Gizmodo
After the he said/she said BS between Apple and NBC over the last few days, we're kind of glad to see some kind of resolution: NBC's taking its business to Amazon Unbox, which will give NBC "greater flexibility in the pricing and packaging of video downloads." For the time being though, shows still seem to fetch $1.99 on Unbox. But there are a couple of other interesting tidbits in the Times article worth noting.
The piece alludes to "grumbling about Apple's prices" by Hulu's other daddy, News Corp., lending more weight to the possibility of a larger revolt against Apple sparked by the NBC walkout/booting. If News Corp. followed them to Unbox (its iTunes contract is also supposedly coming due), the video download market would become much more interesting. Unbox would gain some needed content firepower and the networks would be working with a distributor more beholden to them—and one with a direct line to millions of TiVos.
This party's so just getting started. [NYT, HuffPo via Tubewad]
Comments
about time someone stood up to apple's ridiculously crappy compressed video content. here's hoping amazon's looks prettier.
NBC proves a time-worn truth...
Middle-men are expendable.
@DaveExile: good point.
The point NBC etc. haven't figured out yet is this:
Anyone smart enough to go through all the steps needed to buy from Unbox (which I and millions of other iTunes users had never heard of until today) and watch it on their computer (because it won't work on their iPod without additional converting) - can also figure out how to record NBC's programs for FREE.
iTunes gave people the choice to pay a small fee to have their product easily and conveniently delivered to them on-demand.
iTunes offered a couple of NBC shows free - 30Rock springs to mind. Because it was available as a free download - I tried it out. I liked it, and have since got a few other people hooked. See a pattern here?
Why would anyone in their right mind pay more than $2 for a low-resolution version of a show that anyone with a television set can get for free?
Lol, like I'm going to Unbox now.
I'll get your shit for free, NBC. More money in my pocket which I'll need for the new iPods anyway.
yes, millions of Tivo users will be able to download. Instead of tens of millions of iTunes users...smart move. Next time bring your abacus
Um... Let's see... I have a TiVo, and software to get programming from the TiVo onto my computer. Then I can edit that to whichever format I want.
So why the hell would I pay money for Amazon Unbox? Maybe iTunes every now and then for the sake of being "prepackaged" to go, but I would certainly not buy anything on Unbox that I can record for free, and transfer to multiple devices...
Well unbox goes directly to my tivo, so it's easier. How many peopl ereally watch low res videos on their ipods...travelers I guess. If amazon gets the content, it's available via tivo, laptops, other media players. Apple lock on the portable media player may not last.
Still why would I pay for a low-res copy of 30 rock when I can record the hi-def version for free.
Having never owned a pc in my life, I'm a self professed Apple fanboy. This said, I hope more video outlets jump ship from itunes. I feel like the only reason we aren't going to see DVR functionality on the apple tv (making it a much more useful product), is because that would be a slap in the face to the outlets offering video content on itunes. I want an apple tv that will act as a DVR, have an option to encode for the ipod, and wirelessly send my recordings directly into itunes... or better yet, right into a new wifi ipod. Apple doesn't make any serious money off itunes anyway... screw it, just give people a sweet wireless DVR with ipod integration and we'll be more than happy... at least i will!
@uptonogood: I agree. Apples monolistic incest party fest is bullshit. Have iTunes and you want to play it back? Apple TV. No X-BOX, NO PC, NO Mac Mini. Steve Fucking Jobs "manifesto" about DRM is utter bullshit. Why doesnt he liscense "Fairplay"? Have an iPod, and want to play back your music? Oh, sorry buy a fucking SIX HUNDRED dollar phone. Why does everyone support this bullshit? OH, APPLE is having a press release! OMG ROTFF LMAO, I think Im going to CUM a new (GASP) iPod! Jesus fucking Christ, enough of this shit. Its like the people that think we are actually in a real WAR on TERROR and that we live in a Democracy. Right. And I forgot, Apple is GREEN which is why they are the LOWEST rated tech company in terms of ecofriendliness in the Valley. BRING ON THE BANHAMMER I dogged out APPLE and the JESUS phone. sorry guys, I had to get all of that off of my chest. Truly. TFSU!
