14 DAY TRIAL // The dispute between Apple and NBC earlier this year, and the subsequent pulling of the shows from the iTunes Store was widely reported. Since then, the issue has been pretty much forgotten until now, when December has arrived and the shows are gone.
With the expiration of the contract between Apple and NBC, all of the content that it covered is no longer available to customers. The list is quite extensive, including content from Bravo, mun2, NBC, NBC News, CNBC, NBC Sports, Sci Fi, Sleuth, Telemundo and USA Network, adding up to a significant chunk of the content that was once available.
While not immediately obvious to customers, quite a number of shows that were aired on NBC channels are still available, but this not because of the two companies actually working something out, but because the shows are actually produced by other networks and only aired by NBC.
The fact that this point was reached should not surprise anybody. NBC already had plans on making their own service, intended to taken on Apple's. Both Hulu and NBC Direct have various issues, ranging from browser dependencies on Internet Explorer and the NBC Direct Player, meaning anything but Windows need not apply, to the fact that videos are only available for one week after they initially air. Other serious limitations include the videos automatically disappearing 48 hours after you begin watching them if the license is not manually renewed, the fact that they will only play on the computer they were initially downloaded from, and the lack of support for any portable devices.
It is obvious a mile away that this is not about show pricing, but leverage over Apple, that is feared because they actually have a chance of doing with video content what they did with music. Apple isn't budging an inch, and customers are finding themselves without a simple-to-use, compatible, adequately priced service, because the content provider is locking them out. Three out of four comments related to this development mention having to resort to illegal downloads, proving once again, that the media bigwigs just don't get it.