NBC you greedy bastards....no...morons!

The BBQ Pit
1

Background info:

http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipod-itunes/news/index.cfm?newsid=18969

NBC has however chimed in and said that they did so over DRM concerns citing that…

Their side of the story is here:

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=AAPL:US&sid=aR7Te_sjiGug

Let’s just digest this little statement here…

it is estimated that the typical iPod contains a significant amount of illegally downloaded material.

Well that sounds like rock-solid evidence that things need to be changed. NBC denies that they would have charged 5 bucks an episode, only that they wanted greater DRM protection and also wanted some liberty in “packaging” their shows.

I have no idea what kind of packaging they wanted to use, but I’d imagine that therein lies the 5 bucks an episode conundrum.

But lets get back to the DRM bit here. How fucking stupid are you, NBC? Seriously? You take the most successful, secure, legal, stream of online revenue and are unsatisfied? Where is the evidence of iTunes content being copied? It is true that there is indeed a program that strips iTunes Music Store content of its DRM, however, Apple has patched this at every turn.

It’s just another typical case of Big Content turning around and biting the hand that feeds them. It if weren’t for Apple dragging the rest of the world kicking and screaming into this fucking 21st century, technology in this area would be much further behind with nobody making any money at all. What is Apple’s stance? To provide content for a fair price. That’s it. Apple has time and again, come down on the side of the customer in various battles over content providers.

But you see, here’s what happens. Big content providers start looking at some numbers…then they start to get envious of Apple’s position in the bargaining process. Who are they to dictate the terms of how we sell our content? If we didn’t have to deal with them we’d make lots more money! Except…there would be nothing without Apple.

These are the same idiots who have clips of their TV shows taken down from YouTube. It’s literally the best free promotion you could ever get. I thought that NBC might be a bit more savvy considering how they’ve hosted a majority of the type of clips that would have been taken down before, but now I’m not so sure.

I don’t know what NBC expects Apple to do. Should they install pirated material detectors in all versions of iTunes? Does NBC want iTunes to scan for its material? who knows.

The thing is that Apple would love nothing more than to have a MUCH more popular music store. Apple wants to position itself as a media company, and NBC et al. have a huge problem with that because they don’t like being told what to do. What’s going to happen here?

I predict a few outcomes. NBC very quietly agrees to the previous terms and keeps it as quiet as possible. This is what everybody wants. Lets be honest, buying a DVD of a series costs the same and has many more features.

NBC is stubborn. That means no new ITMS content. What does NBC do then? I don’t know. They probably will turn to some other method of playing their content. Only people won’t buy it because it won’t work on iPods.

So NBC, Fuck you for being so goddamned stupid. Here I was, thinking that we were finally heading toward an age when people could download a TV show whenever they feel like it (And PAY for it), yet this is somehow not acceptable? These fucking cretins will never understand that the consumer will choose the path of least resistance to content, ALWAYS. If I miss a TV show, am I more likely to pirate it or buy it? I’d buy it from iTunes, but will I install some proprietary software that sucks because you refuse to face the reality of content distribution? Nope.

2

Isn’t this just a backlash from iTunes removing it’s iPod specific DRM?

3

I don’t bother buying TV shows or movies off iTunes. I figure, either the DVR got it or I’d rather buy the DVDs (which I could always rip later.) My question is, does this affect the stuff they already offer for free? For instance every day/week, I get podcasts of Hardball, Countdown, NBC Nightly News, and Meet the Press. Does this decision mean that those free podcasts would no longer be available?

4

And, as usual, the people getting screwed the most royally are the consumers who actually go out of their way to pay for the stuff and use it legally.

None of this will reduce the number of Office or Battlestar Galactica episodes available for free and illegal download from torrent sites and online file storage websites. All it will do is piss off and alienate people who are actually paying for the content.

5

Can you elaborate on this? iTunes now supports another type of DRM?

6

ABC, at least, lets me watch recent episodes of their shows for free on their website. Other networks make stuff available through the On Demand feature of my cable subscription. So perhaps NBC will allow the content to be viewed for free.

7

I think i just found out why… Now, this is about someone being appointed CEO, but the information about the company is revealing. It’s a joint NBC Universal NewsCorp online video site. Called Hulu.com, it’s supposed to have more content than anything before it.

So fine, fair enough. NBC wants to provide the content directly. If they are smart they’ll do so at a reasonable price. If they are fucking idiots, then they will try to screw over the customer.

I tell you, it seems to be the MO of so many companies nowadays to try to fuck over their customers and treat them like garbage. At least we have the power these days to give them the finger. I don’t care if they don’t want to use iTunes, providing that they plan on using a reasonable alternative. Now if they try to use some sort of ridiculous DRM scheme and make it a pain in the ass, well they can kiss my money goodbye.

8

I prefer Amazon unBox anyway. Works way better on my Vista than iTunes, which doesn’t work with video episodes at all (video freezes up).

But it’s a shame that those who prefer iTunes won’t get their NBC show fixes. We’ll see how this shakes out, I guess. I’d actually heard previously that it was iTunes/Apple that was being too greedy on the contract.

BTW, NBC does show some of its shows’ episodes online. Not The Office, unfortunately.

9

I assume he meant that music files, at least, are now available from some publishers without any DRM at a higher price. As far as I know, it’s still Fairplay or nothing from the iTMS and in iTunes.

10

EMI now offers music at higher bit rates (and higher prices) but without DRM through iTunes. This has been around for a few months now. Why this would bother NBC, I can’t say.

Universal had a dispute with Apple over music pricing not long ago, IIRC. NBC and Universal have corporate ties. Actually so does NBC and Microsoft… One wonders.

asterion, I would assume that the NBC podcasts would remain, because there isn’t any special deal with Apple for those. Any software capable of downloading podcasts can find them, our you can just go to the NBC site now to download them. iTunes just has a handy way of downloading them and sending them to iPods automatically.

11

But what would that have to do with NBC?