NBC content gets removed from iTunes

Well folks, it's finally, really happened. According to reports, the last vestiges of NBC have been uprooted and removed from iTunes. In accordance with the company's contract (which expired this month), all the shows you know and love have disappeared and been trucked over to the network's own content portal, NBC Direct. So, those of you hoping to make that one last 30 Rock purchase before the big N cleaned house can put the dream to rest, as well as hopes of grabbing anything from Bravo, mun2, NBC, NBC News, CNBC, NBC Sports, Sci Fi, Sleuth, Telemundo and the USA Network. Hey, at least you can get them at the network's site... what's that? You only get to watch shows for 48 hours, and there's no Mac support? Oh well.

[Via TUAW]

[Z @ Dec 2nd 2007 5:47PM]

Those fargen bastages!!!

[Wildness @ Dec 2nd 2007 7:09PM]

Does anyone know if the bastards at NBC are going to refund me for me incomplete set of Battlestar Galactica episodes that i was buying from iTunes????!!!

I am inches away from not watching TV at all - thank the gods of Cobol for Netflix.

[phrozunsun @ Dec 2nd 2007 7:58PM]

in other news, you can still find them on bittorrent.....

[zeke @ Dec 2nd 2007 10:31PM]

you can also still get them on amazon, whose drm isn't as airtight as apple's.

[DrummerBoy @ Dec 3rd 2007 12:57AM]

(The below summed up if you don't want to read: most of NBC's real incentive for their actions come from dealing with the ongoing writer's strike, not necessarily from internet sales woes. Sorry for the long comment.)

You guys need to realize that most of this is in reaction to the writer's strike (going on for over four weeks). The strike was not just over "more money," it was about the writers wanting more of a share in online and new media sales. This caused NBC to shift the blame entirely on distributers like Apple (whether or not this is a legitimate complaint is up to debate). BUT, because the strike isn't coming to any end, NBC had to make some kind of move to shift things. I.E., because blaming another company seemed like a cop-out, it's in NBC's best interest to take the majority of their sales into their own hands (also some sales through Amazon), so that way, they can more directly control the profits they receive from "new media," and throw some of their own bargaining chips on the table to end the strike.

Yes, they would have wanted mroe money from their iTunes sales, but it wasn't a desperate situation until the writers demanded more money from what they already considered to be marginal sales. By pulling their content, they might even be able to pin the writers down by saying their online sales have "significantly dropped," but who knows if they'll buy into the tactic.

[michael @ Dec 3rd 2007 12:47AM]

I saw another user post that maybe it's the other way around.

Maybe Apple really did do something that NBC didn't think was right, so NBC did what they thought was best and pull what they could off of iTunes in retaliation. Could that be?

I'm not saying it is, but maybe we should look at it from both perspectives.

Many of us are mad at NBC, mainly because we do purchase stuff legally, and NBC pulling it off a convenient and well-known online store makes us all MAD. Also the way NBC now positions their content is also not as convenient for some.

But there could be something more deep into it, on a corporate level, and MAYBE, it's not NBC that's the bad guy. Maybe.

Does anyone think this could be possible? This is just a guess. So what do you think?

[LiQuiD_FuSioN @ Dec 3rd 2007 1:27AM]

Just in case anyone wants to see what the NBC page looked like on iTunes check this out:

http://img444.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itunesmusicstorenbctvshta4.png

I knew NBC would take down their shows a long time ago.. so I took a screen shot as a record. ;) (btw, I have a better resolution on my HD).

[CapnVan @ Dec 3rd 2007 1:28AM]

@DrummerBoy:

That comment about the writer's strike would make sense if this were a recent decision by NBC. It's not. They decided to do this quite some time ago, well before the writers decided to strike.

In point of fact, it has little to do with NBC per se. Universal Music tried to renegotiate their contract with Apple to allow for them to charge more for their more popular singles. Apple refused to budge. Vivendi, which owns both Universal Music and NBC Universal, in turn has decided to use their own brand of hardball tactics: they're going to do what they can to crush the iTunes near-monopoly by withholding NBC Universal content. They might have removed Universal Music content, but as has been pointed out numerous times, iTunes is now (IIRC) the 3rd largest music retailer in the U.S. - Universal isn't about the slice their own throat. On the other hand, NBC Universal claims that they have made a mere pittance ($15 million) from their content on iTunes. So they're not losing nearly as much, while, in Vivendi's mind, potentially causing damage to Apple.

Long and convoluted, perhaps. But it never had anything to do with the writer's strike. Vivendi, along with many of the other media companies, want to charge whatever they want for popular content. Apple has insisted on flat pricing. So far, Apple has been able to hold their line. This is an effort on Vivendi's part to crush them.

