See here. NBC Universal is pulling out on iTunes. Jeff Zucker (photo) is pissed because I told him he looks like Homer Simpson in a suit. But come on. He does. So all this stuff about how the negotiations have been friendly? Yeah. Right. Zucker went over a table at me and had to be pulled off. Anyway. Some of the other video content guys are going to pull the same bullshit too, giving notice of a pull-out. They think this is going to scare the shit out of us and we'll come back to the table and let them set their own prices and mess with our store and grab a bigger cut for themselvs. Their big argument is that we need video content to sell our video iPods. So they figure they've got us by the short hairs. Which they kind of do, I suppose. As Zucker said, "What are you going to do? Go make your own TV shows? Film your own movies? I don't think so, asshole."
Then again, they need us. If they walk, they're giving up 80% of the distribution channel. So at this point it's kind of a game of chicken. My feeling is we should just stay Zen, just keep handing them blank pieces of paper and sticking to our position and not yielding. In public, to the press, we'll try to seem neutral and nice and polite. We'll paint ourselves as the friend of the consumer, and we'll paint the content guys as the big bad guys who've been ripping people off for decades (consumers and artists alike). We'll say (not publicly) that what this is really about is that the content guys are looking for new ways to rip people off and that they will do so, unless we, Apple, put a stop to it on behalf of consumers everywhere.
Basically what it comes down to is which side will customers believe? Which company do customers trust? Which company do they like best? As I told Zucker, if he and the other movie studios and TV networks want to put their brand reputation up against ours, I'm happy to do that. Fear not, Apple faithful. I like our chances.
(Photo by Nigel Helmetdale, courtesy of Daily Mail. .)
Friday, August 31, 2007
The content bastards think they've got us by the nuts
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41 comments:
Zucker?
Didn't he have something to do with the "Airplane" movie?
Holy crap.
He DOES look like Homer Simpson.
Damn.
Do you think he's the bastard son of Steve Ballmer and Homer Simpson??
Scary stuff.
Just have the next upgrade of iMovie or Final Cut or whatever video software that the producers use port a direct upload to Apple TV via .Mac. Negotiate payment to the producers with a fair share of the actual downloads. Shows could sell subscriptions or just get paid according to actual viewership.
Artists selling directly to the public and getting a fair share. Democracy and capitalism! Whoduthiunkit?
•Anonymous revolutionay-tard.
Let tv shows go back to the old price... ZERO.
Surely some hackers will find a way to get it all into iTunes, apple tv, etc.
Raising prices and limiting availability is NOT an anti-piracy solution
The worst part is that NBC hasn't had anything decent to watch in a while on the iTMS.
Not that they've had anything decent to watch PERIOD...
The difference is people LIKE Homer...
Of course, as long as Handbrake exists, I'm not going to need iTunes to fill my video iPod! Sorry, NBC!
Currently NBC gets better margins from iTunes than they do from DVD. What this is really about is control before El Jobso becomes all powerful.
You can run iTunes on our PCs, too!
the answer is simple. most shows are produced by production companies, then bought (after a pilot or 2) by the big dogs. all you have to do is go straight to the production companies for the show. hell, you could release shows before any of the tv distributors would. its like cutting out the middle man and going straight to the artists. and thats what apple is all about. art.
A simple solution...
Pixar buys Disney.
Suddenly loads of content.
Pixar, Disney and the ABC catalogs.
Overnight Steve has improved his negotiating position.
Who needs NBC? There is plenty of content available from CSPAN and the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
FS-
Keep negotiating. He has you by his own balls. Tell him to sqeeze real hard.
good, now i can go back to pirating those shows with bittorrent and not feel bad about it
I am a mobile professional. I don't watch TV at home, but I enjoy
staying up-to-date on my favorite shows by using iTunes in
whatever hotel/airport lounge/etc. I happen to be in between
flights.
I watch shows on my iPod when my MacBook Pro isn't
convenient.
According to NBC, I'm not the kind of customer they want. Well
off, well connected, and quality-minded. They'd prefer for me to
wait six months and uy a DVD set I'm never home to watch, or
watch the shows, riddled with ads, for "free" on their web site (I
guess I'll have to bring a book for those 4-5x monthly
transcontinental flights, where there is no Internet).
What morons the executives at NBC must be.
I cannot and will not use a Microsoft DRM-based solution -
they've switched strategies several times over the past three
years, while the first track I ever bought from iTunes still works.
