Welcome to Zuckerland: NBC’s Stupid Move

n case you hadn’t heard, the executives at NBC think they’re freaking geniuses. They’ve just figured out the secret to saving the company. It involves doing good business in a fantasy world that only exists in NBC head Jeff Zucker’s head, called Zuckerland.[...] Thanks to DaBrainiac for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

backon: Note to media company CEOs: Do what Steve Jobs tells you. The meteoric success of the companies he has run compared to the mediocre success of yours would indicate he’s much smarter than you. Can’t agree more.

http://www.backpacksbags.us

stockjones: In Zuckerland I guess you need all that money so you can afford those Armani suits and hollywood lifestyle. Times are changing and many of the old school media companies are urgently trying to deal with the changes. Companies like Google, Apple may become the new media conglomerates.

The ultimate revenge of the nerds.

bdamon: If NBC is leaving I’m hoping they have an alternative strategy for distributing their content. I wouldnn’t mind at all if they used Amazon for distributing all their stuff. Works great with my Gigabeat and my TiVo. It will be good to have more competition in this market. Apple is charging way too much for their hardware right now. Another real competitor in this place would drive those prices down I hope. I have a 5.0 version iPod and there’s no way I’m paying $250 for a new one when I can get players just as good for $50-100 cheaper. The only problem is that the content has been as good. This will hopefully create a good alternative for content, or drive Apple’s extermely greedy prices down. Either way, I hope it works our for us consumers.

rodon: Way to screw over your shows NBC.

JayBorn: I can’t no body said this… Its more like SUCKERLAND…

gconway: Let’s see, $1.99 an episode for a season of 22 episodes = $44, about the price of a discounted DVD box set from Amazon; but without the box, without the DVDs, without the extra material, without the higher-quality video and audio. Sounds like a deal to me! And wouldn’t it be an even bigger deal to get buyers to pay $110 for a season without packaging, production, design and delivery costs? Awesome! As someone who’s picked up only a handful of TV episodes from iTunes to sample shows I otherwise would’ve missed, I can’t figure out why ANYONE would buy a show from iTunes as it stands now — never mind how it would be if these morons managed to change the pricing. How do these idiots get and keep their jobs? Oh, I forgot — this is television we’re talking about…

SirBotchness: oh no, another apply faggot getting his 2 cents in.

DeflatorMouse: “It is clear that Apple’s retail pricing strategy for its iTunes service is designed to drive sales of Apple devices, at the expense of those who create the content that make these devices worth buying.”

Then why do I find myself pressing the YouTube button on my iPhone about 856 times more often than I ever download an NBC product off of iTunes?

wbgo: Note to media company CEOs: Do what Steve Jobs tells you. The meteoric success of the companies he has run compared to the mediocre success of yours would indicate he’s much smarter than you.

PasteEater: “In addition, we asked Apple to take concrete steps to protect content from piracy, since it is estimated that the typical iPod contains a significant amount of illegally downloaded material.”

Yeah, maybe. But iPods don’t actually download the content, desktop and laptop computers do…

BAN COMPUTERS!

MaceSoul: Yes, yes, yes. Anyone who doesn’t do Apple’s bidding is an ignorant, backwards right-clicker. You can go back to your Prarie Home Companion now.

Gabberwok: Okay, not that it’s a real e-mail address or anything, but this is the public e-mail for the CEO of Hulu…. “jason.kilar@hulu.com” Please feel free to let him now how displeased you are about NBC’s plans to abandon iTunes for Hulu, and make sure to include something to the effect of “I will boycott your website and make sure that all of my friends agree never to go to it as well.” And for the hell of it… “I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul…”

1ofMany: It will be fun to watch how this plays out over the next few months

yobkeeg: NBC and Universal really outdone themselves this time. This Jeff Zucker got to rethink this one, how can you be charging $5 US a pop per episode when you are selling the darn season for about $50. With Tivo and Internet, they are lucky to be getting 2 bucks per episode, let alone $5, good luck zucker!

koabel: Am I the only one who thinks that this NBC thing is being blown way out of proportion? Should we care this much?

NBC: ‘Apple’s got it wrong’

Broadcaster sings familiar tune about public be damned ‘pricing flexibility’[...] Thanks to rocr69 for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

777twist: I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I think I may see NBC’ point.

And I’m totally opposed to them bailing on Itunes, I think it’s a dumb move no matter which way you slice it.
But if I’m to really think about it…how much money does the content creators (NBC, etc…) get compared to say the content providers (Apple through Itunes)… I mean, at 2 bucks an episode, I would think the creators are getting a bulk of that money…to the point where Apple may be just getting like 10%. The reason is that without the content the device wouldn’t matter.

