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]
posted Nov 10th 2007 7:25PM
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. :/
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.
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.
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.
how long until we find out the NBC software is tracking your every move?
No IE,
No PC,
No NBC,
Not for me.
I love the whole 'Dr Seussness' of that comment.
And they wonder why torrents and P2P is still thriving.
Windows and IE? How fricken limited can they get?
"does nothing to help Mac users left stranded"
boo-hoo
Windows users who are not fond of IE and WMP are "boo-hoo" as well.
Actually probably everyone except NBC executives will hate it.
"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?
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.
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.
I for one welcome our new NBC network television overlords.
Free is Free.
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?
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.
@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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
And if they don't include advertising, how are they going to pay to make the shows exactly?
How can they be greedy if their giving the shows away for free? idiot
@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.
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.
... 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.
good job NBC. this distribution method is MUCH better than itunes.
i hope you guys know that that was sarcasm. who in their right mind would say that and mean that?!
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!
Wow, I love Transmission :P
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.
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...
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.
Kenban:
I really like your idea. It's certainly not perfect, or specific, but it's a start!
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.
Nobody buys Zunes or uses WMP 11. Nobody.
@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.
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. :)
many windows users us wmp because they are unaware of their options, not because it's decent. It's somewhere around 5th or 6th.
@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'.
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.
Thank God for FairUse4WM!
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.
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.
"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
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
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.
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...
Different service. This is for downloading the episodes. Your talking about streaming.
I don't get the greed. It's a frackin' TV show that we can watch for free on our TVs! Why does NBC (or the other channels) feel that they need to charge any more than $2 for a downloadable episode that you can watch on an iPod or other device? The DVD sets, which typically come with 20+ episode seasons cost like $30. You're selling a file! And they want a cut of iPod sales? Give me a break! The studios (TV, music and movie) are all going to push us back into the age of rampant file-sharing because of this. All iTunes downloads should be DRM-free or at least able to be watched on more than one kind of portable device (even though the iPod is my choice), sold for a reasonable amount of money (no more than $2) and have an unlimited viewing license (no deleting after 48 hours). Don't get me started on how it should be easier (and legal!) to transfer a DVD of a movie or TV show that I purchased to a portable device. I don't have a Mac so HandBrake is not my friend...
Nobody buys Zunes or uses WMP 11. Nobody.
I'm "guilty" of the latter. And a fair amount of people I know are "guilty" of the former.
What are you talking about?
I'm a nobody? Millions of other people are 'nobody'?
You and your ridiculous comment make me laugh.
I'm not a Zune user, but I am a WMP 11 user. I find WMP 11 happens to do a whole lot better in streaming my media than iTunes does. iTunes store may have the content, but playing and media controls are another.
But of course, I'm betting you've never used WMP 11, or even a Zune, so you know little what I'm talking about. Keep sticking to the same old thing, and never try or experiment other things. I'll be happily playing videos through WMP 11.
Another POS article trumping up Apple. "Everybody"?????
Who the fuck is engadget trying to convince...shiTunes is the worst POS to every grace windows. Its clunky, slow and a resource hog.
By the way this new method is FREE and accessible to over 98% of all computer users which is heckuva lot better than paying for it, having to use shiTunes and iTurd to watch it and dealing with crApple DRM.
Engadget pull your tongues outta Steve Jobs ar$ehole ya numbnuts!
Agree 100%, iTunes is crap and it's users are sheep.
Vote me down sheep.
You can't access NBC content when traveling outside US - and the whole point for me and most business travelers users for using downloaded episodes is to be able to watch them when we are on the road outside US. iTunes gives me that option, NBC not.
Oh, this is too bad. It really sucks that I can't download shows any other way than NBC's proprietary download service with crappy drm. It sucks that I have to watch my shows with ads. If only there was another option here to get my shows. Oh wait, there is. It's called bittorrent. As long as the networks keep people payin, i'll keep on seedin.
I guess everyone is jumping up and down without even looking at the site. First part of 2008 sounds to me like the whole Mac issue and maybe linux issues will be solved very soon.
Q: Does NBC Direct support Firefox?
A: Firefox is not currently supported but full support is coming soon. We are actively addressing the needs of Firefox users and hope to have a solution in place by the end of the year.
Q: Are there plans to support the Macintosh operating system?
