TVSquad

You think the price is fair? It shouldn't cost more than $1 or $1.25. Friday Night lights is $20 for 22 episode, most of the time you can get the episodes, and extras on a boxset for $30 or less.

And if I only miss one episode I'll download it and buy the boxset later.

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Sounds like a new twist on the old cable company policy of forcing you to subscribe to several channels you don't want in order to get 1-2 that you do.

Part of the success of iTunes is the ability to buy songs a la carte, instead of being forced to buy a whole album. It is true that television programs are still largely funded by advertising dollars, but as "traditional" television viewership continues to decline the networks are going to have to wake up and realize that the old business models are not working for them anymore and adapt to the changing times and technology.

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WTF is NBC thinking...

For me, I'll just DVR the shows for FREE, rip them to my computer and enjoy them in iTunes. (And I won't buy them later on iTunes.)

Before, NBC got money from me, now they don't. In the end, I get exactly the same thing..

I'm guessing the exec's at NBC failed business 101. Make a product, then SELL it..

Idiots..

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"We just wanted to bundle our fine Goodyear tires with a special introductory offer to a 360 Ferrari Modena! You'd save 75.000$ on this special offer for a mere 287,875$ grand total, 150$ for each tire and a measly 287,275 for this spanking hot new Italian powerhorse of a car"

Yeah right.

"All we wanted to do is force customers to pay 4.99 for the new episode of the series they want combined with a movie they wouldn't watch for free".

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I understand why people are mad at NBC. But, the dispute is about NBC wanting more freedom packaging their content on itunes. To me it sounds like Apple is not being flexible enough with its content providers.

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NBC-U responds to Apple
“We never asked to double the wholesale price for our TV shows.” (Translation: well, okay … so we pushed hard for a $4.99 price-point … But come on guys, everyone knows that during contracting you toss out a high number and then the real negotiations begin. We didn’t think Apple would take us seriously. Geez! Guess Apple heard that we’re telling every media distributor in the world to ditch iTunes in favor of our new Hulu.com venture. Maybe we played our hand too soon? Our inbox is spilling over with “wishing you well” comments from iTunes customers (not). Damn you Apple! Damn you Digg!)

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Royce, it's not that Apple's not being flexible - okay, maybe it is - but the bottom line is that it's Apple's store, and they have the right to set the prices and policies. If NBC doesn't like it, they can go sell your stuff on hulu.com. So what if they don't sell 1/4 of what they sold on iTunes, it's their content, and they're more than welcome to do whatever that want with it, no matter how stupid.

When is NBC/Universal going to learn? Give people an easy way to get music/movies/tv at an affordable price and they will buy it. But they're so greedy that it's never enough for them. They aren't going to stop p2p file sharing, but iTunes was successfully competing against it. All they're doing is driving people back to illegal downloading and taking money out of their own pocket. I am forever amazed at the greed/idiocy.

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I'll never pay for downloadable television unless it's priced $0.50/hour or less, sans commercials, so I guess I'm never buying downloadable shows. I can't believe that people pay $1.99 to download an episode of a TV show that's broadcast free, commercials or not. P.T. Barnum was right.

In the face of DVR technology and P2P, it's just another case of corporate greediness and screaming execs. Happened with video tape, audio tape before that, but suits never learn. Price these shows at a half-dollar for a 1-hour episode and business will thrive, with a lot of it coming from people who previously used illegal P2P methods. Kills 2 birds with one stone: brings in the business and diminishes piracy.

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"but the bottom line is that it's Apple's store, and they have the right to set the prices and policies."


Ironically, Apple doesn't allow stores to set their own prices of the Apple products they carry.

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Brad, I can't believe that you actually think this whole thing fell apart because NBC wanted to charge less for shows! Please...

And you were very selective with the small portion of NBC's response that you chose to focus on. Why didn't you include this little gem from NBC spokesman Cory Shields: "NBC Universal was determined to change what it saw as Apple’s underpricing of video. Apple’s retail pricing strategy is designed to drive sales of Apple devices at the expense of those who create the content that make these devices worth buying.”

That sure doesn't sound like NBC wanted lower prices to me!

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One other small inaccuracy in the article - you won't be able to download Battlestar Galactica until mid-season, because Season 4 won't be starting until sometime in January. (You might have heard the anguished screaming of all the fans at the end of the Season 3 cliffhanger, when the words "BATTLESTAR GALACTICA will continue in 2008" appeared on the screen...)

