NBC's iTunes return may hinge on offline piracy filtering
NBC made it clear this week that it would like to resume selling its television programming through the iTunes Store, but only if Apple makes changes to its client software that would allow it to serve as the gatekeeper for all forms of potentially pirated media.
George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer at NBC Universal, made the assertion during an on-stage interview at the Ad:Tech conference in San Francisco this week, in which he didn't specifically call out the iPod maker and iTunes operator by name.
"If you look at studies about MP3 players, especially leading MP3 players and what portion of that content is pirated, and think about how that content gets onto that device, it has to go through a gatekeeping piece of software, which would be a convenient place to put some antipiracy measures," he said "One of the big issues for NBC is piracy. We are financially harmed every day by piracy."
Since Apple already embeds digital rights management (DRM) software within each audio and video file it sells, it appears that Kliavkoff is requesting that the company go a step further and police every piece of digital media a user imports into his or her iTunes library, regardless of its origin.
Oddly, when NBC Universal yanked its TV shows from iTunes last fall, the primary issue was reported to be pricing, not piracy. It's now clear, however, the television studio is seeking concessions in both areas.
"We'd love to be on iTunes. It has a great customer experience," Kliavkoff said. "We'd love to figure out a way to distribute our content on iTunes."
In addition to the added anti-piracy measures, NBC wants the right to determine the cost Apple pays for its programming, not the other way around.
"They can mark up the price and make a profit or use it as a loss leader to get people in the door," Kliavkoff said. "It's really difficult for us to work with any distribution partner who says 'Here's the wholesale price and the retail price,' especially when the price doesn't reflect the full value of the product."
Prior to the fallout between the two parties, NBC supplied the iTunes Store with over 1,500 hours of programming that accounted for more than 30 percent of the service's television show revenues, including three of the 10 best selling shows during the summer season.
George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer at NBC Universal, made the assertion during an on-stage interview at the Ad:Tech conference in San Francisco this week, in which he didn't specifically call out the iPod maker and iTunes operator by name.
"If you look at studies about MP3 players, especially leading MP3 players and what portion of that content is pirated, and think about how that content gets onto that device, it has to go through a gatekeeping piece of software, which would be a convenient place to put some antipiracy measures," he said "One of the big issues for NBC is piracy. We are financially harmed every day by piracy."
Since Apple already embeds digital rights management (DRM) software within each audio and video file it sells, it appears that Kliavkoff is requesting that the company go a step further and police every piece of digital media a user imports into his or her iTunes library, regardless of its origin.
Oddly, when NBC Universal yanked its TV shows from iTunes last fall, the primary issue was reported to be pricing, not piracy. It's now clear, however, the television studio is seeking concessions in both areas.
"We'd love to be on iTunes. It has a great customer experience," Kliavkoff said. "We'd love to figure out a way to distribute our content on iTunes."
In addition to the added anti-piracy measures, NBC wants the right to determine the cost Apple pays for its programming, not the other way around.
"They can mark up the price and make a profit or use it as a loss leader to get people in the door," Kliavkoff said. "It's really difficult for us to work with any distribution partner who says 'Here's the wholesale price and the retail price,' especially when the price doesn't reflect the full value of the product."
Prior to the fallout between the two parties, NBC supplied the iTunes Store with over 1,500 hours of programming that accounted for more than 30 percent of the service's television show revenues, including three of the 10 best selling shows during the summer season.
Comments
The piracy bit is such nonsense. There is no widespread piracy of iTunes videos. They're much safer than DVDs or TV broadcasts.
If you ask me, this is a sure early sign that Hulu isn't working, and NBC wants to come back to iTunes in the worst way. But they're trying to save face by attacking Apple again.
This guy played his hand, and lost big time. Steve called his bluff.
Give it a year, at most. Kliavkoff will be fired, and NBC will be back on iTunes, with none of these draconian measures implemented. There's simply no way Steve will agree to any of it. Not the variable pricing, not the anti-piracy. None of it.
It doesn't matter what NBC does, or what iTunes does for NBC (or themselves for that matter), it's going to be impossible to stop the illicit distribution,
It's all pretty silly once you consider that NBC is broadcast "in the clear". Hamstringing the iPod is only going to drive the file traders to buy Chinese brand players that will just play just about any pirated format.
Doesn't iTunes do a great job of keeping me from just coping the content to another system? I have tried, I am limited to 5 computers, which with a large family can get in the way.
On the way into iTunes, there is the possibility that I am loading my purchased series that I want to watch on Apple TV, so on the way in it going to be tough to monitor.
NBC made it clear this week that it would like to resume selling its television programming through the iTunes Store, but only if Apple makes changes to its client software that would allow it to serve as the gatekeeper for all forms of potentially pirated media.
Since Apple already embeds digital rights management (DRM) software within each audio and video file it sells, it appears that Kliavkoff is requesting that the company go a step further and police every piece of digital media a user imports into his or her iTunes library, regardless of its origin.
Oddly, when NBC Universal yanked its TV shows from iTunes last fall, the primary issue was reported to be pricing, not piracy. It's now clear, however, the television studio is seeking concessions in both areas.