@drater: Right, keep telling your 8% market share-self that. And, by the way, Windows Mobile is the leading smartphone OS out in terms of marketshare. It sucks, I know, but its true. Why does it have to be Apple or nothing for you psychos? Whats wrong with competition? Grow the fuck up.
@jeblis: Dude. You have a Tivo. Just record for it. Why pay for cable/satellite AND to download shows? At least the iTunes/Apple TV method could save you a cable/satellite subscription.
@bigMoneyMIKE: Calm down. You dont have to buy any of it you know? Why stress over how others are spending their money?
@jeblis:
I for one want video on the go... that's the whole point of portable video. I travel, I take the train to work everyday, I get bored at the poker table... I would love to be able to take out my ipod and watch anything that's on my DVR. I'll always have cable, or something like it. My tv watching is to varied and unpredictable to cancel my cable fix and just pay for certain shows from itunes. Sure, I love watching HD recordings on my beautiful 55 incher, but I also need an easy/effortless way to get these same recordings into my pocket... the 55 inch HD tv would be awkward and cumbersome on the train.
NBC just made a big mistake...
"Have iTunes and you want to play it back? Apple TV. No X-BOX, NO PC, NO Mac Mini. Steve Fucking Jobs "manifesto" about DRM is utter bullshit. Why doesnt he liscense "Fairplay"? Have an iPod, and want to play back your music? Oh, sorry buy a fucking SIX HUNDRED dollar phone."
uhh..anyone want to translate this? A bunch of missing words and sentences that make no sense.
@bigMoneyMIKE: "And, by the way, Windows Mobile is the leading smartphone OS out in terms of marketshare."
I don't know where you got the stats but the most popular smartphone OS is Symbian, not Windows. Linux is next. Here is the stats from 2005, granted it a year old but I don't think Windows took over the world in a year.
Symbian - 76.2%, Linux - 13.7%, PalmOS - 4.6%, Windows - 4.5%, RIM - 1.0%
"And, by the way, Windows Mobile is the leading smartphone OS out in terms of marketshare. It sucks, I know, but its true."
Actually, Symbian has over 70% of smartphone market share. So no, it doesn't suck because no, it isn't true.
Windows Mobile isn't even 2nd in smartphone market share.
@uptonogood: here's hoping amazon's looks prettier
Only sitting in front of your PC.
Myself, I prefer to watch TV wherever my freakin' iPod is. Too bad NBC doesn't get that.
The point is this: why couldn't NBC do BOTH iTunes and Amazon. Why do content and distributors have to be exclusive. Unbox looks to offer nothing that iTunes didn't except a big "f-you" to mac users since unbox hasn't bothered to support the mac. Yeah, thanks NBC for switching from giving me no choice to giving me a different form of no choice. Awesome.
Unbox is not mac compatible as far as i know...
Yay Windows Mobile - oh look - the application I installed crashes my phone - better uninstall it, oops - the registry is corrupted, I cam either start from scratch all over again for the 3rd time this month, or remember to pull out the memory card each time I reboot (4 times a day cause HTC got cheap and didn't include another 59 cents of ram in the phone.)
Wait, NBC shows were NOT available on Unbox? I thought they were already there.
Here's the simple truth about Amazon Unbox; Somehow I got a $15 credit from Unbox and its been sitting there for months. I own a TiVo, and I actually attempted to use the TiVo/Unbox experience and had to jump through so many hoops I gave up. Not out of problems using it, but rather I got bored hitting the SELECT button so many times. It wasn't worth it.
Apple fanboy or not, Amazon Unbox is much worse than iTMS in delivery. Now with their agreeing to shaft customers for NBC shows I can't wait to see the sales numbers, or lack thereof. Does anyone really think anyone will pay $4.99 for 26 minutes of the Office or 30 Rock? Jesus, you have to be kidding.
