NBC, Apple announced iTunes TV show deal

Playlist ^ | 12/06/2005 | Peter Cohen

[Panerai]

NBC Universal and Apple on Tuesday announced a deal that brings NBC television content to Apple’s iTunes Music Store. iTunes now offers more than 300 episodes of 16 shows, according to the statement.

Apple said that more than 3 million videos have been purchased and downloaded since the iTunes Music Store began selling them in October. Apple started with content including music videos, television shows from NBC competitor ABC and short subjects created by Pixar Animation Studios, Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ other company.

Like those other shows, the NBC programs are available for US$1.99. And like ABC’s content, new NBC shows will be uploaded and available from iTunes the day after they’re broadcast.

The videos can be played back on any Mac or PC running the latest update to iTunes, and can also be downloaded and played back on Apple’s recently released video-capable iPods.

NBC TV content available on iTunes includes Law & Order, The Office, Surface, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Monk, the Sci-Fi Channel’s production of Battlestar Galactica, and classics like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Dragnet, Adam 12 and Knight Rider.

[Hank Rearden]

More proof that there is always money to be made foisting crap onto trend-slave morons.

[Petronski]

So this video is what resolution if you watch it on your desktop? 320x240?

[Swordmaker]

Apple inks Video iPod deal with NBC PING!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[papertyger]

More proof that there is always money to be made foisting crap onto trend-slave morons.

Looks like your racket may be winding down, Hank.

It's been a couple of hours, and no one has taken the bait.

[Terpfen]

"Is that why viewer ratings are in the toilet?"

Of course, ratings are completely meaningless as to a show's quality. Case in point: American Idol. This also applies to movies. Case in point: Down Periscope.

[zarf]

Let's not kid ourselves. This is Apple's entry into the porn industry. Look for iPorn at a junior high near you.

and Guttenberg contributed to mass production of steamy, sexually explicit novels.

[Aquinasfan]

and Guttenberg contributed to mass production of steamy, sexually explicit novels.

Think more along the lines of Al Gore's pornography superhighway.

The iPorn makes it impossible for parents to monitor their childrens' video viewing habits, which is why I would never buy one for my kids. Now kids will be able to get their drugs and their porn at school. One stop shopping.

[TommyDale]

I guess I just don't get it. I guess I seem to have better things to do than walk around watching old reruns on a tiny little screen. Music is one thing, being distracted by a very small picture is quite another. If I want to watch something, give me the comfort of a room, a soft couch and my 61 inch surround sound TV.

[Yossarian]

Do you really think there is porn hiding around every corner, ready to leap out and mug your kids? Yes, it is now a big industry, and that's depressing. Yes, when you look at popular culture, there are more pornish and low-class elements in it (especially rap / hip-hop).

But I know the folks over at Apple, ones working in the iTunes Music Store in particular, and I don't know an Al Goldstien, Larry Flynt, or even Hugh Hefner type among them. There was a portable-video company - Archos, I think - that used porn star in their ads. That was sleazy. But Apple isn't Archos.

And with the iPod (as well as other players) you have a central point of where it gets filled up - the iTunes and iPhoto folders on the kid's computer. If you keep tabs on that - and you can even do that unobtrusively over the network - you'll know just what i son the iPod.

[Terpfen]

I guess I just don't get it. I guess I seem to have better things to do than walk around watching old reruns on a tiny little screen.

It's not about "walking around." People riding on a bus or subway to a destination want something to do. For people that have already bought into the iPod, video is a natural progression. It's right there on iTunes, so why not?

[Petey139]

Apples Share, Go for Google, If I knew I Google stocks would have quadruple right now, I would have bought half a million dollars worth and be a millionaire by now. And bought 10,000 ipods to resell for 4 million. LOL and the cycle continues.