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NBC will not renew its iTunes contract

August 31, 2007 › Sandy McMurray | comment

The New York Times reports that NBC Universal will not renew its iTunes contract.

This means no more NBC television shows will be sold by the iTunes Store after the contract ends. That's especially sad news for viewers outside the US, many of whom have never had the chance to buy TV shows from the US-only service.

If you ask me, NBC is trying to avoid the unavoidable. They don't want to cede control of online video sales and distribution to Apple, but it's already too late. iTunes is the industry standard, the market leader, the 800 pound gorilla of online video sales. There simply is no direct competitor.

Of course, NBC could try to build an iTunes competitor.

Oh, wait. They are trying to build an iTunes competitor! Starting in October, TV shows from NBC and FOX will be available for download to testers of a new video service called Hulu.

Here's a blurb from the site:

The Hulu private beta will be available in October. In the interest of delivering a great customer experience and making sure that we can address any feedback that comes along the way, we're going to start small and grow iteratively in terms of the volumes of people that we invite to participate in the beta. Within that same timeframe, we will also be offering great programming through our distribution partner sites: AOL, Comcast, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo.

I'm assuming that Hulu will become widely available by January 2008, when NBC's contract expires. I guess we'll see.

~~There's no word yet on whether Hulu will offer videos for sale to viewers outside the United States.~~ (Yes there is. See below.)

Meanwhile, since no legal options exist, many Canadians will continue to share episodes of NBC shows via peer-to-peer networks. This is legally murky, since the courts have ruled that Canadian copyright law permit downloads of copyrighted material, but uploads are illegal. (Many people don't seem to care. If you browse P2P networks, you'll find plenty of video files uploaded by CTV and Global TV viewers.)

Speaking on behalf of Canadians who are willing to pay for legal downloads, I hope Hulu (and iTunes) will soon make American TV shows available to Canadians.

My wallet is ready and waiting. Sign me up.

Update: Sigh. The Hulu Terms of Use page answers my question:

EXPORT CONTROL
Unless otherwise specified, the materials on this Site are presented solely to for use in the United States, its territories, possessions and protectorates. This Site is controlled and operated by Hulu from its offices within the state of California, United States of America. Hulu makes no representation that materials on this Site are appropriate or available for use outside the United States and authorizes no one to do so. Those who choose to access the Site in contravention of the foregoing from outside the United States do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent that local laws are applicable.

August 31, 2007 › Sandy McMurray | comment on this item