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Why the hell would anyone pay $4.99 for something they can DVR for free?

At $1.99 it's and impulse purchase, at $4.99 people start thinking about it.

Whomever is in charge of the strategy at NBC is a moron.

NBC is gonna be kicking themselves for leaving itunes how stupid can they get.

I like it. Apple won't be anybody's bitch.

It's a strong and powerful signal, and NBC will come around eventually.

Can't wait for the new iPods next week . . .

Good move Apple

Also, if any other content providers go along with NBC in this direction, Apple should just screw them by enabling full DVR capability on the AppleTV with the ability to scrub out ads and the ability to upload to iTunes/iPods.

So basically what the Universal Media Group is telling consumers is that they want you to pirate their content, because they're not going to give you any reasonable way to access it legally.

Greedy jerks. I think I'll boycott broadcast NBC television in return for their consideration of their customers.

There are some not-so-subtle fighting words in Apple's statement. They're trying to get the public on their side by mentioning the price increase, and get NBC investors on their side by mentioning the tens-of-millions of iTunes users. I'll bet Jobs personally wrote that statement. Now he's gone to hardball. Play ball!

What is with these industry jackasses who continually want to cut open the goose that lays the golden eggs? Does not compute.

If you are planning to be, go f**k yourself and leave now... right now...

NBC is my favorite tv network, but if the F with Apple, they will loose as a TV viewer....

The barn door is open, most of the horses have left the stable, so let's put up a sign charging 250% more for the few remaining nags.

Brilliant.

Aren't they third in the ratings behind CBS and ABC? I can't see how this is going to help that situation.

I also think this is really going to make their new fall shows that much more vulnerable and more difficult to develop a loyal audience. What are they going to do, go with the second best online distribution method. And that would be who?

Guess its torrents or bust...Honestly how do some of these people get put in charge of companies? Do they not understanding they basically just wrote off millions in revenues to their share holders? Anyway should be interesting to see how this plays out and who caves. My bet: Universal will try to quietly 're-join' the iTunes store once they realize the millions they are losing out on. Of course, this is right after someone gets fired over it.
Pulling that crap for $1/Zune sold may work on Microsoft but the buck stops here Universal.

Greed!

Does anyone else think that $1.99 is still too much for a TV show? It is very rare that I ever consider paying that much for something that I will most likely watch once. $.99 is more on the mark for a television show. $4.99 for a TV show is outrageous!! Heck, I can buy movies at Target for less than that.

It will be sad to see Battlestar Galactica gone but there really wasn't anything else from NBC that I would even have wanted to download anyway. Perhaps, they should worry about finding some quality programming for their networks rather than trying to rape the population for the very few shows that people might actually want to watch. They aren't #1 anymore as the days of Friends, Frasier, and Seinfeld are gone. However, it is apparent that the arrogance of being #1 for so long still lingers

Bring it on!!!
I think NBC underestimated Apple.
Pulling the show in september was probably not expected by CNBC who thought they have till December to pressure Apple to raise prices.

At $1.99 it's and impulse purchase, at $4.99 people start thinking about it.

Episodes of NOVA are $7.99, and I'm sure I've seen higher.

Seriously, that's $120 a season for one show. You can buy the DVD of a show for $30. That's just stupid on NBC's part.

They should and probably will fire the moron that thought up that idea. Greedy idiots! $1.99 is an impulse buy. $3.99 or more for a t.v. show is just a great reason to fire up bit torrent.

It's all about the money. In wonder if their stuff will show up at the Zune Store?

Sorry, I'm not paying $5 an episode for a TV show? The Office, for that much? It simply isn't worth it. Next season they are planning on 30 episodes, so, that is $150 for a TV show? A TV SHOW?

Insane. Go Apple! Go!

Wow, let's do some math here. My favorite NBC show is The Office. Season 3 of The Office had 25 episodes (21 half-hour plus 2 full-hour). On iTunes today, you can buy Season 3 for $34. When the DVD comes out on September 4, it should cost about $40 (Season 2 was $37). With NBC's proposed pricing scheme, that would mean Season 4 would cost $124.75 on iTunes (given 25 episodes at $4.99 each). So let's see here: $124.75 for low-quality, DRM-laden, no special-features iTunes episodes; or $40 for high-quality episodes with special features that can be ripped to my computer without DRM. Ummmm...good work NBC, you nailed that one. Thank you Apple, for at least attempting to protect the consumer.