[Red Alert @ Dec 2nd 2007 5:49PM]

No more Ghost Hunters

[androo. @ Dec 2nd 2007 5:53PM]

Thank God "Chuck" is a Warner Bros. show that is only licensed by NBC.

[Thomas @ Dec 2nd 2007 5:55PM]

I still have Chuck on my XBOX. So i'm still happy. Plus my little Tivo box which gives me all the show for free. Thankyou Tivo.

[Mile @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:56PM]

Seriously, with Tivo on my network there's no need for me to worry about getting anything off the interweb.

I suppose that one day I may miss something that I would have liked to have gotten, but seeing as Tivo gets all the stuff I like and I can transfer that to any device I wish, it would be a rare occurrance.

[spaceb @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:08PM]

No more The Office for Stevie?

[Deng @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:09PM]

To future collaborators with Apple:

Learn lessons from AT&T and NBC: Tango with El Jobso and the Rainbow App', and you'll be getting screwed that night. Royally.

Poor, poor business model.

[z0phi3l @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:13PM]

Trust me they'll make even less than if they stayted with iTunes.

[mabhatter @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:37PM]

Apple did nothing to hurt NBC/Universal, except maybe show the customers reasonable terms for online downloads. NBC was always free to put their music/movies up somewhere else under different terms, the Apple contract was non-exclusive. NBC choose to pursue "independence" from "evil" Apple because they wouldn't let NBC charge 3x as much, or time-bomb the content sold to customers... Basically NBC didn't like Apple's terms for digital media and thought they could get higher prices (from the consumer and retailer) and stricter DRM going elsewhere.

NBC inked the deal with Amazon long before the Apple contract was up and then made a show of unreasonable demands to Apple. They never intended to re-up with Apple, they just wanted the public to think it was Apple's fault and Amazon was coming to the "rescue". Watching business interactions for a while, I see this all the time in B2B contract negotiations. Even in manufacturing, this happens all the time that your company can "do no right" even when making your customer lots of money, on time... because they're management is taking business elsewhere behind your back. It's highly unprofessional the manner in which NBC pursued this. Think about the Wired quotes from the executives and it starts to make sense these guys are still the seedy dealers, with Apple in charge, the accounting was FAIR and they couldn't manipulate the numbers and that scared the H#LL out of them.

[iRobot @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:44AM]

Correction... NBC will make less if they LEAVE iTunes -- Because, Bittorrent if free, and Netflix is cheap.

[Andrew Stone @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:14PM]

And this is why God gave us Bit Torrent.

[Oliver Montero @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:25PM]

ALELUYA BROTHA!!!!

[jamesf @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:34PM]

exactly. I mean, it's almost as if they WANT us to us BitTorrent. I just don't understand these companies.

[RP @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:51PM]

Just wondering: Does anybody know what % of users run a BitTorrent client?

I would guess it's maybe 2-3%? Low enough that NBC doesn't care.

[David Clark @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:53PM]

I use bittorrent, but I also watch the shows on their website. I don't mind watching a few ads when they serve it to me in a form I want.

[dj-kenpo @ Dec 2nd 2007 7:07PM]

2-3%? try 30% at least. maybe it's different in the US, here in canada, everyone and their parents knows how to torrent soemthing. it's not like it's difficult.

[Bobs @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:00PM]

I agree, torrenting is very popular, for many reasons. a good one is patches, any owner of a battlefield serries game could tell you how annoying it is to download a 400mb patch. most servers dish it out at a rather slow speed compared to what a torrent could provide. So torrenting patches (what do you think xFire used for all of its downloads? cookies?) is one very good legal use of BT. However, the darker side of BitTorrent is the ability to download entire shows (seasons 1-7 of southpark anyone?) in one sitting. When people start to look for thier favorite shows, and realize its ungodly expensive, they might find other ways to get that content cheeper, and while NBC may not care, thats $40 per season downloaded that NBC cant ever get back (unless they sue).

[Reader @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:26PM]

Even if torrents were only at 3-5% of the population, how big is the percentage of people that download shows instead of watching them on TV? I would say about the same. I personally know more people that torrent than buy shows off iTunes, so NBC should be afraid of that small chunk.

[Joe @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:31PM]

The real question is what % of people know how to seed?

[BoZs13 @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:25AM]

@ Joe

Woooord!

[Ethan @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:17PM]

www.eztv.it to download your shows.

www.isquint.org/ is the software you'll need if you have a mac.

http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/ If you have a PC.

[blaktornado @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:19PM]

I don't disagree with NBC on anything other than that they didn't allow Mac support for their services. (I don't really care about anything other than that, where this is concerned, to be honest)

Ok, they've fallen out with Apple but that's no reason to exclude the entire Mac community... It's not really fair on them, who've not had anything to do with this whole affair.

[Robert @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:23PM]

I would have gladly paid the $2. Now I will bittorrent until there is an option to buy and not rent for OSX. Idiots have made it so I cannot pay them.