A: NBC Direct's video playback and security (Digital Rights Management) are built for the Microsoft Windows™ operating system. They don't currently run on other systems, such as Apple Macintosh™ or Linux™. However, if your Apple computer runs on an Intel Core Duo™ processor, you can set up Apple's™ "Boot Camp" software to install and run Microsoft Windows XP™ on your computer along with Mac OS X™.
Full Mac support is expected to be available in the first part of 2008.
where do the files download to? I'd like to try FairUse4WM...
Ok, so, let me assume this is DRM laden? Or do you only get 1 week to download it.
I dont really like the idea of this, although it is free. Perhaps if the Zune software allows you to subscribe to an show, that would really sell alot of zunes to.
My largest gripes are that its IE only. Why cant you support Mozilla? Also, how come it takes about 4 tries for my video to start streaming? Im sure you do that intentionally. It pisses me off. Watch an add about 4-8x before the video will start playing.
Wow! They really don't get it do they.
I loved the iTunes versions. Now I just use Bit Torrent. Why does NBC not want my $1.99 an episode? Are they really this dumb?
I just got back from the future. There should be breaking news on Monday about a massive security hole in the NBC software that causes your PC to spread it's legs wide open and say "Ahhh!"
Remember, you read it here first.
(And if you're wondering, NBC will get bought by Apple in 2013 and all their shows will be filmed in front of empty white backgrounds with people talking to the camera about their iAppliances.)
(Oh yeah, Apple also spins off a company called Kitchen in 20011 that sells coffee makers, refrigerators, microwaves and toasters. iBurnt jokes ensue.)
(If you don't believe me, just wait till 2011. You'll see.)
You liar. Everyone knows the universe is going to end in 2012. Nostradamus said so!
And when NBC fades away you'll have no more shows to watch. I guess you win.
That's OK NBC. I didn't like Apple's pricing either... I mean, I paid it, but now that I don't have the legitimate option of paying to get a commercial-free episode of heroes, there's little else I can do.
But we Apple users are covered. Xtorrent, Azureus, Tomato Torrent, Transmission... Mac users should have no problem "time shifting" an episode of Heroes and then deleting it when we're done watching it, which does fall under fair use as near as most people can figure, what with fiar use laws being so strange and all.
No, that's OK, NBC. We don't need you to automatically delete stuff for us. We Mac users are pretty smart, and can delete episodes all by ourselves once we've watched them. No worries.
Sure, you'd be doing better just taking our money on iTunes, but that's fine. You just saved a lot of Mac users the ethical choice between paying for it, or getting it via torrent.
Me? I'll probably just rent the damn DVDs. With NBC's attitude, I certainly won't be *buying* them.
Negative on that Houston!
You violate several laws while downloading anything copyrighted from p2p networks. That is a fact in any case.
Fair use however does not apply in you example, becuase you also share (seed) parts of the file while you download it - and that is considered illegal distribution.
Technically you could disable upload while downloading or you could just tweak your favourite p2p client to not share stuff that you download and thus avoid most bigger legal consequences...
Downloading copyrighted content from p2p is still just theft, whichever way you look at it...
How is this any different than the free episode streaming NBC had already? Just that you can watch without an internet connection and it doesn't work on anything but Windows and IE?
My God you people are such a bunch of whining little babies!
It's FREE! You do realize you are complaining about content they are giving away for FREE! On iTunes it used to cost money. NBC.com is and has always been free. They now have upgraded their crappy [FREE] service to allow downloading as oppose to just streaming. So you can take it with you on a laptop or something.
Did I mention it's free? And that you people are complaining about it? Grow a brain.
The iTune sheep will cry about anything.
Let's play the silly-analogy game:
Basically NBC (through iTunes) was selling delicious little sandwiches, for a decent price. Now they've killed their deal with Apple, and just give away stale tortillas wrapped around a turd. Sure it's free now, but who wants a turd in a tortilla?
If NBC decided to ALSO offer this ridiculous free "service", along side iTunes, no one would be upset. (no one would care, either.) The idea that they think their turd-in-a-tortilla is a good REPLACEMENT for iTunes is what boggles the mind.
Yes, free is free, and that's fine, but they took away a service people were willing to PAY for and replaced it with a service that you couldn't pay someone to haul away.
@hn333: get a hobby. Spending so much energy hating can't be good for your stomach.
Crap is free! Wow! You can get DRM-infested self-deleting IE-only commercial-laden videos for FREE!
