NBC To Populace: Download Our Shows For Free
Author: AF Duncan
September 20th, 2007
NBC announced yesterday they are going taking the interesting step of offering free downloads of their most popular shows.
Jeff Gaspin, the president of the NBC Universal Television Group, said, “The shift from programmer to consumer controlling program choices is the biggest change in the media business in the past 25 or 30 years.”
NBC makes many of its popular shows available online in streaming media, which means that fans can watch episodes on their computers. Under the new NBC service, called NBC Direct, consumers will be able to download, for no fee, NBC programs like “Heroes,” “The Office” and “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” on the night that they are broadcast and keep them for seven days. They would also be able to subscribe to shows, guaranteeing delivery each week.
But the files, which would be downloaded overnight to home computers, would contain commercials that viewers would not be able to skip through. And the file would not be transferable to a disk or to another computer.
The files would degrade after the seven-day period and be unwatchable.
I’m fascinated to see how this turns out. Unlike one of the folks quoted in the article, I don’t really see this as a horrible move by the network. Time could prove me wrong, but this seems like an intelligent alternative to iTunes.
Another eyebrow raising tidbit:
Mr. Gaspin noted that none of this meant that NBC was moving away from its traditional model of a nightly schedule of programs supported by advertising. He pointed to sales of television sets, driven by high-definition equipment, which are soaring to levels, he said, that surpass those of the biggest booms in color set sales.
Wow…really…?
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3 Responses to “NBC To Populace: Download Our Shows For Free”
September 20th, 2007 at 11:35 am
The free download is a great idea that’s going to be killed by shitty execution. The files are all going to be in a DRM-riddled, self-destructing Windows Media format, most likely only playable on Vista, cutting out a huge portion of the potential audience even among Windows loyalists. Couple that with the fact that the files are anchored to the machine that donwloads them and you’re really alienating a huge built in audience used to being able to take their downloads wherever they go.
And statements like this:
“But, Mr. Gaspin said, “piracy was and is our No. 1 priority.” He said that the music industry had been devastated by the free exchange of music, much of it facilitated by iTunes.”
…just proves that NBC’s head is still firmly up it’s collective ass.
September 21st, 2007 at 6:24 am
From the article:
“The programs will initially be downloadable only to PCs with the Windows operating system, but NBC said it planned to make the service available to Mac computers and iPods later.”
September 21st, 2007 at 6:57 am
Don’t believe the hype - without getting ahold of Apple’s unlicensable Fairplay, I can’t see NBC getting onto Macs or iPods anytime soon since most Mac users don’t trust non-Apple DRM as far as they can virtually throw it.