NBC Cuts Out Video MiddlemanNBCDirect will launch in November ( old news - 09:53AM Thursday Sep 20 2007) tags: Video · business · contentTipped by rjackson  NBC recently demanded that the FCC force broadband providers to ban pirated traffic on their networks, using the argument that said trading hurts corn farmers by cannibalizing movie theater revenue. The company then went on to pull their video content from iTunes just as TV season arrived, driving many of those users to the very pirated services NBC loathes. Now, in an effort to "cut out the middleman" when it comes to content delivery, the network is going to be offering their popular shows via a new website called "NBC Direct." The service should begin testing in October, and will be fully operational by November. Vivi Zigler, NBC's EVP of Digital Entertainment, has this to say about the new offering: "With the creation of this new service, we are acknowledging that now, more than ever, viewers want to be in control of how, when and where they consume their favorite entertainment. Not only does this feature give them more control, but it also gives them a higher quality video experience." ...which, of course, is why NBC decided to lock down the video with Windows DRM, make it so the files become useless after just seven days and embed the files with advertisements that cannot be skipped (but hey, it's free). The company hasn't made it clear how this move affects their Hulu joint venture with News Corp.
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Transmaster
Onward Through The Fog
join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY
| Re: It's Not April 1st Already?? Well it is true Mexican housewives are complaining the cost of corn tortillas are going up because Mexican farmers can make more money converting their crop to
"corn squeez'ns" and sell it to the USA for ethanol fuel.
As for NBC programming I don't watch any of it now what makes them think I'll watch it on line. I mean how can an NBC sitcom compete with a frat'rat lighting farts, or shooting bottle rockets out of their assholes on YouTube. 
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Eat a BLT for Iran | |
| | | markopoleo
join:2003-04-02
Bonne Terre, MO | Re: Cool with this I agree, seems like a good move imo. Even with advertisements. Did not read up on it to much, but if quality is up to par might give it a spin if i miss a episode. | |
| | | | ossito16
join:2004-07-31
Whiting, IN | I totally agree with you. I watch shows in the same way. I wish I got 30 days though. If commercials become to bothersome then back to torrents I go. I will give them a chance for their effort. | |
| 
Corehhi
join:2002-01-28
Bluffton, SC
| I'm alright w/ commericals Just checked out the site and I've missed many episodes of My name is Earl. Now I can watch it if I miss one without the pirate police after me. As far as commericals, that's fine with me. I'm fine with NBC having this set up, I have no interest in saving these shows forever, just catching the ones I miss. I tried out the ABC HDTV site too, only problem there is I realized I don't watch anything on ABC. | |
| | | | | | | yabos
join:2003-02-16
Ingersoll, ON
| The reason they need cable and FIOS is because not many people want to watch TV on their computer. I do and I find it's pretty good but it'd be a lot better if it was easily watch-able on the TV without having to manually go through the act of downloading it and hooking up cables and such.
Probably within a few years this will all be solved, either Apple TV or similar which you can subscribe to shows for CHEAPER than cable/satellite(not the $2/episode rip off it is now) and it will download it for you in the background automatically. Apple is almost there but we need on demand and having the device connected to the TV be the thing that actually gets the shows for you. | |
| 
Aramis604
I Represent Nobody But Myself.
join:2000-12-15
Poway, CA
clubs:
| Kinda spiffy I think this is definitely a step in the right direction. If the content is free I can put up with some advertising, as long as it isn't 5 mins of advertising for every 1 min of content.
Now if a network that actually had good programming would come on board with something like this I'd be really happy!
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Life, the universe, and everything. Douglas Noel Adams; 1952 - 2001 | |
| karlmarx
join:2006-09-18
Baghdad,IRAQ
| I give it 3 days Before someone cracks the DRM. If that's the case, and it truly IS a high quality copy, expect to see a DRM stripping/commerical skipping software application written specifically for the TV shows.
What in the world is NBC trying to accomplish. I can SEE that they want to make you watch the commercials, and that's fine, but why in the world would I download a file that will expire? I want to watch a tv show on MY schedule, and if they don't allow that, then I'll get it from a pirate site.
This will be a short lived venture. I give it 1 season, and then NBC will realize that they can't stop progress, and they will have to find a new way to get revenue. If they were SMART, they would provide DRM free, SUPER high quality TV episodes, maybe with extra content, for the .99 cent price point. If I could watch MORE of the TV show from downloading it from a legitimate site, I would be willing to give them my money. Otherwise, I'll stick with my torrents and get all my TV shows that way.