Jeff Zucker is a one-trick pony anyway. He supposedly saved the Today show way back when (early 90's I think) and he's now running the network. And of course everyone knows how badly NBC is doing in the RATINGS department over the last few years.
What a susprise!
Now that NBC is going to Amazon, It's time for the fanboys to trash Amazon. Is that the word from Apple for today?
Sorry, folks. It looks like the iTunes exculsivity is collasping. Like it or not. Shaking your fist and screaming threats like good little brownshirts isnt going to change beans.
@bigMoneyMIKE: It's apple or nothing because Windows Mobile is slow, unstable, and over all just a pain to use. Palm phones are nice, but they aren't as fun because the free 3rd party apps are pretty limited these days.
I'm not much of an Apple fanboy. I'm impartial to the Windows/Mac thing, but I will tell you MS's software is a joke. Not to say that Apple is perfect, but it sure is a lot more reliable and consistent.
I would use linux and stick my middle finger up to both companies, but I'm a gamer so that wouldn't work out so well.
Please, check my math:
1. Mac laptops are one of the fastest-growing in market share.
+
2. Laptops have out-sold desktops in the consumer market for the past two years
+
3. College students/under 30 crowd are the biggest purchasers of digital media
+
4. College students/under 30 crowd are *also* perceived to be the biggest crowd for illegal downloading (the market that NBC and others want to encourage to purchase content)
=
The fastest-growing laptop-maker (Apple) who has it's "finger on the pulse" of content distributors' core audience is BEING IGNORED because NBC and others choose to go with a model that does not work on the very computers that many in their target audience use.
*Is that right?*
I will do whatever my corporate masters tell me to.
has anyone ever tried unbox? i have a tivo and i have purchased a few movies for rental at .99. the user interface is utter crap. they mix rentals with movies for purchase. they have some movies that are available for sale but not available for rental. a complete mess.
Will this have any effect on my torrent speed?
Am I ever glad that NBC has saved me from the clutches of the evil Apple monopoly. Apple forced me to choose from a large list of TV shows and I had to pay the same price for each one - no matter if it was a crappy Office or a galactic hit like Star Trek. The same price. How unfair!
Apple also forced me to use their terribly designed iTunes software that only works on Windows and the MacOS. Now I can go to Amazon and use my browser on Windows. Such freedom! Suck lemons Mac users!
And talk about freedom - with iTunes my wife and I could each buy our own shows for our own computers and iPods. But then she figured out I could put her movies and shows on my iPod - dang, suddenly I was forced to watch her chick flicks and girly shows. Not with UnBoxed buddy! What she downloads has to stay on HER computer and it won't go on the iPod at all!
Yes! Thank you NBC! All I have to do now is figure out how to make UnBoxed work on my Vista.
@OtterKing:
lol
@Odomzig: If I was playing poker at the same table as you and you pulled out an iPod and started watching videos on it, I would punch you in the mouth.
@hagrun:
You're a gamer promoting the use of MACS? Interesting...
@DW:
Please don't confuse people with the 'growth' term. Growth rates of significantly smaller volume items exaggerates actual impact. If I had a 10 fold grown of all the money in my pocket I still couldn't buy a coke. If Bill Gates had a 1 percent growth in the money in his pocket he could probably buy the Coca-Cola Co. with the amount gained. Your kind of math should stay on Wall Street and be used to inflate stock value like it was intended.
@Cupajo:
You do a lot of punching... people listen to/watch their ipods at poker tables all the time. Certainly more listening to than watching, but watching too nonetheless. Sorry to have to break it to ya...
tv junkies....the whole lot of ya.
@bigMoneyMIKE: Gee, it seems lead paint is breakfast of champions these days. Are you seriously going to use Greenpeace's findings as ammunition? Sweet fancy Jesus.
