12/06/2005, 8:50am, EST
Tuesday, December 6th
iTunes sells 3M videos, adds NBC content
"We're thrilled to expand the iTunes video catalog with 11 popular TV shows from NBC, USA Network and the Sci-Fi Channel," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "In our first two months we've sold more than three million videos, and have expanded our TV catalog from five shows to 16 shows."
NBC Universal programming now available on the iTunes Music Store spans from the 1950s to the present, including NBC's "Law & Order," "The Office," "Surface," "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," the USA Network's Emmy Award-winning "Monk" and Sci-Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica" as well as classic TV shows including "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Dragnet," "Adam-12" and "Knight Rider," on the iTunes Music Store beginning today. Customers can purchase and download their favorite shows, including current shows the day after they air on TV, and watch them on their computer or iPod. The NBC Universal programs will be available in newly designated areas of the iTunes Music Store featuring the NBC Universal brands, including the NBC network, Sci-Fi Channel and the USA Network.
"We are committed to helping viewers enjoy the wide breadth of our programs across an equally wide range of devices and distribution models," said Bob Wright, vice chairman of GE and chairman and CEO of NBC Universal. "Apple has developed a distribution platform that is attractive to consumers while at the same time providing the safeguards against theft that are so important to us and to every content provider. We are pleased to partner with them in this new venture."
Television shows are available in the US only, and video availability varies by country. Television shows are $1.99 per episode, and music videos and short films are $1.99 each.
Filed under: industry
Other story tags: digital music/video
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Steve, please help us solve this problem. Let me buy the content I want without having to break the law.
fact is, 'good enough' is good enough for the vast majority of consumers. I wish it weren't so, but that's why they call 'em the 'unwashed masses'.
And as a content provider in the digital age, it's probably not a wise idea to hand out too high of quality reproduction of the master tape, to consumers. Ask the music biz if they had to do it all over again, if they would have sold all those CDs with near-perfect reproductions of the studio master....
For my home use, I am re-ripping all my music to 256k for use over my home stereo system, and it will be nice to have my 1200 CDs in one place.
But, any "audiophile" listening to anything but loseless on studio-quality headphones in an isolation chamber wouldn't be interested in buying music from Apple anyway. I'm sure they're buying Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Gold CDs and using portable high-end CD players to get the ultimate in quality while on-the-go.
High-end audio products are a specialty market, whether it be the software or hardware. Apple is not trying to position itself as a purveyor of either one: the sell consumer electronics products. I'm verty happy with the quality of the music the iTMS offers for most casuall listening, and it is definitely preferrable to ANY vinyl aside from audiophile pressings and players. Still looking for those snap/crackle/pops *I* remember from the 60s-era records.
Apple's not offering the definitive, just the most convenient. Physical media will always have the edge in quality, and I think Apple expects most people to know that. I can't imagine them putting out stuff in Apple Lossless just yet.