NBC to offer free "NBC Direct" download service, iTunes competitor

Apparently a move to Amazon Unbox isn't all that's in the cards for NBC's lineup of television programming, newly free of those iTunes shackles. The company is going to start testing a new NBC Direct service in October with full, free downloadable episodes which can be stored up to seven days on Windows PCs. The shows will be on offer for a week as soon as they've aired, and will include imbedded, un-skippable ads. But that's just for starters, apparently NBC wants to eventually transform the service into an iTunes-competitor, with pay-to-download episodes. "We did this to eliminate the middleman," says NBC's Jeff Gaspin. That they did, and we suppose we finally know what NBC was talking about when it comes to "packaging options."

[Thanks, Webon]

[piratebay.org @ Sep 19th 2007 11:44PM]

Umm, pay for ads? Can anyone say torrent?

[Sean @ Sep 20th 2007 1:18AM]

Can you read? It doesn't say anything about paying for ads. In fact, it specifically says it's going to be free.

[Bloobie @ Sep 20th 2007 1:29AM]

No one said there would be ads in the paid episodes, just the free ones (as they already are on most network sites like ABC which stream their episodes). No one will pay to watch these things with commercials. That just doesn't make sense.

[Scooter @ Sep 20th 2007 2:48AM]

doesn't make sense? why all the adds on subscription TV services?
What doesn't make sense is NBC thinking it can go it alone. iTunes Store is a portal bringing together content owners, and that won't change. NBC alone, no matter how big, will not do particularly well. I could not be bothered hunting around, so the main customers will be the sad folk who only want one flavour of Kool Aid.

[Marcel @ Dec 12th 2007 8:22AM]

Yeah, I can say TORRENT many times!

[jptech @ Sep 19th 2007 11:47PM]

agreed about the torrents.

NBC is really trying to screw Apple here.

Personally, I use Tivo and torrent for television.

[siriusfox @ Sep 20th 2007 12:56AM]

Fact is the only show I'd pay to download day after it came out is Battlestar Galactica. And the only reason I'm willing to download it, is because I can put it on an iPod, and plug it into the TV and play it their. This is just going to prompt me to get a DVR to record it, or just remember to record the VHS. I used iTunes because it was convenient, this is not.

Ah well though, only one season left and then I could care less what NBC does.

[silly peacock @ Sep 20th 2007 10:54AM]

I bet if they looked into it, a big percentage of people who previously bought NBC content from iTunes were in fact Mac users. I think alienating a market share that not only indicates millions of users, but has been growing steadily is just plain stupid. Many Mac users are early adopters to new technologies, which in turn influence many others to follow suit, be it on a PC or Mac? I personally know quite a few. If you remove them from the equation, the rate at which your software use will not grow as fast. There may be less Mac users, but many influence a lot of others be it positve or negative.
Make it PC only, now you have a whole group of users that will advocate against your product, period. Hire better programmers, your NBC - you have the cash. Besides, if they lack the skills develop a Mac version, how lousy is the PC version going to be?

I predict failure on this effort by NBC.

[Blake Kachman @ Sep 19th 2007 11:48PM]

Dumb Ass Move!!!

[Carlos @ Sep 20th 2007 12:25AM]

PC only?? I understand that NBC is trying to screw Apple for reasons only known to NBC but why screw all of the NBC watchers that are also Mac users.

do they not realize that part of their audience includes Mac users and more importantly in this case iPod users?

Someone should remind NBC that there are 100 million iPod users out there - granted they are not all video iPods but there are at least 100million iTunes users out there on PC AND Mac - which means they can download an NBC episode through iTunes this very second and watch it on their computer and it would even have industry leading DRM.

NBC is out of their mind alienating that many people - its like a slap in the face of its audience.

[Nushio (NDF - Blue) @ Sep 20th 2007 12:30AM]

Or the 2 of us who exclusively use Linux and set up a Mythdora (MythTV) to record said shows...

[michael @ Sep 20th 2007 12:58AM]

@Carlos:

I agree about the whole iPod thing, but not so much about the Mac thing.

It's a pretty bold move, but doesn't sound so foolproof considering what the market is like today. And the fact that iTunes store contains a lot of legal content already.

