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Guess what? Days after its dispute with Apple over the price
of its TV shows on iTunes, NBC Universal has left the iTunes store for good and
announced a new partnership with Amazon Unbox, none other than iTunes’ biggest rival.
According to NBC Universal, all its popular shows are now
available on Amazon Unbox include the Emmy Award-winning series The Office, the
critically acclaimed drama Heroes, and Emmy-nominated comedy 30 Rock.
Also, beginning on September 10, Amazon Unbox customers can
download for free the pilot episodes of NBC’s new shows Bionic Woman, Chuck,
Journeyman and Life/
“With the addition of NBC Universal TV content to Amazon
Unbox, fans now have the ultimate convenience for enjoying their favorite shows
whenever or wherever they want,” said Jean-Briac Perrette, President, NBC
Universal Digital Distribution. “This further expands our longstanding
relationship to bring a robust content offering to the marketplace in a variety
of ways that will benefit the consumer and, at the same time, protects our
content.”
Last Friday, the New York Times reported that NBC Universal
notified Apple about its intentions to pull their TV shows from iTunes Store in
December.
In a press statement, released shortly after the New York
Times announced the news, Apple said will not be selling NBC television shows
for the upcoming television season ad the company declined to pay more than
double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted
in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the
current $1.99.
A few hours later, NBC Universal reacted to Apple’s
statement, by saying that the problem wasn’t the price.
“We never asked to double the wholesale price for our TV
shows. In fact, our negotiations were centered on our request for flexibility
in wholesale pricing, including the ability to package shows together in ways
that could make our content even more attractive for consumers.” said Cory
Shields, EVP Communications of NBC Universal, in a public statement.
Although the clash seemed to be just a part of a
negotiations “war”, it seems the both parties were very serious about it.
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