There is a game of corporate chicken going on. Hours after NBC decided that it was going to pull its shows from the iTunes store at the end of this year, Apple (AAPL) trumped them and will not sell shows from the upcoming TV season on iTunes, the largest online music and video store,
Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99. Apple’s agreement with NBC ends in December. Since NBC would withdraw their shows in the middle of the television season, Apple has decided to not offer NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season beginning in September. NBC supplied iTunes with three of its 10 best selling TV shows last season, accounting for 30 percent of iTunes TV show sales.
Just what NBC deserves for trying to raise prices from $1.99 episode to $3.99 an episode:
OTHER CONTENT PROVIDERS BE WARNED:
Apple will cut you off from the world’s pre-eminent digital media download service if you try to dictate terms for the platform Apple built from scratch and is continuing to grow internationally.
All of these negotiation tactics are cute but seriously… this needs to be patched up by the start of the fall season. I want to be able to download episodes of the new seasons of Heroes.
NBC can’t possibly hold the position they are. They have to give into whatever Apple wants otherwise they’d be cutting off their right arm. They’d be losing out on some serious money.
Doesn’t NBC realize that they already get my money twice for the same content since I (stupidly) pay for both an iTunes subscription for Battlestar Galactica AND buy the box set when it comes out? Yeah, I love me some BSG, but 4.99 per episode is nuts! That being said, here’s hoping they can come to a new agreement before January.
Oh no! This is exactly what happens when corporations get greedy. And just who is the one that suffers? That’s right! We do. It’s a real shame when the people have to pay for another person’s mistake.
There must be some reason that NBC sees fit to trump up the cost of each episode by $3.00. I don’t know what it is – but maybe these series’ are costing them more than they can sell it for. I mean, I know that there’s a lot of video piracy going on with these videos and series’ as well. Lost and Heroes are most people’s favourite around here, and I know that a lot of people pirate them. One guy downloads – the rest copy. iTunes, though, has certainly made the right decision here and NBC should rather look for another digital download provider if that’s the price they want charged. iTunes also do suffer in sales if they don’t have these popular shows available for donwload.
Huh! Now, that’s what you get for fighting against Apple. What a very calm and cool way of getting even. Way to go, Apple. As always your business strategies always impress me.