NBC leads while CBS flails in digital distribution
To highlight the current difference between winners and losers in the digital content distribution race, lets look at recent efforts by the US television networks NBC and CBS. While the networks current activities will not be their only or long-term approaches to delivering content over the Internet, they are high-profile corporate initiatives that demonstrate each organization's understanding of the market, the technology, and the digital content consumer.
Let's start with NBC. It jumped on Apple's iTunes Music Store (iTMS) bandwagon and has been selling TV content for months. In fact, a producer of the show "The Office" credits the availability of the show on iTMS for its increased viewership on TV. Having experienced this success, NBC has gone a step forward, last week announcing that the pilot of a new show, "Conviction," will be free for download until its TV premiere. After that, the pilot and future episodes of the show will cost $1.99, just like all other iTMS TV content (as with other shows, once downloaded, the content can be viewed as often as a customer would like and can be transferred to a video-capable iPod).
As for CBS, it made news in January by selling a handful of its shows on Google Video. Since that announcement, the Google Video store, with its meager content and a variety of DRM restrictions, has been rightfully trounced in the trade and business media and blog world. Supposedly having learned from that disaster, the network announced that it would sell some of its content on its own site. Specifically, here are some of the details that consumers interested in buying access to the "Survivor" episode that aired on February 16, 2001, should know:
Let's start with NBC. It jumped on Apple's iTunes Music Store (iTMS) bandwagon and has been selling TV content for months. In fact, a producer of the show "The Office" credits the availability of the show on iTMS for its increased viewership on TV. Having experienced this success, NBC has gone a step forward, last week announcing that the pilot of a new show, "Conviction," will be free for download until its TV premiere. After that, the pilot and future episodes of the show will cost $1.99, just like all other iTMS TV content (as with other shows, once downloaded, the content can be viewed as often as a customer would like and can be transferred to a video-capable iPod).
As for CBS, it made news in January by selling a handful of its shows on Google Video. Since that announcement, the Google Video store, with its meager content and a variety of DRM restrictions, has been rightfully trounced in the trade and business media and blog world. Supposedly having learned from that disaster, the network announced that it would sell some of its content on its own site. Specifically, here are some of the details that consumers interested in buying access to the "Survivor" episode that aired on February 16, 2001, should know:
- Episode 3 - Crazy Fights, Snake Dinners
- Cost: $1.99
- Available for Download/Rental: From February 15, 12:00 AM PT to June 29, 11:59 PM PT
- Viewing/Downloading Period: 24 hours from Rental
- Rights: Burn to CD/DVD - No; Transferable to Portable Device - No; PC Download limit - 1
- System Requirements: Windows 2000 or XP, Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher, Windows Media Player 9 or higher with Digital Rights Management Version 2.20.