NBC “Scrubs” iTunes Contract

Posted August 31, 2007 at 09:10 PM by Indraneel Purohit

Section: Apple, Audio, Online Music/Video, Content

Apple’s iTunes, the largest internet digital media retailer (and 3rd largest overall), has lost a valuable content provider: NBC Universal. The disagreement came over NBC’s desire for more money and more regulative DRM.

The loss, though fairly inevitable in the case of New Media vs. Old Media, comes as a shock to Apple; NBC sold the most content out of any other provider, on iTunes.

What irks me about this is that the whole point of selling media on iTunes is so that content providers make money providing TV Shows and Movies over the internet. Though the profits are substantially less than advertising, it saves the providers the total loss from piracy (which NBC wants to stop, given their DRM-hungry state).

People like me, who enjoy shows such as The Office, Heroes, and Scrubs online, will have to turn elsewhere to find the content we want.

The announcement comes at a pretty convenient time for NBC, as their, along with News Corp, YouTube competitor has just been named; Hulu.

But I’m not too sold on waiting for a private beta that seems to be showing off lesser shows (I’m looking at you, American Dad).

Read [NY Times]