RSSApple denies it caved in to NBCU's requests on iTunes pricing
By Ed Oswald | Published September 11, 2008, 12:51 PM
It didn't even take 24 hours for Apple and NBC to begin arguing again. The latest dust-up? NBCU's claims that it only came back to iTunes after the Cupertino company agreed to variable pricing.
Many news outlets -- including BetaNews -- took Tuesday's announcement as an indication that Apple had agreed to allow NBC Universal to use a variable pricing structure like it had been demanding.
While typical TV shows still cost $1.99 per episode, Apple also instituted a $2.99 option for HD programming, and 99 cents for catalog episodes. In an interview with the Washington Post, NBCU digital distribution chief JB Perrette seemed to indicate Apple's apparent new strategy brought the network back.
Perrette said that three events led to the content provider's return. The first was its agreement with studios over movie rentals, which addressed many of the studios' concerns over pricing. Next was Apple's consent to allow for premium pricing, which is already used with HBO shows. Episodes of that network's programs are available for $2.99.
Finally, there was Apple's apparent concession to allow for variable pricing of compilations and deep discounts on so-called season passes.
Apple is apparently not happy with NBCU's suggestion that it somehow changed the way it does business. Apple's iTunes chief Eddy Cue told CNET in an interview that any pricing plan NBC said that it won in negotiations with Apple, was actually already in place as iTunes policy prior to NBC's new deal.
For example, the 99 cent pricing for videos has been an option for some time -- it's more commonly used by the record labels in music videos, however -- and the HD price is no different from what other networks are charging for their HD content.
Special packaging of content is not anything new, either. Apple says it has offered special pricing on programming packs based around a particular theme or common actor, for example.
Whether this is just a minor disagreement or evidence of a more strained relationship that persists between the two companies, remains to be seen. However, both sides seem to be eager to put their respective spins on the events of this week.
Either way, keeping NBCU happy may be in Apple's best interests for iTunes. Prior to having pulled its content from the store last year, NBCU-produced content comprised as much as 40% of the store's sales.
Who cares who blinked first.
The bottom line is that the consumer is getting screwed out of more money for DRM protected content, a bad thing all around.
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It benefits both. Period.
And yup, the poor poor victims who are forced to line up to buy what they do not want. yeah right...
What? You don't have a choice? Or do you simply abdicate? If you don't like it, you are free to NOT BUY IT. If others want it, who are you to tell them what they want?
Freedom of choice is something YOU do, not something that you tell others to do.
The amazing thing is that while you talk about choice, you can't handle it as it requires actually making it and living with it - where what you REALLY want is freedom from choice.
Cue Devo.
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I, as my father before, moonlighted as a union projectionist for years. That is the way I paid for college. This allowed me to closely observe how the movie studios controlled the theaters.
When I ran the original Star Wars when it first came out. Even at that time 110% of all box office sales receipts when straight back to the Studios. In other words, for $10 in ticket sales, $11 had to be sent back to the Studios. The theaters then made their profit from candy, popcorn, and coke sales.
The movie industry has had an illegal monopoly on movie distribution for the last 50 years. Years ago they insisted that every theater take so many grade B movies before they could have a grade A movie. More recently, that have forced all the theaters take the same movies. If you don't believe me, look at any newspaper. You need only to look at one 20-plex theater to know 95% of what all the rest of the theaters will be playing.
They also freeze out good movies. For example, "Encounters at the End of the Earth", was almost completely frozen out of many places because it was not "commercial" enough.
They are just trying to do the same thing to the same thing they have always done, but now in the digital age.
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Apple caves in to nobody. The whole world is at Apple's feet. NBCU needs Apple much more than the other way around.
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Incorrect my friend, apple's itunes is nothing more than the equivalent of a middle man. Without the work and art of others to push, apples itunes would go bankrupt quicker than Enron. NBCU has its own distribution network, thats vertically integrated. Why would they steal sales from their current distribution network to give part of their margin to cr-apple. Videos don't need to be bought on itunes to be used on an ipud.
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Absolutely correct my friend:
http://macdailynews.com/...p/weblog/comments/18434/
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There's no point in arguing with him. The more you talk, the more BS he says.
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"Nothing more than the equivalent of a middle man"...
Yup, and Target is nothing more than a middle man who actually provides a portal for people to buy a company's goods - they aren't important either...
Yup, who needs sales outlets. That product simply makes them rich by virtue that they have it on the books - not by getting it into the grubbly little hands of a bunch of would be file sharers. After all - as we read repeatedly, all have obtained an illgal copy by P2P sharing and now are motivated to go buy a legitimate copy all due to the power of their conscience - the same one that was oblivious to their participation in file sharing to begin with...
Yup, product simply leaps from the source of production into your home by magic.
You see, despite your acumen regarding business, those insignificant "middle men" are critical. You can have warehouses full of your goods, but they need avenues of both distribution and exposure - a nexus with the buying public. (But then we are talking about the buying public and not the self entitled P2P file sharers who whine that some don't appreciate their self-described efforts at 'promotion'...LOL!)
Yup, NBCU doesn't need outlets - hell, they are simply distributing their product via one of the largest portals simply because of their concern for the success of iTunes. You see, they have no self-interest involved here at all. LOL!
And expanding avenues of distribution is simply cannibalizing sales rather than increasing the availability into new markets and maximizing exposure and opportunity for sales. What we have here is a marketing genius folks. That's why the major computer manufacturers and other producers all increase sales by minimizing their product availability. And that's why stores don't pay to advertise nor want you to to have opportunities to make impulse buys and don't use end cap promotions or sales or loss leaders to get you to come to their store and to buy....nope...in the rarified world of music distribution where the lifecycle of a transient tune is like that of a fruit fly - they thrive by making their product difficult to find and to purchase.
Here we have another business guru oblivious to how business is conducted - but he is definitely in touch with his self absorbed feelings.
Such righteous indignation.
And nary a clue regarding how business is conducted.
Maybe its time you put your emotional angst aside regarding what platform you like and step back and learn a bit more about the fundamentals of business and the market in which all participate.
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Yup, the tenets of basic market capitalism are just soooooo komplekated.
What is both hilarious and scary is that they even meed to be mentioned.
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supporting iTunes is supporting a monopoly. The fact that you can not put iTunes content on non-apple devices (excluding windows) is a problem and anti consumer. since the customer will have to re-purchase if there iPod breaks and they have to replace it with a non-apple device... Anyway you look at it Micro$oft could not get away with this type of action.
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Really you can't? Odd I am capable of playing um on my blackberry. You just gotta have the software to do it.
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Reripping a song or movie is not fixing the issue, you degrade the quality when doing that...
It doesn't "just work"
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My point is it's not like a .mp3 or avi file. yes you can covert anything. But 95% of the people over 40 can not do that they are stuck.. but hey there 8tracks, tapes and vcr tapes are in the same pile. This time it was just a wrong choice to pick iTunes as the product.
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"Either way, keeping NBCU happy may be in Apple's best interests for iTunes. Prior to having pulled its content from the store last year, NBCU-produced content comprised as much as 40% of the store's sales."
But this also did damage to NBCU which is probably a large factor as to why they came back.
They can't afford to not be on iTunes, as it reaps large profits through almost no overhead.
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