The Mac thing is a so-so issue. As a Mac owner myself, I have come in terms that not everything will be made for OS X. That's why I prefer to run a copy of Windows on my Sony Vaio laptop.

So there's nothing to get too antsy about the whole Mac deal. It's pretty obvious.

small marketshare = small amount of compatibility with new stuff.

I hate it when I hear the other Mac lovers screaming the obvious. Face it.

[Andrew @ Sep 20th 2007 2:05AM]

Michael - your defeatist attitude is sad - why do you even use a mac in the first place? Why not give in and use a windows machine exclusively?
There are far smaller niches that are supported by large corporations, truth of the matter is NBC is not tech smart and doesn't know how to do this on their own so they have probably sold out to Microsoft or Rhapsody which can provide them with whatever crackable DRM to use with Hulu and NBC Direct.

Mac OSX is a substantial chunk of the home pc market - substantial enough to expect something like a video download site to support your choice of operating system. I would venture to guess that a far larger percentage of Mac users are savvy enough to use NBCs service compared to the millions of PCs out there that are pre Windows XP and/or relegated to work/industrial use and would not be part of the user base using these NBC services.

bottom line - apple users are NOT Apple Corp - we are people, we are NBC watchers and most importantly we are consumers and should not be shut out. No reason to put up with this crap from tech challenged corporations like NBC that have no clue when it comes to technology.

[Scooter @ Sep 20th 2007 2:51AM]

get a life, mac fanboys. There are too few mac users for many organisations to bother with. NBC is aiming for the middle ground; the biggest market. Mac users are in the minority. Simple fact.

[Zach @ Sep 20th 2007 8:16AM]

Mac's market share doesn't matter. If it does what you need in a way you understand, then go for it. Otherwise, don't. Personally, I'm a Mac buyer, but there are some cases where Linux does the job better, and I'm fine with using it there. If you're going to complain about lack of compatibility, attack Linux. Linux has about 3% of the desktop market.

[arcadia @ Sep 20th 2007 1:39PM]

Before anyone declares this to be a good or bad move, we all need to step outside of the engadget universe and do a little research. Engadget only reported part of the story. Every other news agency is reporting that this move is windows only for the time being (in order to deliver content immediately with already developed software). NBC publicly announced that a Mac version of the service is coming soon. It really amazes me how many people get up in arms with out looking into something a little further. We Mac users should expect this by now. With only 4% market share for the Mac, only 4% of iTunes downloads are for Mac users. Why that may not be completely mathematically correct; numbers are all that matter to large companies. Especially NBC Universal which owns 60% of all music/video content offered on iTunes (apples numbers).

[Kevin @ Sep 19th 2007 11:49PM]

People go to a television to say "I'm going to watch TV."

"TV" implies satellite, multiple local networks, cable, pay per view, sports, etc.

Nobody says, "I'm going to watch NBC right now."

I can't imagine ever wanting one system for each network, and that's the model that NBC is advocating

[tempusfugit @ Sep 20th 2007 9:04AM]

The system seems to work quite well in the UK, however. The BBC with it's iPlayer and Archive services (both advert free), Channel 4 with it's 4OD (4onDemand) service, and other channels to come.

It makes sense, if you broadcast the episodes free to view over the air, why should they not be free to view if you want to watch over the internet instead? Likewise, if you want to watch episodes that are no longer being shown, you'd have to buy a DVD or find another way, or alternatively pay to see the episodes.

By being a service available on the internet and doing it themselves, not only do they have more flexibility, but they can actually reach a lot more people - people not everyone likes or uses iTunes, I know many people that won't ever touch it.

[AbqH1V @ Sep 19th 2007 11:50PM]

Piratebay, Learn to Read. "NBC wants to eventually transform the service into an iTunes-competitor." The shows are free now... which means commercials, yes... but READ... EVENTUALLY you will pay to watch with out commercials. Einstein.

[stevesreed @ Sep 19th 2007 11:56PM]

this is NBC you are talking about. I don't think you can assume paying and commercial free are guaranteed mutually exclusive. They are greed bastards. will probably try to do both.

