NBC Direct launches, everybody still misses iTunes

It's no secret that all TV studios hate writers, puppies and you, so it's really no surprise that NBC dropped iTunes distribution a couple months back -- it's all part of the master plan. Luckily, the new NBC Direct service, which is now in beta, is a tiny breath of fresh air. But by tiny, we mean minuscule. The service allows for free downloads of NBC shows up to seven days after they air, but it's Windows and IE only -- which does nothing to help Mac users left stranded by Amazon Unbox. The episodes also delete automatically after 48 hours, and the player installation requires all sorts of hoop jumping and Windows Media ickyness. There's also no mobile device integration or really much of any reason at all to choose the downloaded versions over online versions unless your internet connection is shaky or you just want to screw over the writers a bit more effectively. Hopefully promised iTunes-competitive features like pay-to-download (the current version includes unskippable ads) won't be long in coming.

[Via Mashable]

[Lotzosushi @ Nov 10th 2007 7:46PM]

I honestly don't see why selling it on iTunes was a problem. I bet there are more people willing to pay for the episode on iTunes than try to download a 48-hour limit version from this NBC Direct thing. :/

[jamma @ Nov 10th 2007 8:26PM]

the reason they did this is obvious.... NBC want moe money. selling it this way means that they don't have to give any of the $5 or whatever the price of an episode is to apple, and they get more money from companies for ads when they put the pay to download service on.

[Vanillacide @ Nov 11th 2007 7:47AM]

So this is what NBC did after taking the football with them when they left the park crying "it's my ball" because things weren't going their way. Tears were streaming down NBC's face because the profit per show wasn't as large as they wanted, they tried to force an increase in the price to $4.99 per episode for new episodes (up from $1.99), and Steve Jobs said no ... "it's not fair!" wailed NBC.

Shows with adverts in? You can stick 'em mate! Life's too short to have to watch adverts, we'll have no other choice but to source NBC content elsewhere and advert free.

[Robert McLay @ Nov 11th 2007 12:59PM]

I wonder if NBC is making ~$2 per download in advertising revenue from these free downloads. Doesn't seem likely to me, which makes the decision to leave iTunes even more baffling.

[Mrfreezie @ Nov 10th 2007 7:46PM]

how long until we find out the NBC software is tracking your every move?

[Joe @ Nov 10th 2007 8:53PM]

No IE,
No PC,
No NBC,
Not for me.

[The Grand Master @ Nov 10th 2007 9:16PM]

I love the whole 'Dr Seussness' of that comment.

[Timerider @ Nov 11th 2007 3:21PM]

And they wonder why torrents and P2P is still thriving.


Windows and IE? How fricken limited can they get?

[JohnTitor @ Nov 10th 2007 7:50PM]

"does nothing to help Mac users left stranded"

boo-hoo

[kL @ Nov 11th 2007 9:22AM]

Windows users who are not fond of IE and WMP are "boo-hoo" as well.

Actually probably everyone except NBC executives will hate it.

[Timerider @ Nov 11th 2007 3:38PM]

"Cause I love downloading an entire episode only to have it work for 48 hours, and I love my Zune."


Windows users don't realize how f*&#ing lucky they are that Apple let iTunes and iPod be compatible with their computers.
Windows Media? Who the hell uses that?

[Mark @ Nov 10th 2007 7:52PM]

I for one have no problem with this, I don't use itunes anyway. Now I can get the episodes for free and without needing apple software or $5 per episode to do it. I say: thank you NBC, keep up the good work.

[Bart Lee @ Nov 10th 2007 8:16PM]

Yes, thank you NBC for being so considerate as to going through the trouble to program the software to delete my video 48 hours after I download it. That's so nice of you to be concerned about my hard drive space. And thank you for making the ads unskippable. I know you really just want to make sure I don't miss out on some very valuable information on consumer product purchases I may need to make. Top notch.

[toronado455 @ Nov 10th 2007 9:40PM]

I for one welcome our new NBC network television overlords.

[hn333 @ Nov 10th 2007 10:33PM]

Free is Free.

[Mark @ Nov 11th 2007 12:56AM]

YES! thank you, free is free, my point exactly. How exactly is this bad? Oh no, instead of having to have itunes and having to pay for it, I get it free without needing to tie it to any media player!! that sucks! I mean yes, the lack of mac support kinda sucks but they have what? like a 5% market share?

[David Clark @ Nov 11th 2007 1:03AM]

I don't care if you're ranked low -- I agree with you completely. NBC gives us top notch entertainment for free and everyone complains. Who cares if it has advertisements in it? It has less commercials than the TV version! If you want it ad free, just buy the DVD when it comes out. The video quality on iTunes sucked anyhow.

[hokiewalrus @ Nov 11th 2007 1:46AM]

@Mark: "I get it free without needing to tie it to any media player" Right, cause Windows Media Player doesn't count.

Not only is it tied to a media player, but it's tied to a web browser and an operating system. So while it may be all peachy keen for you, people like me that don't use WMP, IE, or Windows are left out in the cold. I don't care if it's free, if I can't play it then it's not worth anything to me.

