What is Digg?58 Comments
- mrfreeziexp, on 01/21/2008, -3/+60So, to sum it up, Apple stood their ground and won.
- wonderchemist, on 01/21/2008, -1/+52Zucker finally figured out iTunes is free money for NBC. Apple hosts the content, pays for the bandwidth, handles customer service, etc. All NBC does is provide already made content that is in most cases already digitized and ready to go.
- inactive, on 01/21/2008, -1/+22Yeah, they figured out no one wants to pay $14.99 for "BSG:Razor" on Amazon Unbox. Bunch of geniuses over there at NBC, keep up the great work.
- perhapsimcrazy, on 01/21/2008, -2/+20Apple, once again, shows they truly are the dominant force in the universe.
- LaurenNYC, on 01/21/2008, -0/+17Finally some real apple news! Great find.
- Angostura, on 01/21/2008, -5/+16I'm going to mark this as inaccurate.
The full context of the quote is here: http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-zucker-univer ...
>snip<
The decision to make NBC Universal’s (NYSE: GE) films available for Apple’s iTunes’ rental program is consistent with NBCU’s decision not to renew its contract for TV show sales, CEO Jeff Zucker told the FT. The difference? Variable pricing for the films. Zucker: “We want to be in business with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). We never said that we did not want to be in business with Apple. But we want to do it on terms we feel comfortable with.” And that is quite consistent with NBCU’s stance all along.
In other words he is talking solely about movie rentals, nothing more. - theradical, on 01/21/2008, -0/+11Too bad NBC has nothing to sell now.
- etandrib, on 01/21/2008, -0/+10I think the lost revenue is hard to lose for any amount of time. Nothing is replacing $2 a TV show download.
- cjdunn, on 01/21/2008, -2/+12The Universal mothership is having a bad new year, what with Warner jumping to Blu-ray. They're going to have to eat crow for one or both.
- metapop, on 01/21/2008, -0/+10talk about having egg on your face. perhaps they're realizing that with all these studios jumping on the appletv/rental bandwagon, that more and more people are going to get appletvs and want to have some NBC content?
- MJ420, on 01/21/2008, -3/+13Jobs already hinted at this:
http://digg.com/apple/Reporters_Notes_from_Intervi ... - artfuldodga, on 01/21/2008, -3/+12I'll tell you what caused the turn around, little something called AppleTV.
- Charlotte_Web, on 01/21/2008, -0/+8It does sound like Zucker woke up sober and is trying to patch things up.
As they say in real estate, it's all about location, location, location. iTunes is the hottest media store on the internet right now; NBC's store (the name escapes me at the moment) is essentially a startup that's going to need a lot of marketing capital to build awareness, and will probably never reach anywhere near the same level of traffic that iTunes does. Also, iTunes has huge potential for impulse buyers; people browsing other media content and they see ads for NBC's content and make a buy. People going to NBC's store are the hardcore NBC viewers who are specifically looking to buy a particular show.
Plus, it doesn't make any sense to be raising the price of digital media right now. The higher the prices go, the more people will be downloading bittorrent. Higher prices are simply unsustainable long-term.
In the end, NBC has to weigh the net cost of building their own branded site (so that they can charge a higher price) vs. the instant profits of remaining on iTunes. - asauterChicago, on 01/21/2008, -1/+8I guess their "Super-DRM Unplayable on Any Portable Media Players, Screw You Consumers Just Write Us (NBC) a Freakin Check Because You Owe Us (TM)" format wasn't a big hit. Huh, who would of ever known...
- LeeSoong, on 01/21/2008, -0/+7NBC should work with Apple again.
The only people they are hurting are themselves, their customers, their content producers, their shareholders, and their moms, ah, - somehow removing sales from iTunes definitely hurt their moms. - TheZorch, on 01/21/2008, -2/+9I find it fascinating that this comes only days after Steve Jobs unveils the iTunes movie rental service and the MAJOR upgrade to the Apple TV. You'd think the networks and big studios would learn that greed only causes them to loose money.