Who they hell want 7 day limit downloads that only work on PCs the week they were free on the air with FORCED commercials? that is a huge step back from DVR's...

[LordFarkward @ Sep 20th 2007 12:13AM]

"greed"? "they"?

anyways, i would. it's free, why the hell not? i personally don't mind a few adverts, i think i have enough mind power to decide for myself what i would "need to buy" and what i don't.

[Typhoid Mary @ Sep 20th 2007 12:21AM]

AbqH1V - As stevesreed stated I dont see were it says pay=no commercials.

Anyway I'm with piratebay, pay or not I'll still rather DL a better encoded version via BT.

[icedust @ Sep 19th 2007 11:50PM]

i gots me tivo

[scurr @ Sep 19th 2007 11:54PM]

yes, finally, someone has come up with a concept that they will regret!

next, energy companies will begin offering electricity direct to your sockets, no need to get light bulbs anymore, just simply insert a fork into the socket-- instant light!

you'd figure it only makes sense to leave the leading DAP creator and just you know, offer up useless products no one really needs to buy.

go to NBC.com, you know, in case your TIVO died, you couldn't find a VCR and you couldn't go to your neighbor's house and watch their TIVO...

QQ

[anthone @ Sep 19th 2007 11:52PM]

this is microsofts work. its obvious since they own part of nbc. MSNBC anyone?

[Bryant @ Sep 20th 2007 12:07AM]

That partnership was broken up. They only mutually control the website now.

[kris @ Sep 20th 2007 12:00AM]

note to self: pirate nbc content.

[MM @ Sep 21st 2007 12:01AM]

Stupid greedy bastards. If anyone must watch those NBC crap, there's something called torrent ...

[HaloZero00 @ Sep 20th 2007 12:15AM]

Ummm. Ok I'll probably get negative comments for this but ok.

I think this is a decent idea.
On TV you watch commercials + show.
NBC is offering the same thing except you can watch it whenever you want in the next 7 days (this could be longer..... but its a decent amount of time).

I think its a decent alternative. Though I think they should extend the length of time, people get caught up and get behind on shows so they should archive their stuff (at least the current season).

[Sam @ Sep 20th 2007 12:41AM]

NBC's solution misses the point. Online TV never has and never will gain decent market-share. Even if I was willing to watch TV on a PC only, I'm certainly not going to do it in a web-browser.

You need the devices. Personally I never used my 5G iPod for video. Watched a few seconds one-time. I hear it's "ok" for plane rides, but never had a need.

I don't watch video on my iPhone either.

I do watch it on my 24" iMac with FrontRow since with iTMS it's just large enough to double as a TV sitting on the couch across the room.

I do watch it on my AppleTV, which has changed my viewing habits completely, allowing me to watch seasons of shows that are "new to me" as if they were current. In my living-room. Sure, the shorter, commercial-less all-you-can eat viewing means I watch a little more TV than I used to, and definitely spend a little more money than I used to on DirecTV, but I'm happy with it. I'm paying more, so I don't see why the networks wouldn't be happy with it. I doubt Apple's cut is as large as DirecTV's.

[TempusFugit @ Sep 20th 2007 9:08AM]

I don't know about in the states, but in the UK, the AppleTV doesn't seem to have taken off at all, and probably for good reason.

Most people already have STBs for cable or satellite, On Demand of TV series is getting good (On cable, you get loads of TV series completely free as well as Catchup TV for anything you've missed). The BBC iPlayer and 4OD services (which are similar to what NBC are offering) are available on both cable and on the internet so as to maximise people being able to watch.

Those that have a computer and want to watch it there can do so, those that want to link their computer up to a TV and watch can do so. Those that want to watch directly on their TV can do so. Hits pretty much every scenario

[humpty @ Sep 20th 2007 12:22AM]

Mobile video has been a bust.. paying $0.99 for a song is one thing.. paying $5.00 or a low rez, drm'd movie that only plays on a certain player is another.

[Carlos @ Sep 20th 2007 12:50AM]

humpty - a video from iTunes can play on your Mac, PC, iPod, iPhone or Apple TV which syncs to Macs and PCs.