[Mark @ Nov 11th 2007 1:51AM]

and the other way requires that you be tied down to itunes. Really what they should probably do is both, mostly I posted this to get a rise out of people but it's somewhat truth. This new system IS a good one, just not for everybody. Besides that, it just came out like today, so give it time and I'm sure they'll expand what operating systems/webbrowsers/media players it works under since that was kinda the point from the beginning. You probably still won't get itunes but at least it should be able to use others.

[Eric @ Nov 11th 2007 9:52AM]

You guys responding did see that the software is in beta, right? That would imply that they're still working on it. Since there are more PCs than macs, and the vast majority of TV watchers who might use this service are in front of them, it would make sense to get it on a PC first, try things out (and MS already did the DRM stuff) and later introduce a Mac version.

The Linux world is SOL as usual, though.

[Quix @ Nov 11th 2007 8:29PM]

"I for one have no problem with this, I don't use itunes anyway. Now I can get the episodes for free and without needing apple software or $5 per episode to do it. I say: thank you NBC, keep up the good work." - This comment brought to you by the NBC Public Relations Department.

[Mark @ Nov 12th 2007 12:21AM]

Sweet! I totally just got accused of working for NBC!! lol no, I don't work for and have no affiliation with NBC aside from liking Scrubs and The Office. In fact, this post^ was the first time I've ever posted about NBC at all. I'm just a normal person who thinks it's at least a step in the right direction, so you don't need itunes to dl episodes. as another observant commenter said, it's still in beta and the vast majority(~95%) of people use windows and thus have wmp.

[andyo @ Nov 10th 2007 7:53PM]

Greedy bastards. They should have just let the likes of youtube make their shows popular. Who's gonna watch their crap having to install some shoddy and shady application that puts ads in the PC, and REQUIRES IE. They HAD to want more ways to shove ads up our asses.

[RikF @ Nov 10th 2007 7:56PM]

And if they don't include advertising, how are they going to pay to make the shows exactly?

[hn333 @ Nov 10th 2007 10:35PM]

How can they be greedy if their giving the shows away for free? idiot

[Marek @ Nov 11th 2007 12:58AM]

@hn33,

They're not giving away their shows for free. I'm tired, so I'll just refer you to the 4,000 other comments that state precisely how they're making money on free downloads. The only reason why I responded is because you called Andyo an idiot, which – considering your comments – is really just way off base and should make you feel embarrassed.

[Mark @ Nov 11th 2007 1:07AM]

ya... I'm sorry, but having an ad in the show does not somehow make it not be free. It's free because I can watch it and don't have to pay for it, that's pretty much textbook definition. Yes, they make money off it, but that money comes from the companies that're advertising, not from us.

[rp @ Nov 12th 2007 12:43PM]

... which in turn generate revenue for their marketing campaigns via purchases made by consumers. it's only free if you can skip the ads (time is money and what not) and don't buy any of the advertised products.

[a ham sandwich @ Nov 10th 2007 7:56PM]

good job NBC. this distribution method is MUCH better than itunes.

[a ham sandwich @ Nov 10th 2007 9:13PM]

i hope you guys know that that was sarcasm. who in their right mind would say that and mean that?!

[Iain @ Nov 10th 2007 8:00PM]

Not that it matters, given that you could never buy episodes in Canada, but NBC still region locks this stuff to the United States. Funny I can watch NBC on my cable but I can not get the same content on the internet. Oh well got to love Bittorent! No borders to deal with there, thank gosh!

[Ireland @ Nov 10th 2007 8:09PM]

Wow, I love Transmission :P

[Calvin @ Nov 10th 2007 8:03PM]

People may rate my comment down for this, but I say: Do not download/watch anything from this site until the WGA Strike is over and the WGA get what they deserve. I love The Office and Heroes, both on NBC, but I'm not watching any of their videos until they settle a deal.

[Maestro @ Nov 10th 2007 8:09PM]

ABC has something pretty similar. You can watch the HD feeds of some shows for free. It actually looks like real HD too!

Well, years ago, Apple got all kinds of props for doing something outside the box, so give NBC at least the benefit of the doubt...

[Kenban @ Nov 10th 2007 8:09PM]

I don't know why companies continue to produce this crap software. I was planning on installing it to watch this weeks episode of 30 rock. But it requires Media Player 10 and that I be using IE. I don't use IE and I do not want to install WMP 10.

Then it can only be used to download the newest episodes and you have 48 hours to watch them. If I just use the website they already have in place I can watch a stream of any episodes from the full season and I don't even need to use IE to do it.

Its obvious these companies have no idea what they are doing. There needs to be a stand alone application which browses available shows through its own interface. The ability to queue downloads and subscribe to shows. The program can be required to dial home once a week to get new commercials and refuse to play downloaded content until it can get new ads. Time limits on downloaded shows are fine but they need to be reasonable and often 48 hours is not. This is not rocket science but it seems no one can get it right.

