RSSNBC to Sell Shows via Amazon Unbox
By Ed Oswald | Published September 5, 2007, 12:06 PM
It didn't take very long for NBC Universal to find a new outlet for its programming following its break with Apple. The channel's shows will now be available through Amazon for the same price they were on iTunes.
The programs will be sold through Amazon's Unbox service for $1.99 USD per episode. Like iTunes, episodes will be available the day after they air on the network, however Amazon has agreed to let the company bundle programming together.
"[The deal] further expands our longstanding relationship to bring a robust content offering to the marketplace in a variety of ways that will benefit the consumer and, at the same time, protects our content," NBC's digital distribution president Jean-Briac Perrette said.
In addition to getting its programming back on PCs, NBC would now be able to take advantage of Amazon's tie-in with the TiVo service, which gives Unbox customers the option to view content through their DVRs as well.
Apple said last week during the spat between the two companies that NBC's demands were too much, and the wholesale prices it was asking for would have caused videos from the media conglomerate to skyrocket to $4.99.
NBC denied that was the case, and said Apple was refusing to allow the company to package content together.
The network's announcement followed another by Vivendi's Universal Music Group, which also cancelled its long-term deal with Apple over disagreements. Vivendi owns a minority stake in NBC Universal.
The quiet winner here is Microsoft, because Amazon's Unbox uses Windows Media format.
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Spiked,
I guess I'll have to get a Zune so I can watch The Singing Bee re-runs now. LOL!
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This is a "iTunes killer" I'm tellin ya. Now if NBC would only through in a can of New Coke we'd be good to go.
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NBC probably went to Unbox when they realized that no one was smoking enough crack to swallow 4.99 an episode, and had already burned their bridge with iTunes/Apple.
Nice move, NBC. NOT!
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The issue here is they don't want to allow you to download just one episode of a series. They want to be able to force you to buy packages like 5 episodes or a whole season only. Apple was sticking up for allowing people to buy just one episode they may have missed by NBC doesn't care about that.
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Agreed. iTunes is huge, this is a very bad move for NBC. I'm pissed I won't be able to get a couple of shows I watch on NBC on iTunes anymore. Not to mention that (I think) it was NBC's CEO who said that every iPod contained some amount of illegally downloaded material, essentially calling most, if not all iPod users pirates. That kind of rhetoric won't get you anywhere fast. In fact, its insulting, true or not. You'd think a broadcasting company that's been around as long as they have would realize a good deal when they had it. If they had started bundling content or charging 4-5 times more than normal, I'd stop buying the content. Plain and simple. Apple knew that, but NBC wouldn't have it. Now they'll pay for it.
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Awesome.
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