I won't resort to piracy either, but face it; I have no interest (and
usually no time) to sit in a hotel room or my house and watch
programming, nor do I want to mash everything up on my tivo -
iTunes was a perfect solution - no commercials, easily
obtainable, watch anytime, anywhere - and NBC just shut it off
because they're greedy. Forget about the customer...
Wow Steve, be very careful.
Your buddy Moshe is in their camp.
I recommend bomb sniffing dogs :)
Idea: iCopy
A one step solution for copying your DVDs and other video files to an iPod compatible format.
The latest in convenient content management offerings from Apple.
-----
Let them pull their content from the Apple store, then everyone can just go back to "free media".
Apple to NBC
Hey why are you leaving so Zune?
NBC to Apple
Because your pricing model Zucks
Apple to NBC
But according to a new baby Zuneagaram, the baby boom generation just want one pricing model!
NBC to Apple
Look, we already have a venture with tart gang at Microsoft, the beastmaster's been busy growing the finest Zunechinies in his garden and we're confident the Zunies in Iraq are going to give us an immediately large target market and then there are the Zunelus in Africa and the Zunebies in the US...Zunebies man, have you freaking heard of them?
Apple to NBC.
The Zunbies have very little disposable income and they lack heads?
NBC to Apple
Look, we're just feeding you lines, truth be told, since Zunecker changed his name legally, we have very little choice but to assimilate.
Apple to NBC.
Zunecker looks a mess, was he kissing his brown Zune?
You've nailed it once again FJobso! Could it be that you and he (RSJ) are really in the place where you are both as one?
Spooky...
I dont know who is more retarded, the RIAA for suing grandmas and grandpas and other assorted 4-10 year olds or Universal for being so damn greedy.
The reason the movie and music industries are dying is because these dinosaurs wont spend the time or money to invest in securing their own online distribution systems, instead they have legions of lawyers suing their own consumers and trying to make distributors for their content bend over when they want to become more profitable. Now they want twice the money per episode AND they want Apple to miraculously solve online piracy?
Hey Zucker, if youre so fuckin smart, make it happen and distribute directly. Then you keep all the profit. Oh, whats that? No system or method to do so? Guess yer back to suing families and blaming chinese piracy for all your woes.
Dumbass.
Apple spits back at Peacock:
Rather than wait till NBC pulls shows at the end of Dec 2007, Apple is pulling NBC shows BEFORE the new season begins in Sep 2007. Good riddance! Let's see how many episodes NBC sells at $4.99 a piece. (Oh, they also have piracy concerns.)
http://www.apple.com/
pr/library/2007/08/31itunes.html
@ Jason - Thanks for putting that image of a Ballmer/Homer jizz cocktail in my head. ARRRGGGHHH!!!
Zucker decides to make it more difficult to find NBC shows, more difficult to put them on iPods, and make them more than twice as expensive, all at the same time! Could Homer Simpson have pulled that off?
Another case study for HBR.
D'oh!
> My feeling is we should just stay Zen
Of course by this you were not referring to the video-capable Creative Zen products.
Dangerous territory for Apple, indeed. No doubt Creative will take the market by storm when consumers begin to realize that they can't get Miss Teen USA from iTunes, even for $5.99. I know that I am barely a step away from throwing out my iTunes library and giving up on all of that seamless just-works integration with my iPod so that I can carry my Must-See TV with me. No doubt I'll carry it with me when I go out to repurchase all of my Universal music on CD.
I mean, after I install Windows on my Mac, since Mac OS compatibility isn't important to either Creative or NBC's business partner, Microsoft.
It's ok...NBC has crappy shows anyways. Good riddance!
What a dirty Zucker. Where are they going now? The Zune store? No. Pays4sure? No. BitTorrent? DING DING DING DING DING!
Yes you squeeze those balls Zucker. Maybe with a little pressure it'll strike home that they're just your own.
Good luck with trying to get your cut on the banner ads on peer 2 peer sites!
FSJ,
We knew that there was a risk that Microsoft would be lashing out any which way to beat down iTunes/iPod, etc.. So it's no great surprise that NBC (MS-NBC) is pulling this stunt. Gotta watch out for other avenues of MS attack. Fortunately, they tend to be pretty unimaginative (like stuffing votes on OOXML).
Anon @ 9:07 has a great idea. Sign up all those productions companies & shows for iTunes, and bypass the distributors. Heck, there's an audience for just about anything. The networks and the movie houses have extremely limited capacity, that's where they derive their power to make or break shows & movies.
