NBC says goodbye to Apple, hello to Amazon
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NBC Universal cuts new content partnership days after a rift emerges with Apple.
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The incoming head of AOL said Tuesday he left a 31-year career at NBC for the chance to transform the online business into a formidable rival to television and other traditional media.
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Yahoo will cease operating its online music subscription service and switch its customers to RealNetworksâ Rhapsody music service as part of a new deal.
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Amazon.com unveiled the Unbox Video Store on Thursday, a direct rival to Apple&#8217;s iTunes, which allows U.S. users to buy or rent TV shows, movies and other video content from the Internet. But unlike the iTunes Music Store, Mac users are not welcome, and neither are iPods.
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Come December, popular NBC shows like Battlestar Galactica and The Office will no longer be available through the iTunes Store, after NBC (the No. 1 supplier of digital videos to iTunes) decides not to renew its contract with Apple. The decision follows Universal music's shunning of the iTunes Store and announcement of the upcoming Hulu, NBC Universal's own stab at online television.
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As we bid adieu to 2007 and prepare to enter the new year, AOL is also saying goodbye to memories: the company has finally killed off the Netscape Web browser - or what was left of it, anyway.
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NBC thinks it's on to something with Hulu, but Don Reisinger has news for it -- Hulu will be a major failure.
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NBC Universal said it was moving to save as much as $50 million a year by reducing its reliance on expensive pilots of new series for NBC television.
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NBC Universal has decided not to renew its contract to sell television shows on iTunes, becoming the second major media company to challenge Apple Inc's dominance in digital entertainment.
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(InfoWorld) - NBC Universal's pullout from the iTunes online store is more of a loss for Apple and points to fierce resistance among media companies to potential Apple dominance of online video sales, an industry analyst said. On Friday, Apple announced it won't sell NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season after NBC's decision not to renew its iTunes contract. Apple explained that NBC wanted to increase its wholesale price for each episode by so much that Apple would have had to charge $4.99 per episode instead of the current rate of $1.99 for all videos on the site. Apple wouldn't agree to that price change. Shows from ABC, CBS, and News Corp.'s FOX and The CW, plus 50 cable networks, are available on iTunes for the flat rate. The incident reflects how poorly the iTunes video store has done relative to the iTunes music store, said James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research. "It shows how paltry and uninfluential the video side of the iTunes house is," he said. Few major music labels could similarly afford to pull out of iTunes, which dominates the online music industry. iTunes does make up the bulk of the online video resale market, but the market is small. Because the segment is still budding, many of the media companies are resisting Apple's attempt to dominate the video market as it does the online music business, he said. Forrester expects the online video resale business to generate about $300 million this year with iTunes taking in most of that. He estimates that NBC will bring in about $60 million from iTunes video sales this year. The loss of that revenue would be "not that big of a cost if it helps them undermine Apple's monopoly aspirations in the video world," McQuivey said. In the meantime, NBC is building a new platform for watching shows on its own Web site for free with paid advertising. NBC has already sold its online advertising inventory for the upcoming season, which represents revenue it won't have to share with Apple. Revenue from that service is likely to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in a few short years, McQuivey said. The rift with NBC is more damaging to Apple than to NBC, he said, because Apple is pushing several video products, including the Apple TV, the iPhone, and video iPods. While other big content providers are probably cheering NBC's decision, they're unlikely to follow suit, McQuivey said. They may, however, use the incident to continue to push Apple to allow variable pricing. So far, Apple has insisted on a flat rate for all videos. Media companies would prefer to be able to charge more for exclusives or season finales, he said.
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Science & environment: Apple ditches emblematic look with media player based on the iPhone.
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TV programmes such as Heroes will not be available on iTunes after US broadcaster NBC ends a deal with Apple.
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(InfoWorld) - Contract negotiations between Apple and NBC Universal regarding video content in iTunes are getting nastier and staying public. In a statement, NBC disputes Apple's characterization of the companies' contract renegotiation and says that its TV programs will be available on iTunes through early December. Late last week,Â Apple said that NBC wanted to increase the price for its video contentÂ so much that iTunes would have to sell individual TV shows for $4.99, instead of $1.99, like the rest of the available programs. Because Apple wasn't willing to agree to that price hike, NBC declined to renew its contract, Apple said. So that it wouldn't have to stop selling programs in December -- the middle of the TV season -- when their contract ends, Apple said it wouldn't offer any NBC shows for the upcoming season. But Apple may have a bigger battle on its hands if it does pull those shows from the iTunes video store. In its statement, NBC said that all returning series including new episodes would be available on iTunes through the end of the contract. NBC also said that rather than asking to double the wholesale price of its programs as Apple contends, it wanted to offer end-users more flexible pricing, including bundling packages of shows for a set price. Apple has mostly stuck to a policy of flat pricing despite pressure from content owners to allow for variable pricing. The exception is in the music store where a selection of songs that come without copy protection cost more. Both companies took jabs at each other in their statements. Apple called NBC's suggested pricing change a "dramatic price increase." NBC responded thus: "It is clear that Apple's retail pricing strategy for its iTunes service is designed to drive sales of Apple devices, at the expense of those who create the content that make these devices worth buying." NBC also sells programs on Amazon.com and very soon plans to start offering its shows and others for free on Hulu.com, a joint venture company with News Corp. So far, sales in the iTunes video store are relatively low. During 2007, the store should generate about $300 million, according to estimates from Forrester Research.
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NBC Universal has decided not to renew  its contract to sell television shows on iTunes, becoming the  second major media company to challenge Apple Inc's   dominance in digital entertainment.
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NBC Universal said Tuesday it will sell episodes of its new fall television shows using Amazon's Unbox digital download service, after the network failed to reach an agreement with Apple Inc. last week to offer the shows on iTunes.
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NBC Universal said yesterday it will sell episodes of its new fall television shows using Amazon's Unbox digital download service, after the network failed to reach an agreement with Apple Inc. last week to offer the shows on iTunes.
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By ANICK JESDANUN  NEW YORK - Three senior executives are leaving AOL following a recent shake-up that brought in a veteran NBC executive as the online company's new chief executive, two people familiar with the matter said Friday.