AppleInsider StaffApple on Friday afternoon issued a press release confirming that it will indeed halt sales of NBC television shows through its ubiquitous iTunes download service beginning with the upcoming television season.
ABC, CBS, FOX and The CW, along with more than 50 cable networks, are signed up to sell TV shows from their upcoming season on iTunes at $1.99 per episode.
“We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase,†said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers.â€
Apple’s agreement with NBC ends in December. Since NBC would withdraw their shows in the middle of the television season, Apple has decided to not offer NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season beginning in September.
NBC supplied iTunes with three of its 10 best selling TV shows last season, accounting for 30 percent of iTunes TV show sales.
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105 Comments
So I wonder if NBC has someone else willing to pay more, or if they think they can do better selling direct?
OK, I need someone to enlighten me as to why I would spend 1.99, let alone 4.99 for an episode of crappy NBC show in the first place.
I've run the math, and it seems to me that even at 1.99/show, if I watch 2 shows per day, that comes out to about 60 bucks per month, and zero flexibility.
My cable with HBO is 60/month including DVR.
Someone want to 'splain the brilliant economics of this model to me?
"...retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode........."
It's hilarious how one press release can totally change perception of an issue.
When the first announcement hit, there was a ton of apple bashing for not playing ball, and dire predictions.
Now that it has been revealed that NBC wanted to double prices, they are getting slammed as the greedy corporate bad guy.
Apple's PR department sure knocked this one out of the park.
OK, I need someone to enlighten me as to why I would spend 1.99, let alone 4.99 for an episode of crappy NBC show in the first place.
I've run the math, and it seems to me that even at 1.99/show, if I watch 2 shows per day, that comes out to about 60 bucks per month.
My cable with HBO is 60/month with DVR.
Someone want to 'splain the brilliant economics of this model to me?
The ninja move here is to do the following:
1. Buy an "HD" antenna - which is just a regular UHF antenna
2. Buy a Series 3 HD TIVO ($299 - $399)
3. Buy an Apple TV
4. Drop Cable / Dish and love every minute of it. You'd save $720 a year minus your inital outlay of cash for the hardware and the amount you spend on iTunes.
How can you do this?
Use your TIVO to record Free Network Shows. It also allows you to rent movies via Amazon's movie service. Use iTunes or other services (i.e. Bittorrent) to get the remainder of the content you need.
The only thing you might miss out on is Live Sports programming. . . but isn't that what Bars are for?