Apple & NBC Negotiating in Public over iTunes Content

The NY Times reports that negotiations between Apple & NBC have broken down, and NBC Will Not Renew iTunes Contract. According to the story, NBC video content accounts for about 40% of iTunes downloads, and Apple has about 76% of the digital download business. The fight seems to be over bundling and pricing, and Apple (in my opinion, rightly so) wants to keep things simple, but NBC wants to bundle content to increase sales. I'm also wondering if NBC wants to erode some of the power that Apple has in the digital download market, move it to the upcoming Hulu.com project, or if they're just negotiating for more money.

Netflix is already struggling with exclusive content deals (like the Blockbuster/Weinstein deal), and I'm wondering if the digital download market will be so fragmented that you'll have to rent or purchase movies from different online vendors.

Comments

[William Smith]

Really think that NBC made a huge mistake by trying to force Apple's hand on the price of the shows. They are so worried about piracy (they claim) that they just created a HUGE new piracy problem imo.

[Edward R Murrow]

For NBC, it's goodbye iTunes and hello Unbox
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/how-much-tv-show-revenue-can/story.aspx?guid=%7B8E929A65%2D356E%2D4993%2DA119%2D9DD1666B0281%7D&siteid=yhoof

[gir]

Fragmentation is the worst thing that could happen to on-line delivery. No one is going to want to set up accounts with a dozen of different entities, let alone hundreds.

If it comes to that, it'd be one area where I'd be in favor of regulation. If the content owners won't play nice with independent providers, we may need to force them. Copyright should not be a license for content owners to do whatever the hell they want.

[Edward R Murrow]

Ya, I think the state controls the media in Communist China and Russia. What a wonderful thing that has turned out to be for those unfortunates who happen to live in those countries. Let's let the market figure it out rather than imposing government control.