But I guess we do sort of have a chicken and an egg situation, because if you didn’t have the device would the portable content be necessary?

Anyway, my point is that I could see where the content creators would be pissed if Apple was getting too much of that 2 bucks. Because lets face it, they are in the market to sell their Ipods, iphones and computers…so it doesn’t make sense for them AT ALL to raise the price.

That all being said… I don’t think a higher price will work. At 2 bucks per episode, you are talking about 44 dollars per TV show season…and that’s more than what the DVD’s would cost when they come out. If I had to pay more than that, I would ONLY buy episodes that I missed for some reason. Actually looking at it, 2 bucks seems too much too… But it’s probably the highest amount I would pay.

wazzadoin: I think people were reacting too much, me included. But now we will be able to watch The Office off of NBC.com.

themadscientist: Dear NBC,

You are Old, Greedy and Stupid.

xxxooo,

Almost Everyone

idannyb: NBC-U is reeling under a PR nightmare. Apple’s Press Release (response to NBC-U non-renewal on iTunes) just passed 4,800 diggs with many hundreds of comments running 9 to 1 negative on NBC-U. NBC-U’s subsequent counter-response claims “we never asked to double the wholesale price of our TV shows”
Just for fun, here is a bit of role-play (conjecture) re the recent NBC-U/Apple iTunes contract negotiations:
NBC-U: Here’s the deal Apple, we want to bundle show offerings on iTunes and bump the price-point to $4.99
Apple: But you’re taking hit shows and packaging them with turds. We understand that you’d like more revenue and this is one way to twist the consumer’s arm … but it’s not pro-consumer and will only cause NBC-U’s share of iTunes revenue to drop. Dramatically we might add.
NBC-U: Our pricing model shows this will not hurt our iTunes share. Quite the contrary.
Apple: Who’d you hire to do your modeling?
NBC-U: The Enderle Group and Forrester Research.
Apple: (collective roll of the eyes) Oh I see. Did Enderle and Forrester also consult on your new Hulu.com venture?
NBC-U: Yes … But that’s none of your business.
Apple: Okie dokie … I think we’re getting a better picture now.
Here’s the deal. We’ll offer your proposed bundles … any combo you’d like for that matter … and at any price point … $4.99 or $5.99 or $59.99 for all we care … BUT regardless of any bundled offering you propose, we are adamant that we give consumers a true choice … So iTunes will keep the individual shows at a stand-alone $1.99 per episode. That way the consumer can compare your bundled offering and decided whether they want the package for $4.99 or just the one show they are interested in at $1.99 … Okay, sounds fair and reasonable … Doesn’t it? We’ll let the consumer decide.
NBC-U: Sorry Apple, we don’t see it that way. Our packages are designed to give the consumer an excellent value of content at a discounted … Blah, blah, blah … cough … BS… spin… and more BS. So “No” we will decide how shows are packaged and that means that some shows will NOT be available unless the consumer buys the full package. Hey, you (iTunes) already do this with selected songs on albums. “This song is available only with purchase of the album.”
Apple: Not the same thing … The songs were all part of an original album and by the original artists. You are talking about packing completely different shows tied by some sort of nebulous theme.
NBC-U: Look, you have our position on this matter. You’ve seen our proposed packaging and pricing … were not asking for permission … In fact, we are hereby giving you the requisite 90-day non-renewal notice. As you know we have plans for streaming videos through our own Hulu.com website … we think it’s going to be a compelling offering and so do our distribution partners. Again Apple, we are not asking for your permission.
Apple: You’re gonna get triple-B buzzed.
NBC-U: What’s “triple-B”
Apple: BitTorrent. Boom. Buh-Bye!

chukd: I like the story post but dugg down because you should of used the originial Bloomberg site.

mpancha: You can’t believe what you read on the internet, or what you hear on the news. You take all the information, and deduce.

Personally I think Apple is a bit more to blame for the NBC – Apple fallout. If NBC’s shows are selling like crazy, then you begin to listen to your partner… which isn’t like Apple to do. Apple’s policy is always Apple first, everyone else, consumers included, last. As much as I like Apple’s hardware… if there was another option of equal design (note I did not say quality, I said design), then I’d go that route. But unfortunately, they have what I want, and they end up getting my dollars. Hopefully sometime soon either they will open their eyes a bit, or I’ll have another option.

