NBC: all aboard the sinking ship
August 31st, 2007
In a bold (read:stupid) move, NBC announced it would not re-sign it’s contract with Apple to sell their shows on iTunes. The idea that one would pay $2 for a show you can see for free over-the-air (or by other means) seems like a good one, but alas, NBC didn’t think so. They wanted more money. You see, getting people to pay money for something that’s free wasn’t good enough, they wanted more. When Apple wouldn’t agree, they backed out.
With viewership declining year over year, and experts predicting TV’s demise; it would seem odd that NBC would cut off this source of revenue and potential avenue for new viewers. This move simply seems like an old flailing giant failing to embrace new forms of distribution because of the almighty dollar.
The ironic thing is, NBC shows were the only shows I bought on the ITMS. Sigh.
Update: Apparently NBC was worried about piracy and wanted the ability to vary pricing. However, this comment on Gizmodo sums it up perfectly, “You know what happens when you take a digital product like this and make it unreasonably expensive? Drive more people to piracy.”
cheers, will
# posted at 6:08 pm by Will
One Response to “NBC: all aboard the sinking ship”
Me either.