Last September saw Apple and NBC acrimoniously split over their joint deal to distribute NBC programmes through iTunes.
At the time, NBC blamed Apple for not introducing tougher anti-piracy measures such as DRM, and also not being willing to raise the prices. Basically, it got greedy.
Since then, a lot has happened, with NBC first doing a deal with Amazon to see its programmes distributed via the Unbox service, but how successful that move has been is unclear.
Hulu
Then NBC jointly launched Hulu along with News Corp. as a way to combat piracy – the idea being that if viewers can watch shows legally, they are less likely to turn to YouTube and the like.
However, neither deal has taken away from the fact that iTunes is still a lucrative way of distributing programmes, and it seems that NBC now wants back in.
According to CNet, George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer at NBC Universal spoke out about distribution deals, Web piracy, and DRM in an on-stage interview at the AdTech conference.
NBC Speaks Out
While he didn’t mention Apple by name, the issues he was addressing were clearly targeted at the company which is the largest music retailer in the United States.
He said:
“If you look at studies about MP3 players, especially leading MP3 players and what portion of that content is pirated, and think about how that content gets onto that device, it has to go through a gatekeeping piece of software, which would be a convenient place to put some antipiracy measures,”
“We’d love to be on iTunes. It has a great customer experience. We’d love to figure out a way to distribute our content on iTunes. We have film distribution with iTunes so yes, we do talk to Apple,”
“They can mark up the price and make a profit or use it as a loss leader to get people in the door. It’s really difficult for us to work with any distribution partner who says ‘Here’s the wholesale price and the retail price,’ especially when the price doesn’t reflect the full value of the product.”
Price and Piracy Still Issues
Which just proves that NBC still see price and piracy as the two problems with iTunes, and it clearly wants Apple to do something to tackle these ‘issues’ before it’ll sign any new distribution deal.
But is this a fair position to place Apple in? While the company is notorious for wanting to control everything (just look at the iPhone), the only reason iTunes is as successful as it is because of the fairly reasonable pricing.
And, although DRM, the plague of any right thinking person involved in digital media and distribution, is present, it’s not over the top, and unfairly installed.
Apple, and iTunes, seem to be doing rather well without NBC, so it’s clear who needs the other one more. If I was Apple, I’d let NBC shout and scream all it wants to, and just carry on regardless.