Mships: I made my living making synth sounds (www.Pro-Rec.com) most of my life. My basic policy / outlook was simple: I want as many people as possible to enjoy and benefit from using my sounds. I obviously loathe and discourage copying. The main thing is to make sure that I never lose a potential sale from copying. There will always be people who are going to copy. That’s pretty much the norm in software sales. The point being, the main thing is to focus on sales you might have lost, rather than on frustration generated by the fact people copy. Those people were never going to pay anyway. The RIAA seems to be just another backward organization, like the strange PC kooks who predicted apple’s total demise just from launching the iPhone, as if that were even possible… So the war continues among people who make sense, and backward people who always point the gun in the wrong way, at the wrong target and insist loudly that everyone else is wrong. The thing about music is we want to create and enhance the VIBE. When people are worried about being sued and petty $3,000 suits against college kids who simply downloaded a track listened once and did it anyway on a lark. There really is no upside, so I suppose that’s why they go in that direction, only reaffirming their backwardness and inability to hone in on anything that actually created something of value, or makes a genuine impact. They’re just asserting their dominion over a shrinking industry that lacks the kind of talent and supergroups that made the industry in the first place, focusing on the petty rather than really building something and creating songs that we hear playing everywhere, out of car windows in passing, that are so popular we can’t escape that people are motivated to buy simple to have then now. Cribs and other pimp daddy home shows show that a lot of rappers get paid but often don’t create anything groundbreaking, same with many vocal groups. It bedazzles me to wonder why some artists don’t receive even basic criticism to correct faults that really don’t become top level artists, but apparently pass, these days.

cambrown99: How to destroy your business:
Step 1. Obtain gun.
Step 2: Aim gun at foot.
Step 3: Shoot yourself in the foot.
Step 4: Repeat.

Mships: It’s just sad how much PARSING there is going on. Clever use of words to obsure genuine meaning, the absences are telling, yet not enough that we can determine anything. See a pattern, anybody? Why has life devolved in this way? Theories, anybody? People are proud of their creative obfuscating and artful dodging. Most of those people reveal they aren’t creating or contributing anything of genuine value to society. The genuine person really wants to tell the truth, cause it works to their advantage, reflecting the quality of their character. Perhaps there would be a way to immediately gong people who are obviously “tricky,” especially, say, the white house press secretaries? They seem, proud, even gloating at their success at withholding from those who pay their salaries, our country. It’s a strange time in history, one worth examining, half of the world, apparently run by ZOMBIES.

Macgyrl64: Go Steve Go!!!

brilliantdays: Well, NBC is behaving like dinosaurs. Old, old dinosaurs. And I’m sick and tired of being told that I’m a criminal. Let me buy the stuff, and I’ll buy it! The management of NBC is behaving like they are 80 years old. I still can’t buy ANY NBC content legally in Europe? What’s the matters with you guys? You don’t want customers????

Somebody should get fired…

HairyPoter: Let me see if I got it right… That guy in Russia was selling (read my lips, I said SELLING), cheap music illegally and built himself an empire of music selling in eastern europe. The assholes of RIAA and other crap, moved heavens and hells to shut down the guy. So, if the guy was SELLING and not distributing for free and was successful, he is a proof that music can sell online and has a big potential, so, when will those assholes realize they can sell if they turn down the prices? instead of hunting pirates and guys sharing music. These guys are hopeless.

mnewhook: What piracy of tv shows anyway? I’m willing to bet most of the downloaders already pay for NBC content in one way or another through the regular TV networks. I know I do.

Gir9000: Apples response to NBC is justified. If the content is to expensive then no one is going to buy it… why even offer it.

Also did i get a hint of NBC wanting a cut of iPod sales?
NBC: “[W]e asked Apple to take concrete steps to protect content from piracy, since it is estimated that the typical iPod contains a significant amount of illegally downloaded material”

Good for Apple for not even blinking and sticking to their guns… NBC is going to loose revenue because of this.

swazo: fuck nbc.

its apparent now they don’t give a shit about their consumer base.

Jaguar and Apple collaborate on car design

Maybe there’s something to those Apple / Volkswagen rumors we’ve been hearing after all. According to an interview with one of Jaguar’s designers in CAR Magazine, the high-end car-maker has been collaborating with Apple on designs for its control interfaces in at least one upcoming vehicle, called the XF.[...] Thanks to obeezy for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

Shiner6: I wish Apple would choose a better company like BMW that was as innovative as they were. I don’t know how you can call a Ford Taurus with a body kit on it a high-end car.

battletops: I wonder how Leopard feels about this.

aknowles5139: http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/first_official_picture.php?sid=964&page=1

enough of Engadget.

