NBC creates friction and scorn millions of iPhones users
By fred | September 4, 2007
Apparently not everyone likes the pricing that are going on on the iTunes platform. Many rich execs in the media industry seems very frustrated with what they consider to be low pricing (Songs are sold for 99 cents, TV shows for $1.99 and movies for $9.99). Read, too low. Because it can never be expensive enough, when it’s not them paying.
And so NBC decided to stop selling their shows to iTunes, claiming that they wanted more security against piracy “since it is estimated that the typical iPod contains a significant amount of illegally downloaded material“, as well as “flexibility in wholesale pricing“.
Ok so everyone who has a iPod raise your hand. Now the cops can arrest you and send you to jail. Because if you have an iPod, is it estimated that you should have a “significant amount” of illegal material on it. How long before buying an iPod is consider act of terrorism and consumers are sent to Guantanamo? I wonder.
Answering NBC, Apple claimed that what they really meant by that and were after was money, more money. They said that NBC wanted to have the prices go way up, as far as $4.99 per episode. And Apple wasn’t willing to change the price.
NBC was quick to reply that they did not want to charge more, only “the ability to package shows together in ways that could make our content even more attractive for consumers“. Yeah, also what that could mean was that if you wanted to buy one episode Or The Office, you had to pay more because it would come packed with a movie you don’t care about, but featuring Steve Carell.
Yeah, sounds like a crappy idea to me, really.
Over at NBC they explain that “it is clear that Apple’s retail pricing strategy for its iTunes service is designed to drive sales of Apple devices, at the expense of those who create the content that make these devices worth buying“, and that might be true. At least the part were Apple only wants people to buy their iPods cause what’s their main goal, sell millions and millions of iPods.
Guess what? They’re already doing so, iPod is a big success and more people buy one every day. Just like more & more people use iTunes to get their content, and NBC taking their shows off of it is a stupid move, and it isn’t just for pure motive anyways, it’s not like it had nothing to do with them wanting to launch hulu.com soon, to compete with iTunes and selling all their shows online.
And of course, if those are only available on hulu and not iTunes, it could make hulu more attractive to people, and NBC would like that very much. Unfortunately, this isn’t how it works, not exactly.
Remember the old saying, “client is king” ? This should still prevail, and NBC’s move is absolutely going against it.
So NBC pull the plug, and won’t send their new shows to iTunes. While Apple has said it will stop selling NBC shows next month, NBCU says that it not the case, “We want consumers to know that all our returning series, including new episodes, will be available on iTunes through the remainder of the contract, which expires in early December. Our content is also available on NBC.com, Amazon.com, and the soon-to-launch hulu.com”
Right, hulu hulu… so whether or not they’ll be on iTunes and stop midseason in December, which would actually be all profit for NBC’s hulu, doesn’t change the fact that new shows (Bionic Woman, Journeyman, Chuck, Life) will NOT be on iTunes.
In the end, the customer is always right(, or should be). And what NBC is doing is making him angry. The only result in NBC actions to take off its content from iTunes is that it creates friction.
» iTunes to cease to exists soon? | I Watch TV!
» After getting ride of iTunes, NBC goes directly to the customers | I Watch TV!