- Alphapsi12, on 01/21/2008, -0/+6Didn't Zucker blast Apple and iTunes for destoying music and on the verge of destroying TV???? This simpleton is making Steve Ballmer look half way smart.
- Nick519, on 01/21/2008, -0/+5hey, NBC - how's that crow taste? good, innit?
- LeeSoong, on 01/21/2008, -0/+4NBC Who ?
Sorry - I just checked my iTunes and they don't exist,
must be some sort of Urban Legend ... - LeeSoong, on 01/21/2008, -0/+4One important thing: New 20th Century Fox DVDs are iTunes / iPod compatible.
"Jobs says he is hopeful that other studios will follow 20th Century Fox’s lead, by agreeing to let Apple encode a Fairplay-compatible copy of Fox’ movies on its DVDs (by the way, as some readers predicted, Apple did not have to license Fairplay to Fox to make this possible—a question I raised in a recent post). “It’d be great if they did, because this is a great middle path” that enables the studios to sell DRM-protected DVDs in a way that still gives consumers some reasonable flexibility. “People think they should have the right to put movies they buy [on DVDs] onto their iPods,” says Jobs. This approach “keeps honest people honest.”"
Hopefully, within 3 years all new DVDs will be iTunes compatible
- bring it home, watch it on your TV, your PC, or your iPod / iPhone.
I believe iTunes enabled DVDs will enjoy increased sales volume,
over standard DVDs. - MikeZ, on 01/21/2008, -1/+5Like I've said before and I'll say it again, NBC will eventually come crawling back to iTunes, and Amazon music and video Store will die out....
- Alphateam, on 01/21/2008, -0/+4How come with they break up it gets like 10 articles on the front page with 10000000 diggs, but this one gets hardly a glance?
- ferchu, on 01/21/2008, -0/+4oooooooooops.. going back to iTunes! Steve is becomig the king of media!
- joshuaer, on 01/21/2008, -0/+3With apple signing almost every major studio up for itunes rentals, offering HD content plus working with studios like Fox to get them to put an itunes version on every disk just shows that Apple does not need NBC and that NBC needs apple.
- optimo, on 01/21/2008, -0/+3Ha ha ha ha ha
just in time for the WGA holdout to end? - LLLSecretChimp, on 01/21/2008, -0/+3Yes, but Zucker gave the same information more cheaply, albeit not as elegantly and with a slightly larger form-factor.
- mzupan, on 12/13/2008, -0/+3If you give someone enough rope to hang themselves... odds are that they will.
- supermanred, on 01/21/2008, -0/+3Varied education systems, I would presume.
- NSResponder, on 01/21/2008, -1/+4" Variable pricing for the films. "
It wasn't just variable pricing he was after. He was trying to make Apple go along with bundling shows, so you could only buy the shows you want if you also bought whatever crap NBC was trying to promote. In other words, he wanted to make the iTMS suck like cable deals suck.
-jcr - Gabberwok, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2Why is it that no one on Digg seems to know the difference between the words "lose" and "loose"?
- SilverRocket, on 01/21/2008, -1/+3Might as well get it on there now before they start having to pay show writers what they deserve!
- LeeSoong, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2Rentals are a major upgrade - because more people are willing to rent a movie for a few bucks, they do not want to buy it for $20 and store it forever...
It would be nice to rent TV shows for $ 1.00, instead of buy for $ 1.99.
There are many shows on iTunes I would like to see, but I do not want to buy.
Renting only the TV shows I want to see for $ 1.00 is better than paying huge cable bills...
AppleTV works stand-alone now, no PC needed.
Plug-in, network, start renting, and your hard drive wont fill up with old movies. - chkdg8, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2Witness, the power of Apple.