The installed base for all those devices is huge! No reason for NBC to go and limit their pool of potential viewers by doing Hulu and NBC direct.

[TempusFugit @ Sep 20th 2007 9:12AM]

From my experience, people that want mobile video are far more likely to be able to watch what they want, not just what is available on iTunes, watch it when they want, not just when it's released on iTunes, and not have to pay for it when it's been broadcast on TV for free, or they have the DVDs.

A simple TV tuner card or PVR or DVD rip and you can have all the TV you want, at no extra cost, on your mobile device, without having to deal with iTunes at all.

Why should you have to pay for a program that's been broadcast free? Might as well pay a one-off £20 investment or so to hook your TV up to your comuter and have all the TV programs you want in nice DRM-free files you can keep forever, use on your PC, network streaming TV boxes (such as the cheap MediaMVP) to watch on TV, or your mobile deviecs (not just Apple devices).

[Rajat @ Sep 20th 2007 12:32AM]

Lately it seems that everyone NBC, Universal, are trying to take the monopoly that iTunes has now created.

I think it's an excellent move. Let apple also know that they can't rip us off with more charges for games, album only songs, ringtones extra, etc,

[Chris J. Shull @ Sep 20th 2007 1:53AM]

We don't have all the information - but from what I understand, Apple doesn't really make iTMS profit. They essentially pay for bandwidth and send along the rest. Thus, I'd think that those costs are not of Apple's doing.
Therefore I decree you stupid and petition that you be exiled from this planet. So let it be written - so let it be done.

[TempusFugit @ Sep 20th 2007 9:21AM]

I don't see why you are arguing that competition is a bad thing - more competition tends to lead to lower prices and better services all around. Having just one service means they're fully in control and can do what they like, and usually the customers that lose out as a result.

Personally, I think it's more stupid to want a monopoly as opposed to different competitors striving to make their services better and more attractive to customers, but maybe that's just me.

[yoshi @ Sep 20th 2007 12:04PM]

I agree about competition. I would like more options than just iTunes for video on the Macintosh. But this does not provide that. This is basically removing competition.

Like a memory chip company selling their product for less than cost to drive out competition, this is not being done in the consumer's best interest. For a lot of consumers, however, it will actually result in their best interest anyway. With NBC leaving certain consumers fewer options to obtain the content legally, those consumers will gravitate to less legal means that result in zero profit for NBC.

[dudeInAmerica @ Sep 20th 2007 12:41AM]

lets take bets on how long until this shuts down.

Windows only? Strike one!
7 Days only? Strike two!
Crappy ads which you must watch over and over? Strike three!

Arrr.. Time for piratebay mateys!

[drew @ Sep 20th 2007 12:41AM]

What a strangely un-savvy decision influenced by a tribunal of tech-agnostic network lawyers. Here we are, dead in the midst of the iPod age (there's a dock built into anything that doesn't move) and THIS is the time that NBC decides to go proprietary. Amazingly, world-shatteringly stupid decision guys. Congratulations... fully anticipate this to become that "legendary" bad decision referenced by teachers of internet history.

[Tavis Veighey @ Sep 20th 2007 12:43AM]

Well if they are going to provide high quality downloads at Broadcast resolutions than that is cool.

Especially if:
Commertials = Free
No Commertials = Pay

However if the pay files contain commertials, than they can take a flying leap!

[The ZeroCorpse @ Sep 20th 2007 12:46AM]

So basically, even though I'm a fan of Heroes and Battlestar Galactica, among other shows, NBC just told me to go f*** myself because I happen to use an iMac instead of a Dell.

OK. sure, I could go into Bootcamp to get my NBC shows, but why should I have to reboot to view NBC shows with ads in them?

BIG step backwards, NBC. I would have purchased shows from iTunes because I know they will be in decent quality, they'll work with my computer and iPod, and they don't have any limits on how long I can keep them. I will NOT be using your new service because it's crippled, untested, restrictive, insulting, and more hassle than it's worth when there are other ways to find your shows. DVR, torrent, DVD-R, etc. . . Why should I go off the beaten path of iTunes which I know to be reliable and completely compatible in order to be pestered by ad-supported, in-house crappy digital distribution.

