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iTunes sells 3M videos, adds NBC content

updated 08:50 am EST, Tue December 6, 2005

NBC content on iTunes


NBC Universal and Apple today announced a new TV . The lineup includes primetime, cable, late-night and classic TV shows, including primetime hits such as "Law & Order" and late-night favorites such as sketches from "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". Apple said that iTunes now offers more than 300 episodes of 16 popular TV shows and that customers have purchased and downloaded more than three million videos since their debut on October 12, making "the iTunes Music Store the world's most popular video download store."

"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.


by MacNN Staff

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 industry, digital music/video

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  1. Sinemacula

    Forum Regular

    Joined: Sep 2000

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    12/06, 09:00am | report spam | Reply |

    Classics... excellent

    I think it's pretty cool that they've included a bunch of classics to the mix as well as current hits - downloading some Dragnet right now! I'd love to see them expand both ends of that spectrum even more.

  1. furrylogic

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jun 2005

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    12/06, 09:20am | report spam | Reply |

    International Strategy

    One of the great promises of online distribution is to instantly distribute to all markets all content. This allows anyone to get access to anything, anywhere. However, the current distribution channel agreements make it such that traditional means of getting (e.g. buying a DVD) are better for reaching all audiences. While the controls today limit distribution on a country by country basis, people are still buying DVDs online and having them shipped abroad. Most people in Germany who want an English version of a movie will purchase the DVD from Amazon in the states and have it shipped here. Or, they pirate the movies. A lot. It is sad, since I gladly pay for content. But, I don't want to be limited by what the distributors here in Germany want to provide me. So, I break the law and buy DVDs in the states or have family there buy them for me and send them to me.

    Steve, please help us solve this problem. Let me buy the content I want without having to break the law.

  1. Dakar

    Professional Poster

    Joined: Mar 2004

    0
    12/06, 09:46am | report spam | Reply |

    Nice

    Its nice to see how fast this is catching on.

  1. grandlapin

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Dec 2005

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    12/06, 09:47am | report spam | Reply |

    Year of HD?

    The iTMS is a calamity for media quality. First we got music compressed at 128Kbps presented as the best musical experience, when the audio quality is in fact worse than vinyl from 30 years ago. In a few weeks, the planet will have been contaminated with a billion musical titles in reduced quality. Now the same thing is happening with video, which Apple happily sells at quarter resolution of SD television. I realize that there are bandwidth concerns but there should at least be a more expensive option to be able to purchase lossless audio and at least SD video. I thought Apple was a quality brand and not a purveyor of cheap stuff. Does Steve Jobs really want to leave a trace in history as the man who brought us back 30 years in media quality?

  1. climacs

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    12/06, 10:23am | report spam | Reply |

    re: year of HD?

    hey big rabbit, ever heard of 'radio'? Or 'cable television'? Or 'satellite TV', which is a compressed MPEG 2 signal in which I can regularly see the compression blockiness...

    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....

  1. 83caddy16v

    Forum Regular

    Joined: Sep 2000

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    12/06, 10:26am | report spam | Reply |

    BSG - woot woot

    Battlestar Galactica is available what a pleasant suprise when I opened iTunes this morning.

  1. eldarkus

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Feb 2004

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    12/06, 10:32am | report spam | Reply |

    re: Year of HD

    You damn audiophiles.. all the music I have bought from iTunes sounds great on every stsyem I play it on, from my computer to my car to my stereo. If you want 256k encoded music, go buy the CD's and rip them yourself. The main reason for using 128k is so people could download songs in a decent time frame (can you say dail up?). And more importantly, most people arent that anal about sound quality.

  1. presearch

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

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    12/06, 10:46am | report spam | Reply |

    Four Words.

    International Superstar David Hasselhof.

  1. that one guy

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    Joined: May 2005

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    12/06, 11:12am | report spam | Reply |

    Knight Rider

    Wooooooooot! The coolest hair in the 80's!

  1. jmelrose

    Forum Regular

    Joined: Mar 1999

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    12/06, 11:19am | report spam | Reply |

    Well...

    I AM kinda anal about sound quality, but if you're listening to music on an iPod, either on-the-go or in the car, whatever, I agree: 128 is just fine. I am not an audiophile, but I like my music.

    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.

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