RSSNews Corp: We're Staying on iTunes
By the Betanews Staff | Published September 11, 2007, 12:54 PM
Ending speculation that it would follow NBC Universal's lead in pulling its programs from Apple's iTunes, News Corp president Peter Cherin said the company had no plans to do so. He did, however seem to agree with NBC on one thing: that networks should have more control over what is charged for their programming. Cherin's comments were made to Reuters during a stop in Poland, where the media conglomerate is relaunching a television channel.
"Right now, we have a perfectly good relationship with Apple," he told the news wire. Cherin's comments are no doubt good news for Apple, and may help stem the tide of content provider discontent Apple has been riding over the past several months. It began last year with Apple's insistence to keep 99 cent music pricing, which may have led to Universal's canceling of its long-term contract. This was soon followed by NBC Universal's announcement that it would pull its television programming from the service.
Good move on News Corps side. Stay with ITunes and enjoy the money they are making while they watch to see what happens with NBC. If NBC flops, they have risked nothing, if NBC has success it's easy enough to setup their own servers etc. then cancel and go their own way.
I don't know if Apple's claim that NBC wanted to charge $4.99 per episode, but if it was then Apple made the right choice by refusing, at $4.99 you're just digging a grave for yourself.
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It's nice to have a general price, works great for advertising
$0.99 for a song
$1.29 for a plus song
$1.99 for a tv show
bam, much easier to advertise then
NBC $3.21
ABC $3.20
CBS $3.01
That would just be annoying.
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I think what NBC Universal really wanted mostly was being able to package episodes for cheaper. Not as cheap as a DVD box set though. Like a season pass. Right now, it's 1.99*#episodes. No discount.
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If networks had control they'd be asking for $19.99 an episode; the greedy buggers.
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