NBC says goodbye to Apple, hello to Amazon
NBC Universal didn't waste any time replacing Apple. — Episodes of The Office and Heroes will begin appearing at Amazon's Unbox starting next Monday, according to a statement released by the companies. — Amazon customers can download …
Context & Ripple Effects
NBC Universal's move is the first concrete answer in the standoff that opened last week, when Apple announced its iTunes Store would stop carrying NBC shows once the existing contract expires. The two sides have traded claims since: NBC says it failed to reach renewal terms with Apple, while denying reports that it demanded a doubling of wholesale prices.
The speed of the pivot — new episodes of The Office and Heroes landing on Amazon's Unbox within days of the split — signals NBC intends to treat digital retailing as a competitive marketplace rather than an Apple monopoly. The relationship goes back years; Jeff Zucker was already discussing NBC's iPod strategy in a December 2005 interview with Broadcasting & Cable.
First-order effects
- Amazon's Unbox gets flagship first-run NBC content — The Office and Heroes — from next Monday, giving the service its strongest show of relevance against iTunes just as Apple prepares its Wednesday media event, where sources confirm a touch-screen iPod will debut.
Second-order effects
- Other studios now have a live test of whether they can extract better terms by threatening to walk from iTunes, and rival retailers like Amazon gain negotiating credibility as credible homes for hit programming.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, TV distribution fragments into a multi-retailer market where studios shop exclusives across platforms — weakening any single storefront's grip on pricing and pushing device makers to court studio deals directly.
The trend: Television studios are asserting bargaining power against dominant digital retailers by spreading their catalogs across competing download stores.