NBC officially removed from the iTunes Store
Now that December has arrived and NBC's contract has expired, all of their content has been removed from the iTunes Store, as promised. That means no more Bravo, mun2, NBC, NBC News, CNBC, NBC Sports, Sci Fi, Sleuth, Telemundo or USA Network (Go ahead and look.
Context & Ripple Effects
The removal closes out a dispute that has been running since August, when Apple said the iTunes Store would stop selling NBC television shows after the two sides failed to renew their distribution deal. NBC had already lined up alternatives: it signed on with Amazon's download service in September, pulled its YouTube channel to feed Hulu, the joint video site it part-owns, and launched its own NBC Direct beta for 48-hour downloads in November.
What changes today is that the exit is no longer a negotiation posture but a fact of the catalog: Bravo, CNBC, NBC News, NBC Sports, Sci Fi, Sleuth, Telemundo, USA Network and mun2 are all gone from iTunes at once. The stakes are whether a top-tier network can walk away from the largest digital TV store and still reach its audience.
First-order effects
- iTunes customers lose one-click access to NBC's full portfolio — including hits like The Office and 30 Rock — while Apple's TV catalog loses one of its biggest suppliers heading into the holiday buying season.
- NBC's replacement channels take the load directly: Amazon's download service, the Hulu joint venture, and the NBC Direct beta are now the only sanctioned ways to buy or download NBC shows online.
Second-order effects
- Other networks holding iTunes renewal talks now have a live test case for leaving, which strengthens their hand in any dispute over wholesale pricing and bundling terms with Apple.
- NBC's bet puts pressure on its own substitutes to perform: critics have already panned NBC Direct as an overly complicated mess next to Hulu, so the network's credibility with viewers rests on Hulu and Amazon delivering an experience comparable to what iTunes offered.
Third-order effects
- If NBC's audience follows it off iTunes without measurable damage, the episode becomes the template for media companies consolidating distribution into owned or co-owned platforms rather than renting shelf space inside a single dominant storefront.
- The pattern points toward a split digital-video market — platform-owned stores like iTunes versus consortium-backed services like Hulu — where carriage disputes between networks and device makers become recurring leverage contests rather than once-a-decade events.
The trend: Television networks are shifting from selling through dominant third-party storefronts to controlling their own digital distribution, using joint ventures like Hulu and retail partners like Amazon as bargaining leverage against Apple.