Stick to MAKING shows, NBC. Let Apple distribute them for you-- They have the audience/customers, they have the knowledge, and they have the best portable option on the market. Nobody's going to switch from an iPod to a Zen or Zune for your shows when the Internet is the wild untamed place that it is.

Should'a stuck with Apple's plan, guys. Prepare to fall on your face.

[dj-kenpo @ Sep 20th 2007 12:53AM]

I'm not against this move, however, if I was to guess, I'd say NBC doesn't realize there's more to a service like this than simply putting the videos online. I think they have a, "if you build it, they will come" attitude, perhaps believing that advertising a link during and after the episode will be enough... and maybe it will...

but I think more people want to view video on more than just a windows pc. and I don't mean win/mac/linux..

I mean video that works on palm/pocketpc/ipod/ samsung/zune, etc.. they don't have the developer infrastructure to support this sort of undertaking, and that's what will stop this from really going anywhere besides very light casual viewing. it's a novelty, but that's all.

[EJ T @ Sep 20th 2007 1:05AM]

ummm, wow. I think itunes is about as proprietary as you can get.
also I love how it works "on everything" if it works on windows and mac. did anyone notice that linux has more users then mac now?
wmv drm works on windows and every other player but the ipod (apples fault, ms will license to everyone). and we all know that wmv drm has been broken, right? stop complaing, this is much better then itunes

[chris weis @ Sep 20th 2007 2:24AM]

so um, we just torrent them more??? ok

[yroc @ Sep 20th 2007 1:20AM]

What's the big deal? Has anyone seen what's on NBC? Oh yea, NO! They don't have anything worth watching!!

[sk8rpro @ Sep 20th 2007 1:34AM]

Dude, what are you talking about? Haven't you heard of the Office or Heroes? Those are some of the best shows on NBC, at least in my opinion.

[Marcos @ Sep 20th 2007 1:33AM]

EJ T: I don't know where you get that from, but there are not more Linux users than Mac users (see http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=2).
And even if there were... Linux users are less likely than Mac users to pay for legal content (or for anything at all, for that matter). You see, Mac users pay money to get a hassle free computer experience. Similarly, they pay 2 bucks to get their show in iTunes, hassle free. Linux users will compile their own kernel and mix and match hardware and drivers. Similarly, they will dig through torrent trackers and download their show for free.

Now, about NBC: they're idiots. They will never match the user experience Apple provides. And the millions of iPod, iPhone, Mac and the few AppleTV owners will just go to the alternative that works on their hardware: BitTorrent.

[Arthur Nonamiss @ Sep 20th 2007 9:22AM]

Linux is behind Mac if you're talking about desktop installs. However, I'm pretty sure that EJT is quoting TOTAL installs, which includes servers. If you include servers, Linux has more installs by an order of magnitude than Mac. On the other hand, I doubt there are many people watching "Heroes" on their webserver.

[Phil @ Sep 20th 2007 1:30AM]

The real middlemen they are cutting out are the cable TV and satellite TV greedfests, and I say "the more the better".

As more networks and services offer downloadable tv shows, and as adoption increases, the less we have to deal with the outrageous prices and ridiculously inferior technologies of the cable and satellite TV industries. For the price of a basic cable package many people can now get high-speed DSL (and someday WiMax will provide a nice alternative choice to that). If you can download your shows for free - even with commercials - then your Internet connection, with all of the other things you can already do with it, is many times more valuable than a cable TV or satellite TV connection.

Cable and satellite have been screwing us for years. They regularly increased prices as their costs went down and their revenues for broadcasting crap informercials and shopping channels went up. They failed to come up with a common digital standard that could be incorporated into televisions so that we wouldn't have to keep renting a decoder box for each room. They completely screwed us on CableCard, and many cable households still suffer from signal quality issues.

As for the torrent lovers: It's all good until you get a letter from your Internet provder saying that lawyers are asking for your account information because they harvested your IP address from a tracker. Torrent technology is awesome, but I'd rather download the files from NBC and wait for some brilliant hacker to get my PayPal donation for producing a decoder that removes the 7-day restriction and lets me FF through the commercials (no - I won't have time to edit them out).