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Stick it to the MAN. Support your local torrent sites. Proudly providing 100mb of upstream for all your TV, Movie, and MP3 needs. | |
| | 
ohya
@ryerson.ca | Re: I give it 3 days I thought windows DRM was cracked already? | |
| | | | | | axus
join:2001-06-18
Washington, DC | Most people don't care about commercials, they care about download time and compatibility. They WILL care about the 7 day restriction.
I watched shows from the NBC website, I'll probably give this way a try too.... it is free, right? | |
| | | axus
join:2001-06-18
Washington, DC | Re: I give it 3 days Oh look, they took first season of Heroes offline... I guess I won't be watching their commercials after all. | |
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dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
| Re: I give it 3 days said by axus :Oh look, they took first season of Heroes offline... I guess I won't be watching their commercials after all. Because they want to protect the revenue of the S01 heroes boxed DVD sets!
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You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth | |
| 
cableties
Premium
join:2005-01-27
Levittown, PA
| I'd rather someone else deal with the cost... of hosting...
of bandwidth...
of format...
of dealing with customers...
of liability...
Just license and collect. Is it really cheaper to control than to sublet? And does NBC really have that much content that is justifiably more profitable than infrastructure support? | |
| | 
Jmartz
join:2000-07-20
Tenafly, NJ
| Re: I'd rather someone else deal with the cost... NBC doesn't know what it wants. Their iTunes offerings were making a fair amount of money and were popular... so let's yank it and stop making money. They are partners with NewsCorp on that Hulu website that is supposed to offer the programs to people... so let's create a NBC Direct to offer the same programming to people that Hulu is going to offer... it makes no sense. If they are going to compete, they need to stop competing with THEMSELVES and give customers what they want. I'm sure NewsCorp is so happy they decided to partner with the clueless managers over at NBC who couldn't even run a hot dog stand. | |
| | eljay001
join:2004-03-17
South Portland, ME
 ·Great Works Internet
| NBC has no clue what they are doing. This is made clear by the fact that they expect everybody to gleefully download and install their own player to get the content.
The press release says future versions of the software will have a "closed P2P" system. I'm thinking this is because NBC either doesn't have the capacity or want to pay for the bandwidth that these crippled video files will consume. | |
| mobbo
join:2005-04-13
Fort Worth, TX
 ·Charter Pipeline
·Grande Communicati..
 ·Vonage
| NBC IS the middleman I would predict in the next 5 - 10 years it won't be NBC, CBS, ABC, etc. distrubuting media. It's too confusing! You have to go all over the place with 100 different username/password combos to download media in god-knows-what-format that only works for a set amount of time. Regular people will not be able to accomplish the task of downloading the shows they want to watch it on whatever PMP they have. I think it's ironic NBC says they are cutting out the "Middleman"... because that's all that THEY are!
I think production studios will recognize that they can make tons more money with much less heartbreak (having to negotiate with the networks) by directly releasing episodes by skipping mainstream media as distribution middlemen and offer their shows direct via the internet and/or P2P. However, it MUST be DRM-free and it MUST be all in ONE format. I already watch just about all my shows via bittorrent downloads and recently cancelled my Charter cable tv. This model can be seen by game-maker Valve's Steam project. Instead of going to Best Buy to pay a marked up price for a CD of a game routed through Vivendi, I can get the game direct from Valve for cheaper... plus Valve gets more money (and rightfully so IMO).
I think the blog post by Fake Steve Jobs sums it up well:
»fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/09/j···ave.html | |
| | axus
join:2001-06-18
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Cox HSI
| Re: NBC IS the middleman The major advantage of network TV, and a lesser extent any TV channel, is that the viewer turns on the TV, selects a channel, and no further interaction is required.
The network can advertise other shows. The only planning required is looking at the TV guide. Without a TV channel, shows do not get the free advertising, and don't reach new viewers who see a show because they left their TV on. | |
| | yabos
join:2003-02-16
Ingersoll, ON
| Ideally that would be the best solution. But the thing is that the tv shows are fairly heavily subsidized by the commercials. There would at least have to be some commercials because otherwise the tv shows would be quite expensive per episode.
Also, the networks will order X number of episodes guaranteed. Doing it all on the internet themselves would probably be quite a bit harder to accomplish successfully. | |
| | | mobbo
join:2005-04-13
Fort Worth, TX
·Charter Pipeline
·Grande Communicati..