Torrents are FREE too.
If they are such saints for making it free, why not give it away on iTunes???????????
Give me a break, it is all about the money!!!!!!!
Again, you people are clueless.
@Kl, you're a tool. When NBC was on iTunes it had DRM. Were you complaining about it then?
@Jeff, you shouldn't play the silly analogy game because you suck at it. Last week I watched 30 Rock and The Office using NBC online. And it was great. Didn't have to wait for anything to download, didn't have to organize files or anything like that. I had to watch the same commercial 4 times, but so what, I didn't pay anything for it and it's better than watching 20 times that amount of commercials for the shows on television.
Complaining about DRM is a true sign of ignorance. Aside from the fact that iTunes had DRM as well, anyone who complains about DRM on content for this kind of service is a complete tool. That's what DRM is for.
The LEGIT complaints about DRM are when you purchase content as a download (like on iTunes) as a substitute for buying a CD or DVD. It's yours, you own it, so it shouldn't be crippled.
But crying about DRM on service that free streams premium content for free (Netflix On Demand, NBC, etc.) shows what kind of person you really are.
I have a newsflash for all you spoiled kiddies. You're not entitled to own a DRM-free downloaded copy of Scrubs episodes without paying for it. You really this stuff in your library permanently? Buy the DVD box set you cheap bastards. The other 99% of us are happy to watch the episode once, and only once, without paying anything except the time to watch a few commercials. 7 days is plenty of time to do that.
You think this stuff is free to make? These shows cost a fortune. This isn't some crappy YouTube video. These are the best writers, the best actors, and the best technicians in the world creating this stuff weekly. NBC doesn't make a single cent of profit having it online. Not on iTunes or on their site. They lose a ton, despite the ads. They're only doing it because they know it's the future so they must be prepared. Apple didn't care how unprofitable it was because it helped them sell a bunch of iPods at NBC's (and others) expense. NBC was being ripped off badly so they said screw it. Can you honestly blame them? Hope that answers your question, Rob.
And now there's now a writers strike because of it. So we will have tons of reality shows next year. Good job Apple (I'm typing this on my Mac Pro BTW)!
You iSheeps need to grow up and pull Jobs you know what out of your butts. NBC is offering a great service that allows people to watch their shows for free. I see nothing wrong with this, but because its not on iTunes it must be bad right? Oh man, Jobs really did a number on you sheep.
If these are the best that "the best writers, the best actors, and the best technicians in the world creating this stuff weekly", can come up with then it just goes to show how peoples quality standards have slipped over the years. How many crime shows, reality shows, hospital shows and so-called comedy shows can you watch? I can only take so many kids acting like adults & adults acting like kids shows. Wow that smart ass told his idiot parent off didn't he. That guy told his room mate another sex joke. Real original stuff.
So what if it's free. I don't take the guy up who's giving away free "Learn to Use a PC" CD's away. Keep your crappy stuff. I left the PC world years ago because I got tired of having to work on my PC. My neighbor (the IT guy at his company) tells me he's headed back to XP because he's fed up with always trying to fix the latest and greatest thing. Just download this, tweak that, delete this, fresh install that, find a driver for that old accessory, and the list goes on and on.
NBC keep your free stuff. I've gotten to the point that I only watch NBC for the sports and now you can't watch that without being preached to. Halftime show by candlelight? Perhaps I'll see if I can set a candle in front of my monitor and watch the latest NBC show by candlelight.
Long rant against a corporation giving away something for free isn't it. Back in the day my economics professor said something that still holds true today. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Not terribly original but when somebody's giving something away there's always a catch. No thanks.
Well, I installed "NBC Direct Beta" and downloaded their short clip of "The Office" without any problems. However, I got tired of watching the same Bertoli commercial "6 times in a row." The downloaded video never started. It was the Bertoli commercial over and over. Also, they should've considered de-interlacing that commercial too. That Bertoli commercial is a pain to look at with all those lines.
So, in a nutshell "NBC Direct Beta" went directly into my Recycling bin. I'd pass.
N..B..C who are they ?, Dont know, dont care, so I dont miss them.
yet, for free i can hook an antenna and an eyeTV 500 and record your show for free OR still watch a two year old episode of the office i paid $2.00 for.
Then do it and stfu.
love how these guys are some of the biggest corps around and they can't get this to work on mac or firefox. brilliant fellas.
