Jeff Zucker, head of NBC Universal, as quoted by Ken Auletta in reference to his split with Apple's iTunes: "Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content and made a lot of money," Zucker said. "They did not want to share in what they were making off the hardware or allow us to adjust pricing." Let's fly down from corporate, Jeff, and join the real world.
Apple "did not want to share on what they were making off the hardware (iPod)." Okay, Jeff, by that logic Sony or LG should pay you a piece of every TV they sell, right? Doesn't your 4th ranked network make millions off the backs of the public TV airwaves? Aren't you making millions of the backs of Comcast?
Apple is simply a distributor, a la Wal-Mart. Are you going to pull NBC Universal DVDs from Wal-Mart? Isn't Wal-Mart using NBC DVDs as a loss leader to increase foot traffic in their stores? Yes, they are. By Jeff Zucker's logic then, NBC should get a cut of every diaper sold in Wal-Mart. Especially those fancy NASA diapers for long trips.
Zucker complains NBC made "only $15 million" selling shows on iTunes. That's pure profit, Jeff. People can watch it over the air for free. But many choose not to, which is why Fox gets better ratings. Apple has figured out how to distribute your content at no cost to you at a price the consumer is willing to pay. They are conditioning consumers to pay for downloaded content. In most businesses $15 million marginal revenue with no fixed cost is a good thing. If NBC had better shows, maybe they would have made more money on iTunes.
Battlestar Galactica and The Office were built in large part by people discovering the shows on iTunes, buying them, and then tuning in to NBC for new episodes. Logic would dictate that helps NBC. Does NBC honestly think consumers are going to come home at night and eagerly log on to their new website Hulu.com to view NBC content, chock full of ads and non-downloadable? Two words, bit and torrent.
Jeff Zucker has proven himself adept at the Vatican politics at GE, and he's in a tough spot because GE is thinking of selling NBC Universal. But spurning Apple, who developed a new, proven distribution model for NBC for free, and then turning around and sinking millions into Hulu.com to replicate what Apple already gave NBC, ahem, for free, is not the Six Sigma way.
Follow Ron Galloway on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rongalloway
http://www.panandscan.com/news/show/289
Basically, Zucker's problem is not only did he walk away from "free" revenue of $15 million, he then choose to call out Apple for no apparent reason just to launch a new business venture?
Apple never said NBC couldn't launch hulu or stream on nbc.com (as CBS, ABC and others currently do also) ... is Zucker's brain so full he has to walk away from a business before he can spend hundreds of millions launching a new one?
Because he said, I'll pull the $15 million (or 7.5 million impressions) in return for ZERO AND I'll spend hundreds of millions to launch a new commercial-laden website that already ahs more headcount than YouTube for most of its existence ...
Zucker, applying what he learned in 1987 to the world of TV in 2007 ... he's in over his head.
there are so many more good shows on abc this season that it boggles the mind.
I also take issue with his belief that GALACTICA and OFFICE audiences were built on iTunes sales. This hasn't been proven and isn't logical - why would you pay for something you hadn't seen before when you could watch it on Youtube or DVR it for later consumption? You pay for something you already like but may have missed.
Finally, I find it interesting that Galloway brings up Bit Torrent here. I wonder if he'd be so happy to advocate it if it were used to distribute his Walmart movies without him receiving compensation?
this hack, majorty of this programs from this network are rehash from there past vault and brought from over sees.