That's not the case with online distribution: ultimately it's just some database & electrons involved, and they don't care how many atrocious / great shows they're involved with, and it doesn't matter if only 5 idiots want a particular show, it's still $9.95 revenue.
Now, I know you put a kabosh on Disney's direct to DVD drivel. But, reconsider it: beauty is partly in the eye of the beholder, how else can we account for the zillions enamoured of the butt-ugly windoze ('cos they sucked it out of Apple's ass)? Yeah, some are stuck with it, others don't know better. Still, there are tards that truly like the windoze look (bad) & feel (retarded). Similarly, I am sure that there are quite a few kids who would watch the cutting room rejects of the fifth sequel of Lion King.
Vegan Vegan-nomics
Thank you Steve (real one) for giving the peacock the finger on behalf of all of us consumers today, when it was announced that you won't bother to carry the fall lineup for NBC at all.
the answer is simple. most shows are produced by production companies, then bought (after a pilot or 2) by the big dogs. all you have to do is go straight to the production companies for the show."
Whoa, Dude! The '80s called and they want their business model back. That system has been long gone. That's why it's NBC/Universal, ABC/Disney, CBS/Viacom, etc.
The Studios now own the networks (or vice-versa depending on your POV). Yes, there are still independent studios. But if they want to air their programs on network television, they have to work "in association with" one of the studios owned by the networks. Thus, the network now has a degree of ownership of the program and gets money when it goes into syndication or is distributed from other means.
You do not get it! Apple does not PRODUCE anything! Apple does not risk anything. It is NBC and the artists that invest a lot of money without knowing whether it will sell or not. Apple does not have the artists in its payroll, NBC does. You guys are good robots repeating the lines and arguments that Apple feeds you while not noticing that Apple does not create any content at all. The higher prices are to force Apple to lower its cut without having created anything.
I'm amazed that no one has mentioned how easy it would be for Apple to change the Apple TV into a DVR!! For NBC or anyone else to pull out of the iTunes store, it pushes Apple one more step towards making the networks have less and less money as the Apple TV could become the means to fill iTunes with TV content.
The Sony Supreme Court case against VCR's shows that Apple would be within legal right. Apple could very easily make Apple TV DVR make the contracts with the TV channels irrelevant. To walk away from Apple at this point is to kiss any revenue away.
Apple will get the content into iTunes regardless, the question is if the channels want any money from it or not. Apple makes money from iPods, not tv shows. They're dumb!!!
Uh, eclectixotica, Disney has already bought Pixar. So you are proposing that Disney buy itself? Maybe you should just leave it at Disney buys NBC Universal.
Well..., to me..., it is obvious what he looks like. He just need that circumcision cut on the top of that dome.
This move by NBC isn't just stupid, it outranks some of the all-time bonehead moves they've made. This is as stupid as losing David Letterman to CBS. It's as stupid as putting a show called "my mother the car" on the air. It's new-coke stupid. It's Edsel stupid.
If Zucker's bosses at GE aren't reading through the fine print of that incompetent prat's employment contract looking for a legal basis to disembowel him as we speak, then their shareholders should kick them to the curb, too.
It's actually worse than NBC just trying to do a massive money grab. The morons are trying to get apple to accept bundling. Yeah, that's right. To get the show you want, you'd have to buy whatever Zucker wants to shove down your throat with it.
Bite me, NBC.
To the first commentor: no, this clown is Jeff Zucker, the numb-nuts empty suit moron, not Jerry Zucker, the brilliant writer, comedian, and director who was responsible for "Airplane!" and "Top Secret".
He probably got this gig because some other empty suit jackass thought he was hiring Jerry Zucker.
I'm not really worried because I heard on in a blog that NBC will make their shows available at another internet store, something called Bittorrent? I haven't used them before, but folks say they have very reasonable prices. Can anyone confirm this?
TIA
When they've got you by the short hairs -- shave!
its ridiculous for nbc to want to charge more per episode, since their dvds are only $10 more than the prices on itunes. they have to pay for packaging for the dvds!
i love the nbc lineup, but i refuse to buy a tv or pay for cable.
nbc is losing a very loyal viewer over this mess....
I am shocked by this move on NBC's part. by having their shows on itunes, its only money in the bank. unlink dvds, there are no packaging costs!!
i love the nbc lineup, but i refuse to buy a tv or pay for service. is nbc willing to lose really loyal viewers over this?
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