In addition to the added anti-piracy measures, NBC wants the right to determine the cost Apple pays for its programming, not the other way around.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
Face saving at its finest. I seriously doubt piracy is a real issue but NBC had to figure out an excuse to save face before crawling back to iTunes.
BTW - looooooong time reader. Since before this was AppleInsider even. I've just never felt compelled to register and comment.
NBC made it clear this week that it would like to resume selling its television programming through the iTunes Store, but only if Apple makes changes to its client software that would allow it to serve as the gatekeeper for all forms of potentially pirated media...
The *only* way to do this would be for Apple to adopt a Microsoft style procedure of scanning your computer and sending back the information to the "gatekeepers" at Apple so they could turn you in to the cops. So, Steve Jobs would have to go back on his word, Apple would have to reverse all their previous policy and put the lie to all their previous statements on the matter etc.
The day that happens is the day that huge numbers of people have bonfires of Apple computers all across the country. Public relations disaster of cosmic proportions IMO and not going to happen.
Guess who would stop using the iTunes/iPod ecosystem if this happened?
Everyone?
On a side note, Hulu is not a bad product; however, I just don't watch long videos on my computer. I want something I can sync to my Apple TV or iPod.
If you ask me, this is a sure early sign that Hulu isn't working, and NBC wants to come back to iTunes in the worst way. But they're trying to save face by attacking Apple again.
This guy played his hand, and lost big time. Steve called his bluff.
Give it a year, at most. Kliavkoff will be fired, and NBC will be back on iTunes, with none of these draconian measures implemented. There's simply no way Steve will agree to any of it. Not the variable pricing, not the anti-piracy. None of it.
They should point NBC toward the door and give 'em a shove for encouragement as they fall down the stairs.
"One of the big issues for NBC is piracy. We are financially harmed every day by piracy."
No, Mr. Kliavkoff, NBC is financially harmed every day by your own stupidity.
I want to watch Battlestar Galactica whenever I want, wherever I want. This includes watching it on my brand-new HDTV that I got last month specifically on which to watch this show. I am gladly willing to hand you over $1.99 per episode for this privilege.
It is nice that I can watch season four episodes of BSG on Hulu. Unfortunately, I cannot drag my iMac with me wherever I go. And I find your repetitive commercials and your crappy streaming to be annoying. Therefore, to create the experience I seek, I have resorted to accessing BitTorrent in order to download episodes that I can later transfer to my iPod and watch on my TV. As a result, you have not received a dime in revenue from me, revenue I am more than willing to pay you... if not for your recent stupidity regarding what consumers like me truly want.
That is how you are losing sales to piracy. Not because of anything Apple has done. It's because of what you have done. I assume your stockholders are reasonably bright enough to understand this as well, and I'm sure they will be happy to tell you at the next stockholders' meeting.
"We'd love to be on iTunes. It has a great customer experience," Kliavkoff said. "We'd love to figure out a way to distribute our content on iTunes."
No, Mr. Kliavkoff, you'd love to figure out a way to save face after making such an arrogant blunder. This is not possible. Therefore, if you cannot admit you made a bad decision, return your content to iTunes post-haste and play by their rules--which are not Draconian and anti-consumer--you should seriously consider updating your resume, as your job is in jeopardy.
"They can mark up the price and make a profit or use it as a loss leader to get people in the door," Kliavkoff said. "It's really difficult for us to work with any distribution partner who says 'Here's the wholesale price and the retail price,' especially when the price doesn't reflect the full value of the product."
No, Mr. Kliavkoff, the market will determine the full value of the product. Not you. And the market has spoken. $1.99 is fair. Anything more is pure greed. And pure greed on the part of content providers is one of the reasons for piracy. Price it fairly and we'll gladly pay. Try to fleece us and we'll find other options.
--GTSC
Face saving at its finest. I seriously doubt piracy is a real issue but NBC had to figure out an excuse to save face before crawling back to iTunes.
I don't know. If they were trying to save face they should have asked for something Apple would actually implement.
Also - His assertion that music "has to go through a gatekeeping piece of software" isn't true. Before the iTunes and iPod ecosystem that piece of "software" was usually called an Operating System. Although I'm sure he would love OS level anti-piracy controls.
NBC is well outside of whatever miniscule rights they have at the moment to demand that Apple turn iTunes into some kind of anti-piracy gatekeeper just to prevent pirated stuff from being loaded on to iPods. Won't happen, go away NBC.
When they pulled out of iTunes, they said it was because they wanted to charge more money per track, and they wanted to prevent loading content onto iPods.
Now today they're simply repeating that mantra, but with the added lie that loading a legally-purchased DRM-wrapped video clip onto an iPod (an action explicitly permitted by the EULA) somehow constitutes piracy.
Personally, I wouldn't even bother reporting stories like this. It won't be news until NBC says something they haven't already said many times in the past.
I'm trying to remember how the networks reacted when VCRs came out. I don't think they distributed their shows on tape for quite a while....but my memory is fuzzy.