[Kyle P. @ Nov 11th 2007 12:26AM]

Kenban:

I really like your idea. It's certainly not perfect, or specific, but it's a start!

[michael @ Nov 10th 2007 8:12PM]

It's not just NBC, but I wish ALL major network studios would allow their content to be distributed by not just iTunes, but ALL major online content stores.

iPod's and iTunes are nice, but not everybody wants to use them.

But I'm not interested in using an NBC-only service, thank you very much.

I happen to be a Zune user, and yet we don't get support. And ZMP happens to be practically the next biggest online store after iTunes. Plus, I prefer watching my media on WMP 11 than the horrible video-watching in iTunes.

So maybe someday, that dream would come true.

But NBC is not helping matters.

[Jim @ Nov 10th 2007 9:03PM]

Nobody buys Zunes or uses WMP 11. Nobody.

[michael @ Nov 10th 2007 9:21PM]

@Jim:

Yeah, there are. Don't get me into it.

There's more than 2 million Zune users now, and I doubt that means they're "nobody".

Many people use WMP 11. It's the best stable media management/playback program there is. The UI is actually awesome compared to iTunes, it supports a ton of devices and online stores, and it's very customizable ( http://wmplugins.com/ ). It just pretty much works all the time for most people. iTunes on Windows, on the other hand is crap compared to it. There's a lot of XP and Vista users, so I doubt millions of more people are also nobody.

[roc @ Nov 11th 2007 12:28AM]

haha.... as if 2 million users makes Zunes legit. That's called uninformed consumerism... there's a pretty substantial section of the market that has been created to inform our "lost" consumers. Just peep this page's url if you would like to know one. :)

[roc @ Nov 11th 2007 1:09AM]

many windows users us wmp because they are unaware of their options, not because it's decent. It's somewhere around 5th or 6th.

[michael @ Nov 11th 2007 1:15AM]

@roc:

No, that's not the reason. I'm quite sure there's a bazillion iPod users out there, who probably use iTunes for their iPod management. But iTunes itself is a memory hog, works awful on Windows, doesn't support a lot codecs (WinMedia!), in some cases, awful playback, and people don't want that.

And I'm quite sure people have heard of VLC player, but there's practically little features in it. It plays a lot of codecs, but it's not that hard to download an extra codec pack for WMP 11.

RealPlayer's UI is rather confusing for many users at first. The controls aren't as sophisticated as WMP.

I could go on and on about each little media player program, and it's flaws, but WMP 11 happens to do the best, ok? It's not a lack of knowledge, it's just that people prefer something that just 'works'.

[dj-kenpo @ Nov 10th 2007 8:19PM]

I'll stick with torrents, and nbc can just fade away, or be strong, or whatever, I could really care less. the world is moving on. they'll either figure that out or they won't. no skin off my nose.

[Adam K @ Nov 10th 2007 8:38PM]

Thank God for FairUse4WM!

[Rob @ Nov 10th 2007 8:40PM]

Until I can legally buy this and transfer it to my iPod with my MacBook, bittorrent it is. I have gladly paid in the past....if the idiots won't let me pay for what is on the air free, their loss.

[Rob Vardell @ Nov 11th 2007 11:11AM]

I whole-heartedly agree with your comments. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, smart enough to figure out this torrent thing (I own Macs) so I am just out the content sans the DVR in my cable box. I spend thousands per year on iTunes. It is my choice but for a good reason. All I want is a reasonably priced method to get my desired content on my computer or portable device. For me that comes to about $.99-$1.99 per episode. So, NBC and whomever else out there is spoiled with those fat paychecks, it is your loss! I will buy whatever is out there on iTunes that is made available at a reasonable price.

As for the shows that you are not giving your customers in an easily consumable format.....you have left the masses no alternative but to steal your content. You have no one to blame but yourself. Did you even try to consider the needs of your customers? Do you care about anything but your stock price? What is your real motivation here?

I, for one, will support those companies taking measures to provide me with what I want as the consumer.

[Biff Sanders @ Nov 10th 2007 9:05PM]

"Democrats: Colleges must police copyright, or else

Published: November 9, 2007
New federal legislation says universities must agree to provide not just deterrents but also "alternatives" to peer-to-peer piracy, such as paying monthly subscription fees to the music industry for their students, on penalty of losing all financial aid for their students."

http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_2100-1028_3-6217943.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[swd120 @ Nov 11th 2007 11:32AM]

And Ron Paul continues to stand against these BS laws that congress wants to pass.

He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.

He voted against the Patriot Act.
He voted against regulating the Internet.
He voted against the Iraq war.

He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.


Ron Paul 2008

[Alex M @ Nov 10th 2007 8:52PM]

I tried watching Heroes on one of the things on the website and it was PAINFUL. I couldn't really rewind and it froze too much.

[JBC @ Nov 10th 2007 8:58PM]

Amidst all the complaining, it DOES work on a mac - I watched the office today on firefox. It was a little hinky (I had to move the scroll bar to get the video to appear at first) but then I watched it full screen just fine. Just sayin...