NBC has decided they cannot make nearly as much via iTunes vs. selling ad space via traditional TV.

Thus, if the model to continue moving towards IPTV continues (and it will), and iTunes becomes the dominate player (likely), NBC will be showing TV via iTunes to home TV's (via AppleTV) and start to lose their shirts in revenues.

The result is a quick fix by jacking up the price, but Apple isn't going to play ball this way.

NBC may fall back to launching their own online store, which will be a horrific play.

Consumers want one main distributor to acquire their content, and iTunes is the best there is on the market today.

NBC is more than likely to be:
- Using this as a pricing tactic to force Apple's hand and see what Apple is made of....
- Will be back by next fall, bending to the will of iTunes pricing.

@Grigori

I hope that you aren't comparing the quality of an episode of Nova (which is, BTW, produced by a non-profit entity and shown on PBS that does not get ad revenues for broadcasts) with that of an NBC sitcom (more appropriately called "sh*tcom")

Yeah, Apple is the greedy one, right?

Imagine an NBC conference room today...

"So, Dave, great idea pressuring Apple like that! We showed THEM we value our shows! I'm really impressed by how you made a stand and didn't budge."
"Thanks, boss!"
"So, what's the plan now? How do we make up the lost revenue from iTunes sales? Make me a millionaire, kid!"
"Ummm... well... I thought we'd try raising our ad prices."
"Hmm. That won't work. We can bully our sellers, but not our advertisers."
"Ok... how about... we make up the money by selling on OTHER digital media stores?"
"Such as...?"
"Errr well, I haven't done the research yet, but... Err..."
"It's going to be a busy Fall season, Dave."

No, NBC makes more money per viewer on iTunes downloads than on ad sales. This is 100% a power play -- NBC wanted more restrictive DRM (probably an expiration date on each download) and probably other crazy things. Apple refused those, and as a power play NBC said "ok, well then, we will have to charge you a lot more!" Unfortunately for NBC, Apple knows when to walk away from a deal.

I'm waiting for the DVDs to hit my rental store so I can get the shows for less than $1 each.

Bye Bye NBC and Kudos for Apple standing their ground

This would of course include all Sci Fi channel stuff including Battlestar, Stargate, Eureaka... etc.

Obviously some bean-counter at NBC thought the iTunes store was cutting into their DVD sales. Whatever. I never understood paying a premium for a low-res DRM file, when you could buy a DVD with all the bonus material, at half the cost.

Way to go NBC, you're fighting piracy! At 2 1/2 time the price, piracy will disappear 2 1/2 times faster.

Damn, no Bionic Woman for me.

"I never understood paying a premium for a low-res DRM file, when you could buy a DVD with all the bonus material, at half the cost."

I never understood waiting six months to watch a show.

I guess NBC doesn't want people to buy their stuff. Even if Apple would have agreed, no one would buy it at $4.99.

They are just greedy bastards plain and simple. I am happy Apple told them no. NBC just negotiated themselves right out of some easy revenue. Greed is a powerful thing.

NBC/Universal must love to piss money down the drain. Nice move morons, you've now just lost over 75% of your paid downloads now....

Heroes Season 1 on DVD lists for $60. Excluding the value of any special features the cost per 23 episodes comes out to $2.60 per episode.

Amazon is selling it for $37. That is $1.61 per episode.

iTunes at $1.99 per episode is already more expensive than waiting for the DVD and buying it from Amazon (or elsewhere).

At $4.99 per episode, you would think that the DVD retails for $150 and sells at a discount for $99. Who in their right mind is going to pay that much for something they might watch once maybe twice.

Here's the e-mail address for NBC Universal:

NBCUniSupport@nbcuni.com

Tell them how you feel but DO NOT make it polite or rational.

They wouldn't understand.



(http://www.nbcuni.com/About_NBC_Universal/Contact_Us/)

Absolutely not; my Tuesday night viewing schedule has been set for decades. But I can't imagine that many episodes of the show get sold at that price, particularly when DVDs with extras are available for just a bit more. Aside from the occasional "impluse purchase" (I had to purchase the last two episodes of Battlestar Galactica last season), paying much more than $2 per episode seems extreme.

