Apple and NBC have butted heads resulting in NBC pulling all of its content from iTunes. While this is bad for Apple, it was just as poor of a scenario for NBC and the only real losers here were us, the consumers. At yesterday’s media event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the much awaited return of NBC’s content to the iTunes store, in HD no less.
NBC and Apple have buried the hatchet, which makes for the best scenario possible for consumers. A lot of NBC’s content will be available in High Definition (iTunes link).
The original dispute between Apple and NBC was based around pricing. Apple claimed that NBC wanted to raise the price of its content, as high as $4.99, while NBC completely denied these allegations. About a year ago, NBC accounted for as much as 40% of the sales of TV shows at iTunes. NBC digital distribution president JB Perrette said that last year, Apple didn’t have this $2.99 price point for HD content. NBC feels that the new arrangement gives them the ability to creatively compile groups of episodes and price them accordingly. “We finally got what we wanted: pricing flexibility,” Perrette said. “In short order, we’ll be back in our No. 1 position.”
NBC again denied allegations it had ever tried to increase the price of its content on iTunes. “That was largely scare-mongering,” he said. “We were looking for flexibility, not to gouge people.” Apple CEO Steve Jobs pointed out that iTunes has over 65 million users, and 30,000 videos titles. Apple’s relationship with NBC is “a case of mutual need, given NBC’s library and the ubiquitous presence of Apple’s platform,” claims Dennis Miller, a general partner at Spark Capital.
Additional NBC Universal programming from the Oxygen, Telemundo, Mun2, and NBC Sports networks will be available on iTunes soon, while content from its NBC, USA Network, SCI FI Channel, Bravo, Sleuth and NBC News networks will be made available immediately. That includes show such as the award-winning and critically acclaimed “Heroes,” and the Emmy award-winning programs “The Office” and “Battlestar Galactica.”
NBC Universal will offer one free download from each of its top series—in standard or HD—during the next two weeks. The premiere episodes of upcoming NBC shows, such as “Knight Rider ,” “My Own Worst Enemy” and “Kath & Kim” will also be made available on iTunes a week before their broadcast premieres later in September and October, with subsequent episodes available the day after broadcast.
Whether the entire dilemma was simply a battle of ego, a long drawn out power struggle between companies, or genuinely a monetary discrepancy, the new arrangement plays out best for the consumer. Which happens to be the best scenario for both companies. Who would’ve thought?
[Additional info from AI and Reuters]