[TD @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:26PM]

NBC Direct plays fine for me in Safari.

[mabhatter @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:49PM]

My problem is that NBC accused Apple of a being "unfair" out of the blue, when really Apple was just putting up the same deal for everybody. Apple didn't know NBC had already inked a deal with somebody else and instead of saying so professionally, NBC choose to make their contractual disagreements with Apple public as "marketing" for their new site.

[michael @ Dec 2nd 2007 7:56PM]

Well since it's going off iTunes, maybe NBC will cut some slack and allow to sell it on other online stores at least.

Seriously. I own a Zune, and while Zune Marketplace is wonderful to browse through, there isn't any TV shows or movies to download. I would gladly pay for it, if it was offered, but it's not. I know MS is working out deals and all, but it would be nice if companies would just go ahead, and sell on all stores.

So maybe NBC will at least go to other online stores since it decides Apple isn't worth it. Just maybe.

[IndiaTech @ Dec 2nd 2007 11:05PM]

Let me rephrase you a little bit...

"I don't disagree with Apple on anything other than that they didn't allow T-Mobile (OR OTHER GSM Service) support for their iPhone. (I don't really care about anything other than that, where this is concerned, to be honest)

Ok, Apple wants to make tons of money, but that's no reason to exclude the entire T-Mobile (OR OTHER GSM Service) community... It's not really fair on them, who've not had anything to do with this whole affair and just want the latest."

The point here is Corporate America doesn't care about their customers. They are in this to make money. Some may call this "Exclusive Deal" while others may refer to it as "Discrimination".

[JT @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:26PM]

Some NBC stuff is still available. Shows that are produced by other studios are still available and being sold through iTunes. Example - Chuck and Journeyman.

[Andrew @ Dec 2nd 2007 9:17PM]

Except "Chuck" is a Warner Bros show... and "Journeyman" is a Fox Studios production.

[JT @ Dec 3rd 2007 12:15PM]

Um, that's exactly what I said Andrew.

"Shows that are produced by other studios are still available and being sold through iTunes."

Chuck and Journeyman are on NBC, but produced by different studios.

[Jon @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:27PM]

you can always watching them streaming for about 6 weeks after they air, the only problem is downloading them

[John @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:29PM]

Mac users should just download "TV Shows." You tell it what shows to download and every day it searches the torrent databases for new episodes of said shows, opens up your torrent client, and away you go. None of this paying for free TV bullshit.

Really, though, television episode downloads should be available through your cable provider. I literally pay a staggering $100 per month for standard cable and internet, so why should I pay more just to "keep" an episode that could easily be recorded? Ridiculous.

[Panq @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:38PM]

As a user of neither iTunes nor NBC Direct, I don't get the quote about Mac support. It's not like either are platform-independant (as they should be), right?

[Bloobie @ Dec 2nd 2007 7:24PM]

iTunes runs on both OS X-based Macs and Windows-based PCs. NBC's download service only works with Windows, although the streaming content works on both platforms.

[ldrn @ Dec 2nd 2007 10:21PM]

That's great if you use one of those two platforms, isn't it? It still doesn't make them "Platform Independent."

Welcome back into the cold, OS X brethren. Don't think we've forgotten how quickly you switched from crying "support cross platform" to "Mac and Windows is enough, nobody else has enough marketshare" -- but welcome nonetheless.

[marc @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:43PM]

!!!no!!! !!!por el amor de dios que hago sin telemundo!!!

[sk8rpro @ Dec 2nd 2007 11:37PM]

Umm... English please!?

[Zoesch @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:54AM]

That's why you need Telemundo on iTunes and not some weird ass DS Game with questionable characters guiding a little boy through Mexico

[D9 @ Dec 11th 2007 4:48PM]

¡El perro vuela la fabricación de la camisa qué adiós!

(Dog flies shirt making what goodbye)

[Zorque @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:47PM]

Even though it's too bad they're parting from iTunes, I really like their Hulu jointventure with Fox. For flash video, it's really high quality, with nice sound, and it's free because it's ad supported. Although their back catalog is a little lacking. Oh well, it's still in beta.

[mlb @ Dec 2nd 2007 6:59PM]

Stupid. NBC will lose money on this. I bought numerous NBC videos on iTunes, however I will not be using NBC Direct for two reasons: 1) it is not compatible with OS X (typing this on my Macbook) or 2) I cannot stream these videos to my Apple TV. NBC Direct is useless to me. NBC on iTunes was very useful and I was willing to pay for it. I think NBC was very short sighted on this.

[Chris @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:33PM]

Nobody cares if you are typing this on your macbook. If you're bitching about no OSX support its pretty much implied that you use a mac.

[mlb @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:48PM]

Obviously you cared enough about it to read and respond.