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NBC wants back on iTunes, demands anti-piracy measures
After a bitter and much-publicized split from Apple late last year, NBC says it would “love” to put its TV content back on iTunes, but the network wants more rigid anti-piracy measures and flexibility over pricing first.
According to George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer for NBC Universal, digital piracy hurts the company to the point where it is not viable to distribute its content digitally. Citing the large amount of pirated content on “leading MP3 players,” he suggested Apple could institute some type of gatekeeping mechanism in its iTunes/iPod combo to keep pirated content at bay. I wouldn’t count on NBC-produced TV shows back on iTunes for a while, though, as placing anti-piracy features in addition to the iTunes DRM would likely be counterproductive for the fruit company.
User Comments (8)
Post a comment| gbe300 on April 17, 2008 7:19 AM | DRM... Piracy ... Download sites ...
Seriously, I really wish these companies and artists would get their heads out of their arses. Now NBC ... Do they realize that all of there content is Free ? they air their programs over the air waves and its a basic channel anyone with a tv gets (cable or not). I can not see how Piracy can hurt them. Now maybe its hurting their ad revenues because ppl are tired of being forced to watch a show when they air it or with 20 mins of fast food and soft drink driven commercials. Its not piracy, its the simple fact that TV as a medium has come of age and is now over the hill. Digital is the way too go and its sad they may be losing some revenue but its not piracy, its their adhesion to an archaic model of revenue generation. Get with it or go die. Next please. Maybe next there will be a polictical/judicial alignment of NBC/CBS/ABC etc etc and then they can fight over Judges' time with the IRAA for the right to sue ppl... maybe on day they will actually get their heads out from under themselves and will be able to see in the distance whats coming an adapt to it in such a way its benefiting to them and their consumers.
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| windmill007 on April 17, 2008 10:05 AM | Yeah the need to realize DRM infected stuff just hurts. People can always get around these hurtles so why creat them in the first place. If you have a product people want they will pay if they don't haveta go thru a lot of hassel to get it. Thats why toreents and such are so popular. Gives them what they want easily.
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| Didou on April 17, 2008 1:08 PM | Not to mention that the DRM on the video files that iTunes serves is limiting already. What they would to do is force users to pay to watch it on the computer & then pay an extra fee to play it on each of the user's iPods (maybe pay once more to play it on the AppleTV).
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| boony on April 17, 2008 9:33 PM | NBC: "We'd love to come back. Please just make our content more annoyingly restrictive to legit users. We're not counting pirates as they will crack the DRM as they've always done. Oh, and let us price gouge. We'll call it 'flexibility in pricing'. That sounds so much nicer to our suckers ...er, customers."
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| captaincranky on April 18, 2008 9:15 AM | Digital TV is here. In most areas, you can pull in a high quality, Hi-Def signal off the air with a pair of rabbit ears. What more do you want? Wait I know, somebody to come over and program your DVD recorder for you!
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| sngx1275 on April 18, 2008 2:20 PM | Do they really think the 'pirated' copies floating around the internet came from the iTunes Store?
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| 9Nails on April 18, 2008 8:32 PM | I don't get the big deal, especially when NBC digitally streams most of it's TV shows for free at their website! It's the same TV content that was paid-for by sponsors when it originally aired. Because some of us download the show, it doesn't mean that we would otherwise pay a premium for the (what should be free) media. I can understand a small compensation for the hosting hardware, bandwidth, and designers who improve the iTunes store. But I don't understand why they need tighter restrictions when the only people paying for TV shows are the occasional fans who missed the air date, those without TV service, or those who direly hate commercial content.
Technology to view media is ubiquitous, and DRM prevents the fair use and shifting media to other formats. If NBC restricts fair use by increasing DRM, and therefor prevent us from watching content that we paid for then why wouldn't we look for free alternatives? (Especially knowing that those free alternatives do not restrict fair use.) Leave it open, ask a fair price, and the people will come.
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| blindspott81 on April 19, 2008 5:40 PM | He must be living on another planet if he thinks that iTunes is the issue.
There are plenty of alternatives to iTunes to put content on an iPod. Get real NBC, anyone with a DVD Recorder and an internet connection can put your shows on their iPod. CONSUMERS DO NOT WANT DRM!!!
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