·Vonage
| Re: NBC IS the middleman Perhaps they could show the consumers just how much an episode would cost with or without commercials. So, for instance, you could download one for 99 cents for an episode with and $9.99 for the same episode without commercials. Also, I think 99 cents is too much for an epidsode. I watch 10 tv shows in total. 2 are daily episodes 4 nights a week, the rest are once a week. That would cost me $32/month for those 2 daily shows and another $32/month for the other shows. That's about how much digital cable costs... If I could download episodes for free and it had commercials in it, I would not mind.
I personally don't mind commercials because they give a break for me to get another beer and/or snacks. | |
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tglea
join:2007-08-13
Mexico
| Enough Already! When are these companies going to give up? They will never beat piracy. Most of these companies have more money than they know what to do with yet they still try to make one extra buck. A select few will never deny the masses of what they want. Pretty simple concept that probably goes back to the beginning of time. | |
| | BF69
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN
| Re: Enough Already! said by tglea :When are these companies going to give up? They will never beat piracy. Most of these companies have more money than they know what to do with yet they still try to make one extra buck. A select few will never deny the masses of what they want. Pretty simple concept that probably goes back to the beginning of time. Yes maybe they should just give up an not make anymore new shows to begin with. Then you can be bored because there's nothing to watch but reruns.
It ironic that people say crap like "haven't they made enough money" but if THEY ever made a hit show, movie or song THEY would expect to be paid. | |
| | |
tglea
join:2007-08-13
Mexico | Re: Enough Already! I'm talking about beating piracy, not making money. I could care less if they stop making shows to watch! I don't watch much besides sports anyways. You think anyone is going to stop piracy or file trading? It's never going to happen. | |
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dadkins
I Don't Care
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
| Eh... Is this going to be the HD feeds?
If not, and there is anything on NBC that becomes watchable, I'll just let one of the laptops record it (VAIO Media or MCE) and watch it that way!
Yeah, FFW does work on both!
VAIO Media records in MPEG2 and will play in any player software...
MCE - well... MCE or WMP will work.
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Think outside the Fox... Opera | |
| rid0617
join:2003-07-20
Greer, SC | steal what Network TV has sucked for so long I haven't seen anything I'd want to pirate | |
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dadkins
I Don't Care
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
| Re: steal what Pirate? Network TV?
If it airs, and I record it... and then send you a copy - that is not stealing.
Currently, with what NBC has as programming, worst they could claim is that both you and I are dumb. Me for recording it, you for wanting a copy. 
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Think outside the Fox... Opera | |
| allgold
join:2005-03-26
East Lansing, MI
·AT&T Midwest
| Windows DRM Windows DRM means it can only be played on... Windows.
Mac and Linux users are SOL. Sure, Windows has the vast majority but when NBC had shows on iTunes more people could watch them--and pay for them. NBC must think they're going to make more money from their imbedded advertising than they did from iTunes purchase/download fees.
Although I'm primarily a Mac user, it doesn't affect me either way. If I want to see anything on NBC, I just record it on my Windows Media Center in HD from an OTA antenna. It's free (other than the initial cost of the equipment), no DRM and I can skip commercials.
No Mac compatibility just means I won't download any episodes out of curiosity and pump up their ad hit numbers. | |
| | 
RARPSL
join:1999-12-08
Suffern, NY
| Re: Windows DRM said by allgold :Windows DRM means it can only be played on... Windows. Mac and Linux users are SOL. Sure, Windows has the vast majority but when NBC had shows on iTunes more people could watch them--and pay for them. While you can blame NBC for not offering this capability to Mac (and Linux) users (by using a true Cross Platform solution such as iTunes offers [Note: I am not saying to stay with iTunes but only use a DRM method that is Cross Platform/Platform Agnostic]), the Blame should be shared by Microsoft which refuses (refused) to issue a Mac version of the DRM Plug-In for the Mac version of Microsoft Media Player. | |
| Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Pittsburgh, PA
edit:
September 20th, @02:22PM
| Not in the best interest of GE Ever since it became NBC Universal, it has been going downhill fast, NBC has "jumped the shark". GE should do its shareholders a favor and unload NBC Universal while it can still get a half decent price. | |
| flyingjoey
join:2005-11-07
Jersey City, NJ
 ·Verizon FIOS
| NBC Uni NBC Universal currently has at least 10 ongoing projects which aim at providing digital contents over the internet, also the company is looking to cut out the middle man from its current distribution scheme.
