NBC to lauch free video download service
Pretty much every TV network and its sister offers up a way to watch popular shows for free online. Just hop on over to a network website and you'll find a way to watch recent episodes of everything from Heroes to Girlfriends. The episodes are typically free, but include advertising. And not an assortment of commercials like you get on broadcast TV. No, we're talking about a single ad which plays about 8 times per episode. Not that we have a problem with the repeated redundant repetition of a sponsor's message.You can also download many of the same shows for a fee from services like iTunes and Amazon Unbox. But NBC is preparing to launch a new service that's a combination of the two. NBC Direct will let you download videos to your computer for free. They'll include advertising, and you'll only be able to watch for up to a week after a program's original air date. But you can download a video and watch it on the go when you don't have an active internet connection. No buffering needed. It actually sounds a bit like the BBC's iPlayer.
The move is a little surprising. Or at least the timing is. NBC recently announced that it was terminating its contract to sell movies through Apple's iTunes service. But the company struck a deal to offer shows through Amazon Unbox. The new download service could eat into revenue from Unbox video sales. Perhaps the network is hoping that advertising can be more profitable than video sales.
NBC is also working with News Corp to launch a new online video service called Hulu. While it's not entirely clear whether Hulu will feature full length episodes or just video clips and exclusive content, it now seems like NBC is a bit all over the place when it comes to its streaming/downloadable media strategy. But since nobody quite knows what the future holds for the medium, maybe it's not a bad idea to have all the bases covered.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TempusFugit said 9:58AM on 9-20-2007
This sort of method is taking off quite a bit in the UK, with the BBC iPlayer, the BBC Archive (both advert free!), 4OD from Channel 4 and looking like more to come from the other big channels too.
It makes sense, especially for channels which are free to receive via terrestrial anyway - why should someone with a television be able to watch the program free over the air, yet have to pay to watch the same program over the internet on their computer?
Personally, I think the DRM should be lifted however - it seems rather pointless, as if you record a television program when it's on TV, it's yours to keep and if you have a TV tuner, you've got the DRM-free file, so what purpose does the DRM really serve?
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James said 12:51PM on 9-20-2007
Yeah, I'm a bit frustrated with the DRM -- I recently noticed that Unbox has the pilot of several fall series premiers from NBC et al, but of course being Unbox they're DRM'd to the hilt, and only work on their custom (and probably shitty -- haven't tried it yet) software. When will people learn that if you're going to use DRM on media, you should at least use something open, so it will work on as many players as possible? You're just cutting yourself off from market share if you don't.
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