Take Heroes: the first season on DVD from Amazon costs $36.99US; on iTunes, $42.99. It makes little sense to make a purchase like this on a regular basis. Not that it makes NBC any less greedy.

How long before those Redmond jackels move in?

Anyone?

Beuller?

Stay tuned, MicroSoft will have an anouncement pertaining to marketplace before the holidays.

I wish Apple struck first.

All the other headlines are "NBC Dumps iTunes," "NBC Pulls Content from iTunes."

Hopefully this wasn't too late. Guess Apple still held hope on further negotiations and NBC jumped the gun.

@theloniousMac

I don't think all the SciFi shows are part of this stupidity. Battlestar is produced by NBC's company, that's why they can pull it. Other SciFi shows are produced by other production outfits that are unconnected to the GreedBoys at NBC.

On a more general note, I love anyone or any company that, when threatened, says FU and walks away. Why bother dealing with idiots. The old media companies don't realize the world has changed. Their so-called entertainment is not longer the only show in town. Hell, there are better shows on FX than NBC.

Adios NBC, may your last good show, Seinfeld, live forever.

hmmm... USD 4.99 per episode?
that would bring them just in line with the price for every episodes that have recently become available in the UK.

Yep, we pay twice as much. As usual.

id like to be the fly on the wall in that meeting with the shareholders... well guys, we tried to get you some more money... instead they took away whatever money we would have made from at least the half the season.

i love you stevesy.

ps. i love nbc, its the only OTA channel i watch... office, earl, 30rock, heroes. cant get enough. i dont mind paying 30 bucks for a season pass.

mw: history. this guy is history

"Consumers want one main distributor to acquire their content, and iTunes is the best there is on the market today."

Well, yes and no. Consumers ultimately want convenience--they don't want to have to spend a big hunk of time searching for a show.

For example, this past season, you could purchase 'Heroes' from the iTunes Store or you could go watch it on NBC's website for free (ad supported). Believe it or not, far more people did that than purchased it via iTunes. I'd be curious about the difference in revenue from tons of people watching with ads versus lots of people paying $1.99.

Meh... no worries. I'll just go back to the old fashion way, the Bittorrent way. Kinda defeats the purpose eh NBC?

For me $1.99 is high. I would NEVER pay $4.99 for an episode of ANYTHING. I guess NBC hasn't heard of supply and demand: NBC if your listening here you are:

- No supply = no demand. If you have nothing to sell on iTunes you will sell nothing... $0 income

- High price = low demand. If you sell high priced shows in iTunes you will sell very few shows... $4.99 (one sucker out there is sure to buy one, if only by mistake)

- Mid price = some demand. If you continue to sell your shows for $1.99 you will have some demand... $$$$$$

- Low price = LOTS of demand. If you sell them for less, more people will buy them. People will choose to purchase them through iTunes rather than steal them from torrents (better interface and user experience). People will purchase on impulse. More people will try different shows and get hooked, leading to more purchases... $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

There. Now NBC, fire whomever in your organization thinks holding out for $4.99 on iTunes is a good idea. Hire someone who passed high school economics and prepare to make $$$$$$. Otherwise, kiss me goodbye - at $4.99 even I might be tempted to get them from the torrents.

Nice blatant promotion of piracy from the editors of MDN!

Not that I disagree, I would torrent a series that I don't even watch just to spite NBC before I pay $4.99 for a single episode. $4.99 would be fair for say, a bundle of three episodes.

They'll be back. They always come back.

Apple just cut NBC's juggler by pulling the plug on NBC now and not at X-Mas. Great move by Jobs. Ahhh, the media - when are you going to learn that you can't control the masses anymore.

They'll come crawling back, as money is their only God.

$4.99 for a 30-minute episode. Are the folks at NBC delusional?

NBC and Microsoft... look out for this combo. I agree with Bizarro Ballmer, above.

NBC and Microsoft are playing together on this one.

Move
Counter Move

My bet is with el Jobso.

Regarding the upcoming NBC show BitTorrent downloads: I'd just like to plug the excellent Visual Hub for video conversion. HandBrake is free and great, but I think Visual Hub's "Encode for [ ] iPod [ ] Apple TV [ ] iPhone [ ] All" feature is worth the $23. (I don't work there, just being a zealot.)