To all you people out there in Gizmodo land that think NBC's departure. I hope you all like bundled videos, ad-laden content and higher per-view prices. These are the things that Apple refused to go along with, and the reason why NBC left in the first place. The iTunes deal wasn't exclusive, and NBC can make their content available wherever they wish. They just don't like someone else refusing to sell it for more.
@bigMoneyMIKE: Um, it doesn't have to be apple or nothing for me. I'm not talking about smart phones here. I'm talking about maximizing profit. You think unbox, is going to out sell itunes? Have you read any financial reports in your life? I think I grew up when I got my Bachelor of Science in Finance and I think I was able to comment on stuff like this when I got my Masters in Corporate Finance. I officially became an old man when I got CFA, but what do I know; I'm JUST an apple fan. Should I break it down for you in a kiddy like terms?
@bigMoneyMIKE: The only thing I fully understood was the TFSU, which is very overplayed. All I can get from your comment was 1)something about needing a 600dollar phone to playback music from your ipod? I'm pretty sure ipods have the ability to play music, I'll check on it.
2)Your itunes media doesn't play on a PC? You need speakers and a monitor.
3)itunes doesn't work on a mac mini?
4)What exactly do you want to do w/ your itunes media on your xbox? um i guess burn a cd?
@bigMoneyMIKE:
Wow. There are some anger management issues here that certainly need to be dealt with. Where to start? First off, I need to name you. So I will go with 'Ballmer's Suck Boy' - That is, Ballmer unzips, and you pucker up. So, BSB, let's deal with your post.
"Buy a SIX HUNDRED dollar phone" - or a $79 iPod shuffle?! Why are you complaining about an iPhone to play back music. That is THE LEAST of what the phone is designed to do. LOL - go buy a MotoQ and let me know how easy it is to play back music... shit you'll be BEGGING for any iPod after a few mins use of Windows Mobile...
And as for your ignorant comment about playing content on an XBOX - last time I checked I have NO issues playing back content on a PS3 - the fact that XBOX wouldn't even support standard video formats until the last update should help you understand WHO is at fault there...
Perhaps you need a time out, perhaps someone shoved an iPhone up your arse, or maybe Ballmer has been giving it to you WAY too hard - either way. STFU!
The real tragedy of NBC moving to Unbox is simple : it shows that there are mega-corporations that STILL do not understand the simplicity of what Apple has built with iTunes' user-experience. This is why I buy iPods, and get excited about new ones! Apple creates devices that solve user experience problems! Devices that 'just work' and make it fun to buy and use content... both companies will move on, to be sure. But I won't be switching to Unbox - NBC's content isn't strong enough to make me want to put up with the user experience that comes with using Amazon and Unbox.
And oh, by the way - Ballmer is ready for you again (zip!). Pucker up.
@JRIGA:
Gee, talk about ruining an argument with stupidity and viciousness.
@davidwb: What's amazing is somebody probably made that exact pitch in an NBC execs meeting, and everyone just nodded their heads in agreement.
@DW: well you're right, except the fact that of my freshman class at college of 1,165 people, approx. 80% of that own a brand new dell laptop, and maybe 10 kids own a macbook...
I wish I gave a rat's ass...
Firstly, if the point is watching it at home, I can already get it free using my PVR (yes I hate my Motorola HD PVR, but that's another story :-)
Secondly if I'm travelling, hell if I'm going to pull out my laptop in airline coach seating or on public trans.
Bluntly, if it's not easy to get it so I can watch it on my iPhone/iPod, then I don't bother. Done the whole convert from DVD thing - what a colossal waste of my time.
Having said the above, I generally buy music, music videos - a few TV shows, and no movies. Not buying movies till they hit 720p on iTunes. I do have to say that I would really like to see movie rentals on iTunes.
Both Apple and NBC lose. Apple has less content for their toys for being control freaks, same thing that hurt them in the OS wars. NBC will not be able to justify losing a big chunk of consumers over this, like iPod users, non-Windows users and people who don't think those shows are worth more than two bucks, which means, almost everyone who make legal downloads.