPod, and a peer-to-peer distribution network.
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