The company does have a really aggressive approach at getting all this technology up and running in house. DMZs are getting built all over the place just to make sure the capacity and bandwidth is there.
Anyway to make a long story short, I work for the company and more so the team I’m part of is responsible for implementing a lot of hardware they will need to achieve their overall broadband/online goals. | |
| dks7
join:2004-05-31
·Charter Pipeline
| Bleh I careless what these studios do as i leech my tv off topsites, good luck stoping that. When they create a free downloadable copy of a show with no commercials and no DRM THEN i might use their system. Right now all I need is HSI, i leech all, see, all, watch all, and free of their fag advertisements and drm, AKA BLOW ME NBC! | |
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dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
| Re: Bleh said by dks7 :I careless what these studios do as i leech my tv off topsites, good luck stoping that. When they create a free downloadable copy of a show with no commercials and no DRM THEN i might use their system. Right now all I need is HSI, i leech all, see, all, watch all, and free of their fag advertisements and drm, AKA BLOW ME NBC! Thats exactly what a store should do. unfortunately nobody is listening.
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You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth | |
|
Old tech is best
@comcast.net
| Why worry about such foolishness? I can use 30 yr old technology and record it to my VCR, or my DVV Recorder. I can then watch it anytime, anywhere, at my convenience. Its what fair use allows us to legally do.
I never understood why people pay for TIVO (a monthly service charge that everyone wants to charge... keep em paying) or pay to download on iTunes.
I could understand if you forget to set your programmable DVD Recorder or VCR. But why pay, every month, month after month, to record what a $69 VCR will do just as well?
So NBC will "let" you download a DRM encoded file that will only play for one week? Forget that. If I record it here, I can play it back anytime I want. And I won't have to go out and buy it on DVD next year.
The media giants want to have people forget about recording their shows on their own, where you can edit out or fast forward past commercials. And you can archive them for next to nothing (blank media is cheap and reusable).
They make more money charging for downloads or cripple them for only a few days and disable you from forwarding past the commercials.
Screw them.... do it yourself... LEGALLY.... and you won't have those annoyances. | |
| | Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Pittsburgh, PA | Re: Why worry about such foolishness? You do realize that new VCRs and most new DVRs don't even have tuners now. While you may be tech savvy enough to get around that many people are not. | |
| qworster
join:2001-11-25
Los Angeles, CA | There's a good reason that NBC is the 4th network out of 4 There's a good reason that NBC is fourth out of the big 4 networks, and we're seeing it here and now-ignorance and stupidity within senior management! | |
| 
viperpa33s
Why Me?
Premium
join:2002-12-20
Bradenton, FL
·Bright House
| Would like to know Would like to know why NBC has to install something on your computer to view there content? I would think that having IE and WMP would be all you need. NBC saying customers have control over the content is misguided. You maybe able to watch it on any Windows PC but in no way you have control over the content.
Maybe someone has some insight on what is being installed since there site don't tell you any specifics. | |
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dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ | DRM DRM *can* be done on windows media. I will *not* be watching any sites content that requires me to use proprietary software
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You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth | |
| id_deleted
join:2003-05-01
Salt Lake City, UT
edit:
September 21st, @07:35AM
| Its all irrelevant to me. The $140 MyHD MDP-130 card in my home theater PC can record any local network broadcast in full bitrate HD over-the-air, and the software I use can be set to automatically record ALL episodes of any series. If I happened to forget to set a recording, and I had a dire need to see some trash network program in the future, I can always rent the HD version of the DVD from Netflix.
It will be a very long time before there is enough internet bandwidth to serve out concurrent uncompressed HD streams (each at ~14 Mbps) to thousands (or millions) of internet users, so I doubt they will ever be offering anything on-line that interests me even if they actually aired something besides sitcoms and reality shows.
If they were to ever offer something decent in higher quality than a highly compressed standard definition 4:3 broadcast, your ISP will likely toss you for exceeding their invisible caps and being a bandwidth hog. How's that for fair. 
Perhaps their ideas might have worked LONG ago before HD broadcasts became prevalent, but certainly not in this era..
Then again, there's a lot of households out there that still use VCR's and analog TV's with rabbit ears. I think we will rid them of the later technology here pretty soon.
As for the VCR, improvement's for them are still limited to the amazing one step electrical tape application kit (As Advertised On TV!!) to fix the flashing 12:00 thang. | |
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