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I think the major problem here is that the Itunes business model really only benefits Apple in selling more Ipods while the content providers get very little in return.

It's very likely that NBCU's only benefit is to grow a fanbase for their programs. The problem is whatever growth they get from Itunes offering does little to enhance their actual live audience which drive their advertising rates. Like it or not, ad revenue is what sustains prime time television and actual live viewers are declining each year as people have more options in viewing their favorite shows.

NBCU has to be wary of the download piracy/pricepoint issue as they look no further to the negative impact Itunes' success has had on the music industry. Apple is currently viewing their next big growth potential in video and you know that the TV and movie industry companies have to have serious concerns on what impact a succesful Itunes-like store for video would have on the way their industry currently works and derives it's profits from.

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XVID

Learn It.
Live It.
Love It.

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NBC content is 40% of Apple's video sales. given that NBC has the properties and all Apple is is a distributor of one small niche format, it looks to me like NBC doesn't *need* Apple, Apple needs NBC. Guess we're all about to find out come the winter.

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I think $1.99 is too much for a TV episode. At that price I'll just record it myself or go buy/netflix the DVDs. As someone said above the Friday Night Lights DVD costs $20. That's a reasonable price since you get the full season at better quality than iTunes, and you can play it on your TV without having to buy an Apple TV. You also get special features and physical media and packaging unlike with iTunes. The only way I'd buy off of iTunes is if they were cheaper than the DVD since there's no way it costs less to make the DVDs than distribute the shows on iTunes.

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Pretyy short sighted of NBC. They are giving up 100% of iPod owners as potential customers. Apple doesn't license FairPlay, so NBC will have to distribute it DRM free (yeah right!) or go with WMV or Real. (Neither of which play on iPods / iPhones)

Maybe there's some corporate shenannigans with MS paying NBC to get content exclusive to the Zune.

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I tried to run down the total revenue for an episode of a TV show. It sure seems like iTunes is priced either fairly or too high based on my math:

http://www.fatmixx.com/2007/09/02/how-much-advertising-money-does-one-tv-episode-bring-in/

Sujal

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NBC are idiots. They just can't figure out where the power lies in downloading television shows. It is the audience. For the most part the audience watches the shows for free or for a negligible cost. Radio works the same way hence the advertising. Just as a cigarette is a nictotine delivery device, the television episode is an advertisement delivery device. All, NBC needs to do is embed advertisements into their show and then sell the rights to the adverts. It wouldn't matter how the episode was disseminated as every viewer will be watching the ad anyway. If they could measure how many times an episode was actually viewed then they could charge the advertisements accordingly. It's not rocket science. I am certain that some bright spark has figured out how to do such things.

If NBC actually understood what they were delivering they could make so much more money. There are marketing people who analyse this stuff for a living and all of the demographic information is readily available. NBC just doesn't seem to understand how providing free content can be used to their advantage. Think Black Donellys and Studio 60 as specific examples. They were shows that tended to have a older, more educated, wealthier audience. Prime targets for financial management companies, luxury car companies, etc. But NBC shafted both of them because they couldn't see the forest for the trees.

Everyone understands how big a drawcard the superbowl is and how much advertisers will pay for a big audience. But it is a one-off. Great televisions shows are like great books - people watch the same episode again and again and again. There is a whole world out there that can be exploited with that in mind.

There is so much more you can do with a show a median audience that is 42 with an income of $80,000 than a show which has the median audience is aged 16 and has an income of $300. The show for 16 year olds, has fast food, clothes and phone advertisements. The worth of advertisement has been superceded in a month perhaps less. In ten years time those 16 yo's are now 26 and will be trying to figure out why they spent so much money on a phone that matched a pair of shoes and why they weigh 30 kilograms more than they should. A show for 42 year olds, in ten years time can still work magic especially for luxury cars when those 42 year olds and now 52 and have spent the last decade drooling over the latest high performance motorcycles.

Trees come and go - forests are forever.

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Well if NBC really wanted to charge more for their episodes then why haven't we heard of a price hike on Xbox Live? The fact of the matter is they wanted to try something else, apple didn't like it so they moved on. Like what has been said it's Apple's store and NBC Universals content, they each have the right to do what they want. Plus they make much more on Xbox Live.

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