CNN confirms iPhoneSIMfree’s iPhone SIM unlock hack

Independent verification of seemingly dubious claims makes the world go ’round, which is why we’re a little thankful the iPhoneSIMfree crew has deigned CNN worthy of having the second shot at verifying their iPhone SIM unlock software.[...] Thanks to obeezy for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

MetalGearRod: It’s quite unfortunate really…i grew up learning about the great hobbyist and enthusiast who revolutionized the IT industry simply by creating things they enjoyed creating and allowing the masses access to it…but i guess that’s all it is now…an industry! It’s no longer enough to create a great product and change how the world works…the focus now is financial gain, even if that means locking the iPhone to a single network! Maybe good things come to those who wait! Well Apple, here’s to rest of the world waiting…oh and remember, though good things come to those who wait, we won’t wait too late…

twit987: DIRECT LINK http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/09/01/apple.iphone/

camkerr: I could care less if CNN confirmed it. Engadget is good enough for me.

digitalarcanum: Since this shit is iPhone related, it was bound to hit front page sooner or later. I know what responses I’ll get to this comment “LULZ YHOU CUD LIEK BLOK TEH APPLE NEWZ LOLOL APPLE FAGGOT TROLL” but some of us like hearing about apple news that isn’t this fucking phone. You know, “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” kinda thing. As much as I hate to admit, apple does some innovative stuff and also makes stupid blunders I wouldn’t mind hearing about either. So shut the fuck up about blocking the apple section and quit digging up these fucking useless iphone stories.

spudmanster: Apple can kiss my ass if they think I am going to buy any of their products when they remove the consumers choice of providers.

digitallysick: I’m tired of all this talk about unlocked iphones, they should just make it free to everyone. Otherwise i don’t care to much about it

stisev: BREAKING NEWS: no one gives a rat’s ass about the iPhone anymore! Stop digging this crap

hiro: Unlocking for other networks is a step forward, but without the ability to create and edit MS Office compatible files, and more crucially 3G, there will be no great rush to buy one here in the UK when it’s launched. It’s just not smart enough to be a decent smartphone, we’ll see what happens with next yrs version

squall: I am with T-Mobile for over 6 years now. It would be very interesting to see someone on the T-Mobile network with iPhone.

brettschulte: Thecproblem is not the hack (that works) its wrapping it in an installer for Windows and Mac.

Sent from my T-Mobile iPhone

cgomez: iPhoneSimFree has updated their site with a FAQ that states it should be released within the next two or three days.

Here’s hoping…

everfresh59: It’s amazing how many peope are willing to void their warranties on a 1st gen product thats $500. I know it’s awesome to have unlocked, but are we all so ignorant to actually believe Apple won’t fix this? Software update alone will completely fix this, and then what…

newbill123: I kept telling myself “I’ll wait for the upgrade to version 2 before I buy an iPhone”. But if I can get an iPhone untangled from AT&T, I’ll consider that a significant enough bug fix to justify the purchase.

shaitanx: CNN is very worthy indeed..

macmissionary: In my area, admittedly rural, the only service we get is EDGE Wireless, which happens to be an AT&T partner network (I think AT&T actually owns like 60% or something). Even though EDGE is supposed to be a “partner”, we don’t have the iPhone. Guys like me are anxious for the hack.

Apple also working with Jaguar

We just mentioned the rumors about Apple being in talks with VW and now comes word from CAR magazine that Apple has already been working with Jaguar on control interfaces.[...] Thanks to obeezy for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

battletops: I wonder how Leopard feels about this.

iToner makes adding iPhone ringtones ridiculously easy

Want to add iPhone ringtones? iToner’s your solution, it’s the easiest (and most graphically purdy) method we’ve seen yet, and it works without even jailbreaking your iPhone.[...] Thanks to uzair21 for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

Bricks: I kept dragging files, but my browser gave me errors……..

iPhone Worth Every Penny

The iPhone has been out for a while, the media blitz has mercifully ended, and CEO Steve Jobs is off pitching other Apple wares. Which makes us step back and wonder: Was the iPhone worth the hype? In a word, yes. After putting Apple’s first smartphone through its paces, we believe it’s the best personal communicator your money can buy.[...] Thanks to Mattman9876 for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

streak: What “sky high price”? The iPhone is cheaper than every other smart phone. Yes, the entry cost is higher than for most, but the monthly service fee is significantly less. Over 2 years, the savings completely offset the cost of the iPhone itself.

pongpong: HTC is almost the same as iPhone at a lower price. You’re just paying more for the apple logo.

robwilkens: I’m glad for half-the-money of an iPhone I got a more functional Windows Mobile phone.

MacManiac23: Its worth every cent I spent on it, easily.