NBC Direct: Freedom's Just Another Word for, Um, Slightly Less Freedom
Good for the Panthers or bad for the Panthers? NBC Photo: Bill Records
NBC says all the right things in its announcement that, this fall, it will make downloads of its shows available for free through the NBC Direct service. Viewers today want "more control," says Vivi Zigler, Executive Vice President of NBC Digital Entertainment. NBC-Universal television president Jeff Gaspin tells the New York Times, "The shift from programmer to consumer controlling program choices is the biggest change in the media business in the past 25 or 30 years.â€
So what, exactly, does the consumer get to control? Whether or not to download the shows from NBC. Not how long to keep them--they disappear after a week--nor whether to watch the ads, which are unskippable. Nor, importantly, to pay cash money for commercial-free episodes [Update: through iTunes], since NBC recently pulled out of Apple's iTunes store in a pricing dispute. In other words, "control" = somewhat less control than you had last season (when you could already stream many NBC shows free online). [Update: saybo reminds me in the comments that NBC has also struck a deal to sell episodes through Amazon Unbox, though that site has its own limitations compared with iTunes.]
Unlike the former, streaming arrangement, of course, this deal at least gives you a free file that resides on your computer for seven days. If it's a Windows PC. I'm a Mac user, so I won't be checking out this service--but whatever, I've accepted that as my lot in life. If you want to watch on an iPod, though, you're also out of luck. And we all know that nobody uses those.
NBC says it will enable Mac and portable-player use in "future versions" of NBC Direct. Also, eventually, there will probably be the option to buy shows: sayeth the press release, "These paid business models may include download-to-own, rental and subscription." If they do, eventually, all to the good. For now, though, what we have--shows with must-see ads, playable on a proprietary NBC player--seems like one step forward, two steps back, with an undetermined number of steps to be taken forward in the future, if we can make the numbers work out.
That said, I'm all for networks trying more alternative means of distribution, because in the long run it means more alternative means of keeping good shows on the air. In the short run, though, I worry what the possible hit to downloads, from the loss of iTunes, may mean to shows like Friday Night Lights, considering that iTunes had a big role in saving The Office.
On the plus side, the shows are free, and the video quality is purported to be better than on iTunes. But "looks good and it's free" doesn't sound quite so visionary. Is it good enough for you?
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1
I thought all the shows will be available for purchase, commercial-free on Amazon UnBox. All the pilots for the new shows are there for free right now & it looks like everything else will be there soon. Am I wrong?
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2
@saybo: You're right, and I'm adding a note. (The pilots, it looks like are free--networks have been giving away pilots for a long time now--while other episodes will be for sale.) But Unbox has portability and compatibility issues in comparison with iTunes. Also--and this is another, LONG post someday--I had tremendous problems actually getting Unbox to work with my Tivo a while ago when I attempted to test-drive it.
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3
Thanks. I'll hold my thoughts on Unbox in case you get around to that LONG post someday.
I finally tried Unbox night before last & had a fair, but not great, experience downloading the pilot episode of Chuck to my Tivo. -
4
I actually believe that NBC will include Macs in future versions of NBC Direct based on my experience of them doing the same with their streaming video on nbc.com. Amazon Unbox, on the other hand, has been Mac-unfriendly for over a year since its launch, and so I hate them.
Is NBC really replacing the streaming video or will the downloads be in addition?
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5
Yeah, I didn't understand why this whole story was important enough to be on the front page of the NYTimes. If many of NBC's shows are already available for free on their Website, what's the big deal that you can now download them to your computer? I'm no technology expert, but how is that ground-breaking? Don't I have control of when I want to watch the shows either way?
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6
@Eric: You know, I thought the same thing. I mean, it's different from streaming--streaming video can really suck. And the story has some role in the soap opera of the tiff between NBC and Apple. But for the consumer? Like I wrote, you just have some different options, some of which, at least in the short term, may even be slightly worse than what you had before (depending on how you used iTunes, etc. before). And I don't see how it has greater importance that any of the zillion other ways the networks have been making shows available online.
For a TV blog? Sure it's news. A front page NYT story? Seems like very successful spin to me.
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7
last night while waiting for Criminal Minds to come one I watched the last five minutes of Kid Nation. I was horrified to say the least when I saw the cast of kids doing shot of iced tea. To glamourize drinking at such a young age disturbed me. As a person in recovery I believe it to be imperative that we share the downside of drinking not encourage a bunch of 8-12 year old kids to do shots of any kind.
thanks for letting me share.
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8
1. Only good for a week
2. Not on Macs
3. Not on iPods
4. With commercials you can't skipYou're exactly right, James...MORE freedom, my @$$. War is peace, day is night, etc.
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9
NBC is insane. I have an ipod and I download shows for jury duty, plane trips, etc. I pay money for something that I can get for free on my Tivo. I became addicted to The Office because of itunes. I am on Itunes store every day and I have never been to nbc.com. Lord knows I have issues with Itunes, but the low price, ease, and portability of my ipod video means NBC should WANT to be on itunes.
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10
This is more about NBC dropping out of iTunes than this specific announcement, but I totally don't get why NBC can't do iTunes AND Amazon Unbox AND NBC.com AND whatever else they want. I guess they think that people who used iTunes in the past will switch to the better-profit-for-them service? I just don't think that's going to happen.
@anti-Apple troll: Since I'm the only person who used the word "Mac-unfriendly" I feel compelled to point out that iPod≠Mac, one of which I care about and one of which I don't. Being that I used the word Mac and not iPod, I'll let you guess which one I was talking about NBC and Amazon being compatible with. Be more constructive with your criticism, please.
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11
Do you know if the free downloads are only available to users in the US?
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12
Ok, so when you say iPods does that mean just the player that Apple makes? I own a Creative Labs, it uses a different format from .M4V which is Apples' format, do you think NBC is putting the shows in a format that other players might be able to play?
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13
@Tikaralee,
Judging only by NBC's own description of NBC Direct (I don't have further technical info and probably wouldn't understand it if I did), the service would not add access for "portable players" until later--it doesn't distinguish among them.
- poniewozik Loved the season. Mrs Tuned In wd have put u on the main list RT @boredtodeath Thank u for incl us in Time's Top 10. We'll take hon mention. - 5 hours ago
- poniewozik @carr2n Virgin is the best, LAX-JFK - 6 hours ago
- poniewozik Did NPR interview abt multiscreen multitasking. After, automatically reached for iPhone in pocket. Like don draper wd have for cigarettes. - 7 hours ago
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