- Peavey, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2HD rentals with 5.1 surround sound isn't a major upgrade? That alone would make the upgrade worth money is most people eyes, and since it comes with so much more (full access to the iTunes store, including HD podcasts, Flickr and .Mac photo integration, no computer required to get content, etc.) and is free, yes, it is a major upgrade.
- SouthsideIrish, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2Does Wally World have iTunes? I think Amazon has a great service, but I don't want to buy tracks like that, when I can make a couple of clicks in iTunes and it is on my iPod. I don't care who comes out with digital downloads, unless they come out with a app better than iTunes, and nothing done in a browser will ever be good enough.
- NSResponder, on 01/21/2008, -1/+3More like, they're afraid that people are going to buy TVs and not care about getting any NBC shows.
-jcr - LeeSoong, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2NBC = Not Been-gettin' Cash . . .
- Tangeuray, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2The Internet in general is King of content. Anybody who turns its back to the Internet will regret it.
- MikeOSX, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2Movie rentals were only part of the appleTV upgrades. You also get full access to the iTunes store, as well as flickr and .mac integration. Don't forget it now serves as a stand-alone set-top box now; no pc or mac required.
- joshuaer, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2or eat peacock!
- supermanred, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2About time, that Hulu or zuuogoloo or whatever sucks huge internet ***** because I can't access it unless I "pretend" my computer is from the US, which involves a lot of proxy *****.
As soon as I can buy NBC shows on iTunes again to watch on my TV at home or on my iPod I will retract my sentiments from previous posts (***** NBC... I repeat ***** NBC) but until then, I remain steady at...
***** NBC.... I repeat. ***** NBC. - Peavey, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2Walmart recently threw in the towel on downloading digital video, and Apple just struck a huge deal for online video rental with every major movie studio.
Walmart can't compete in this arena, they are only big in the brick and mortar business. - VitriolAndAngst, on 01/21/2008, -0/+1NBC realized that they didn't have content anyone was begging for. So they decided they should make nice with the next wave outlet that was putting up with them, and grab the deal they had -- before Apple realized they were in control. I can't really tell you one show NBC makes. Do they still run Cosby?
Otherwise, you'd have to assume that the disagreement was on something like principles -- a conspiracy theory if you ask me. - PJLess, on 01/21/2008, -0/+1All I can think about is the quote for Good Will Hunting. Hey Mr. Zucker how do you like those Apples!!
- robbob, on 01/22/2008, -0/+1NBC crawling back? Apple should demand $$$ for loss of revenue when NBC left
- VitriolAndAngst, on 01/21/2008, -0/+1Yeah, the typical model for entertainment on TV is the REVERSE of music. People like hearing the same song again -- but many don't watch movies repeatedly.
Of course my wife still watches "I Love Lucy" and "Three's Company." So, this isn't a 100% law of the world. - stalky14, on 01/21/2008, -0/+1Loose and Lose I can understand. Try "breathe" and "breath"! That one follows the pronunciation rules and people still get them mixed up for some reason.
- Peavey, on 01/21/2008, -0/+1I mostly agree with you. AppleTV is not yet the runaway hit that the iPod is, but the iPod wasn't a real runaway hit until it played video, and that took until it's 5th iteration. With HD movie rentals and direct distribution (no computer needed, just an internet connection), AppleTV definitely has the potential (like you said).
But, there are quite a few people that are willing to watch video on their computer. Just look at the younger demographics. They want to watch on their portable devices, their computer, and their TV. That is why Apple will increase its dominance in the online video arena. - loki1584, on 01/21/2008, -0/+1Battlestar!
- stalky14, on 01/21/2008, -0/+1Why does everyone in the entertainment business want this mythical "piece of the gross"? That only pays off sometimes. I agree writers should be paid better but it should come in the form of bigger flat salaries. Everyone getting a slice just makes for more (and easier to fudge) accounting.
Also, have you seen any sitcoms lately? Most of what those writers deserve is a swift kick in the ass! -
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