Since NBC is clearly smoking crack anyways, why don't they just offer a legal bittorrent version of theirs shows with ads embedded? It's a proven universal distribution model that's not going away, but now they would get ad revenue.
Oh yeah, and cutting of iTunes revenue completely instead of complementing it with the new service is a brilliant move! *rolls eyes*
ok i'm a windows user and i'll even admit that this is pretty stupid...but i would like to point out that itunes is going to start to have a more difficult time now. windows media center is no joke. neither is windows media in general. everyone associates mac with multi-media, but that's really not the case anymore. media center is far far far far better than apple tv. while this NBC thing isn't exactly for media center (it should be) there are other tv shows available on windows media center. so it's more than just your library of music, video, podcasts, and youtube like itunes and apple tv work from. it's a wayyyyy more robust community of media. windows drm provides a lot of security too - so it's no wonder NBC went this route. it keeps their content safe.
i personally can't wait til there's a real "internet tv" like media center calls theirs. it's definitely there. it just needs people to use it...so bad on NBC for not going with itunes or media center.
i tried it. It wouldn't work in either IE6 or IE7. oddly enough, it worked in firefox, but the video was jerky and skipped frames every 2 second.
Tried the NBC direct download. It also did not work. I made sure I had all my updates and even tried turning down security settings. no avail. (for those of you that try and fail, make sure to delete OpenCase Media Agent too. It automatically starts as a windows Service)
To be honest, I would gladly watch ads if I got to watch episodes for free. I happed to agree with NBC on that it is criminal they only making 14 million dollars off itunes. That isn't a good business model. However, a crippled, unusable media player that hogs your system resources is a worse one.
if they would just let me download a torrent with advertising, I would have no problem.
Uhhhh....I dont know how I was really mouthing off about being tied to itunes, but whatevs.
I just think from an broadcasters perspective, if they were to try make shows and only distribute them online, 14 million dollars wouldnt allow them to have the all the content we have grown accustomed to.
I agree, being tied to IE and a crappy video player sucks, but based on how poorly it is being done now I highly doubt their experiment is going to last long. Besides, it isnt like they are saying they refuse to support mac, or firefox, they are just rolling out a beta program. It makes sense that it would be designed to work with 80% of the market first. Better to roll it out now, then wait another 3 months and still have tons of bugs.
I dont want to "keep" this television shows. I just want to watch them on my computer, so I can start and stop them at my leisure, and I dont want to be tied to seeing them at a certain time every week. If including ads in my videos allows them to make money so I can watch more videos like this, then so be it.
what's your problem? I'm straight and I still wanna kick your ass
Seriously? You mouth off about being tied to iTunes/Quicktime and you think being tied to IE MS and NBC's software is better. Dude you your still locked into an eco system your's is just cheap, and frankly you get what you pay for.
Free for 48 hours. Remember, when you buy from the itunes store you are able to keep it indefinitely.
"nothing cheap is good, nothing good is cheap"
No Mac support and soon no availability in iTunes either? Thanks NBC. You just gave me a reason to keep using BitTorrent.
I don't have cable and love the idea of watching the episodes online. I don't mind watching some lame lipton tea commercial a few times to get a good view of 30 rock or some other program. Who cares about Macintrash anyway?
-Gaming News
http://www.clan.net
While watching episodes via streaming or NBC Direct Download is one way for free downloads, I like the other alternative - free downloading via *cough, cough* sharing sites. From the looks of downloading frustrations from NBC Direct, my method seems more convenient and no commercials. ;)
Hmm odd I got an email saying Try Logic has replied to my post here but it doesn't show up... Anyway from what he said here I can tell what he would have commented and I'd just like to say, yes, it's free(not cheap but free) and you're right, I'm sure it is much worse quality than itunes right? what's that you say? it's not? oh... I guess that just makes it infinately better then doesn't it? besides, if I really want to keep the episode, I'll record it in WMC and transfer it to my zune from that :)
Sorry you don't want my iTunes money NBC, but me and bittorrent are doing great. Thinking about downloading a vacation to Canada this year.
Yeah, everyone says NBC, and you're the only one who think of it as a pee-cock.
Who On Earth cares about Mac Users?
In response to your rhetorical question, I care. For I myself am one of them. While I understand vulnerabilities definitely exist, I myself have never had a virus yet.
I'd love to have any product that's #1 on high-end 6% of computer market.