[a href="vny!://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/business/20nbc-web.html"]NBC announced plans[/a] to launch its own online video service this fall called NBC Direct. Unfortunately, IT SUCKS.
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The craptastic DRM-laden video download site will let people do less than virtually any video delivery system ever devised. This [a href="vny!://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/business/20nbc-web.html"]NY Times article[/a] announces the new "store" without mentioning that the reason these movies people download will self-destruct after seven days is because they're wrapped in Windows Media DRM. The real story is that this is a shitty rental service, not a store.
Here's the bit the writer really screwed up, though: the terms under which NBC wants to "sell" you videos are not just worse than iTunes, but worse than every single video delivery system that has ever existed. Consider the alternatives you have for watching recorded TV programming today: [/p] [ul][li]Taping a TV show to a VHS cassette lets you watch it as much as you like forever and play it back on any VHS player anywhere.[/li][li]Recording something to Tivo lets you watch it as much as you like forever on several different devices (if you have the right Tivo model).[/li][li]Netflix lets you rent a DVD and keep it as long as you like.[/li][li]Amazon Unbox lets you keep a pay-per-view program for 30 days before the movie kerplodes.[/li][li]Even Blockbuster is a better deal, since they adopted the Netflix business model and don't charge late fees anymore.[/li][/ul] [p style="font-weight: bold;"]It's not even worth my time to download a TV show for free if it's going to expire in just seven days, honestly.[/p] Update: [a href="vny!://nytimes.com/"]The Federal Government of News[/a] ran [a href="vny!://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/business/media/20nbc.html"]a second story[/a] about this with some more detail and some more humorous quotes about how scared the network is of nasty evil internet video pirates. This piece discloses NBC's fantasy price point for video downloads ($4.99!), suggests that they're going to support Macs and iPods [a href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_soon_now"]Real Soon Now[/a], and specifies that the free downloads will contain commercials that can't be skipped. [em]
[/em][/p][em]Just what I was hoping for.[/em][/p]
