NBC launches “NBC Direct”…No Macs allowed
By Triston McIntyre
NBC announced the release of their new online distribution service, NBC Direct, earlier today. NBC direct will allow users to download recent releases of the channel’s popular shows and keep them for up to a week. Unfortunately, Mac users can begin their weeping and gnashing of teeth, as NBC has seen fit to shun the entire OS X using community by making it a Windows-only feature.
NBC’s Vice President, Vivi Zigler, said, “With the creation of this new service, we are acknowledging that now, more than ever, viewers want to be in control of how, when and where they consumer their favorite entertainment,” said Zigler in the press release. “Not only does this feature give them more control, but it also gives them a higher quality video experience.”
Beta testing for the new feature will kick off in October. As opposed to the currently popular streaming services offered by other networks, a download service will provide increased quality without the frequent hiccups of streaming quality.
Here’s how it will work: users can download shows, which will be licensed to them for a week’s time. After that, the license will, obviously, expire and the show will be useless. The shows will be funded by ads injected into the show like a poison, but you take the good with the bad.
Later on in development, users can flag their favorite shows for automatic delivery to their PCs so they don’t have to spend the time searching.
Sounds great, right? Wrong. NBC isn’t taking the time (at least not yet) to develop the protocols necessary for OS X users to take advantage of the download service. Though they do plan to incorporate compatibility for Macs and even portable devices later, that isn’t in their initial plan.
Not only will NBC block OS X users, they are apparently only supporting Internet Explorer, which rules out all those Firefox fans on PCs as well. MacDailyNews reports:
“Visiting NBC Universal’s site with an Apple Mac currently generates the error message that reads, in part, ‘We’re Sorry the requested download is unavailable. Downloads are only available to users located in the United States that have a Microsoft operating system and Internet Explorer web browser.’”
Well, that’s a fine how-do-you-do. Though it is quite apparent that Apple and NBC are no bed buddies at this current juncture in time, who would have suspected them to slip beneath the sheets with Bill Gates and Microsoft so quickly?
On the bright side, there should be no reason why dual-booters or those using Parallels couldn’t access the material. Even more enticing is NBC’s goals to distribute its shows in high definition via a closed peer-to-peer network.
If you are angered by NBC’s complete disregard for those who cannot part with the Mac, feel free to contact your local…er…NBC representative to voice your complaints.
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Read more entries by Triston McIntyre.
September 19th, 2007
Interesting idea for content distribution. Video files/movies/television shows are inherently different than music (which the iTunes model has nailed solid). I really don’t want to buy television programs to watch over and over again. Usually, I want to watch them once and then move on. NBC appears to be giving that to me, on my schedule.
If I can still fast forward through the commercials (which will probably be likely), who cares if they include advertisements. And the best part? It’s free again.
I had become accustomed to watching Battlestar Galactica on iTunes. It will be nice to not have to pay.
December 24th, 2007
[…] Help Net Security wrote an interesting post today on NBC launches âNBC Directââ¦No Macs allowedHere’s a quick excerpt…will allow users to download recent … Unfortunately, Mac users can begin … OS X users, they are apparently only supporting Internet… […]
May 25th, 2008
Oh no! NBC won’t have a whole 6% of computers! What will they ever do!?!
That was sarcastic by the way…