Yeah, well the upshot of that fight was that NBC and Amazon have struck a deal to let you download the pilot episodes of 4 of their new shows for free. Starting today. A couple of weeks before they premiere on TV.
Here's the list of shows you can get for free:
You'll need to install the Amazon Unbox player to watch these videos. And they'll be in Windows Media Video format. But did we mention they're free? Obviously this is a promotional stunt where NBC is trying to drum up interest in their new shows, and Amazon is trying to get attention for its download service. But after suffering through the wasteland that is summer TV, we don't really care.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-10-2007 @ 11:30PM
Stephen Antonucci said...
The pilots probably would have been available for free on iTunes also. They would have been viewable to more people as they would have been available to all iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Mac and PC owners, Not just Windows computers. Clearly NBC does not get it!
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9-10-2007 @ 11:30PM
Mark said...
I'm surprised none of the blogs I follow picked up on Blockbuster having these 3 of these pilots (Life, Journeyman, Chuck) and a 2 minute preview for Bionic Woman as a free DVD rental. Here's a pic as proof:
http://wellroundednerd.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/img201.jpg
If you want a higher-res pic, I can do that. That pic was quick and dirty with my Treo.
Anyway, yeah I think this whole "legally release the pilots before the premiere" thing is an incredibly smart move. I'm psyched for Chuck, Journeyman, and Life. All very strong pilots.
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9-10-2007 @ 11:51PM
spencer said...
It would be nice if after you watch one of these shows and wanted to add it to your season pass list, tivo let you, instead it only shows shows available for download, so you are forced to retype the name of the show in a search, and because these shows are not on for a couple of weeks, tivo does not have them in the list of shows to record.
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9-11-2007 @ 1:30AM
Ryan Carter said...
K, at least 3 of these shows are stupid and will crash and burn, these plots have been done to death!
Thanks for the download tip though.
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9-11-2007 @ 10:52AM
J said...
Apple fanboys...ftl.
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9-11-2007 @ 10:57AM
Stephen Antonucci said...
More Windows owners use iTunes, iPods, and now iPhones than Mac users do. This has little to do with being Apple Fanboys, but has a lot to do with the amount of viewers NBC has left behind for these shows that need desperate promotion! The Amazon solution reaches far less people and the iPod/iPhone/iTunes group is still growing in leaps and bounds!
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9-11-2007 @ 12:04PM
david said...
NBC can take a long hike off a short pier. Their cluelessness and greed aren't my problem.
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9-11-2007 @ 9:06PM
Michael said...
As Stephen pointed out, Amazon only works with Windows, so now NBC is cutting out a huge and continuously growing number of viewers. I guess I will not be downloading there shows anymore.
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9-12-2007 @ 8:01AM
renee taussig said...
if you want to view these videos and more...I found a pretty cool service where I can get any web video on my iPhone its called VTap. I simply pointed my iphone browser at the web page (vtap.com) and was able to search for bionic women and browse a bunch of clips (from NBC, Amazon, YouTube, etc. ) and then view the clip -- nothing to download and it took me directly to the clip --
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9-12-2007 @ 1:23PM
renee taussig said...
I'm viewing all kinds of video from my iphone with a service called vTap. I just viewed a bunch of "bionic" video from NBC, Amazon, YouTube, etc. just point your iphone browser at vtap.com - you can search, then browse from a wide variety of clips and then view the specific clip -- fast
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