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.
(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.
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?
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.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
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.