NBC has finally sat up and taken note of consumer power and recognised downloading and online viewing as a potential future for TV, says ZeroPaid. What’s more, the TV shows may be available using P2P technologies, such as that behind Ares. NBC are looking at a model similar in style to the prolific iTunes, and hope to be able to roll it out by the middle of next year. The service is currently being referred to as ‘NBC Direct’.Citing as reasons for the switch the change in attitudes of views, with more people wanting to view programs on their own terms, and a reluctance to confirm to the TV culture, it will be interesting to see whether this represents a deluge of similar initiatives being launched by other TV companies. Many already use iTunes as a platform from which to launch their download services, but cutting out the middle-man would return far more of the profits to the originators, and allow them to offer the service on their terms, rather than Apple’s. NBC left iTunes as while back in a disagreement over content pricing.
And, in an unparalleled move, NBC will allow the shows to be viewed for free, albeit with embedded ads. This is similar to the move by the BBC in the UK to provide for free past TV programmes – this following the success of a similar initiative involving the weeks’ radio programmes.
The videos will be played using
…special software player with filtering technology that will prevent users from playing illegally downloaded videos.
which will, apparently, involve using the trusty old Windows DRM. How this will sit with the community that will use it is not clear, but certainly Windows DRM is not foolproof. Maybe NBC know something we don’t.