Ah to be Jeff Zucker.... Dumb as a post and happy with it.

You go, Jeff Zucker! Fight that bad fight!

I love to see industries that are so set in their ways, so fossilized into doing "what they do" that they can't grow, can't change, can't even get out of the way of the big ass iceberg in their path. That Would be (among many, many others) NBC's Jeff Zucker.

This comes from Apple Insider

"We know that Apple has destroyed the music business -- in terms of pricing -- and if we don’t take control, they’ll do the same thing on the video side," Zucker said at a breakfast hosted by Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Communications.

Uh? You mean put music in the hands of more people, EVER! I've said this before, but prior to owning an iPod, I didn't buy music, well not 100% true. I bought Run DMC's "Raising Hell" in the third grade, and I bought a few singles when I worked at Wal-Mart. Since owning an iPod, I've spent a good several hundred dollars on music. Some of it mine, some from giftcards, but greenbacks all the same.

So how, Mr. Zucker has Apple killed the Music Business? I suppose strictly speaking, it's killed the business OF music, but that's only because the business OF music has chosen to fight for it's old ways. Rather than adapt to or embrace the future the business OF music has chosen fight to get us back to the good ol' days of Tape cassettes and CDs, each running 12-15 bones. Fuck them!

Answering questions at the breakfast Sunday, Zucker offered substantially more color on the iTunes matter, explaining that it was “a relatively easy decision” for NBC to walk away from the Apple download service because it had only earned about $15 million from the service last year in spite of accounting for about 40 per cent of the videos sold on the store.

Uh? would NBC have made that 15 Mil anywhere else? That was 15 Mil that NBC WOULD NOT HAVE MADE AT ALL. They didn't trade one revenue stream for another here, they were GIVEN an opportunity to add another! Much like the music industry (the business OF music, not the artists) the video industry has chosen to fight a losing battle to protect outrageous profit margins.

So what now NBC? You'll take your content off iTunes? Start charging 5 bucks a pop for it on NBC.com, and no one will buy.

He said NBC routinely propositioned Apple to breach its standard pricing model and experiment with higher pricing for one hit show such as “Heroes” by raising the price from the iTunes standard $1.99 to $2.99 on a trial basis.

“We wanted to take one show, it didn’t matter which one it was, and experiment and sell it for $2.99,” he said. “We made that offer for months and they said no.”

The NBC chief also revealed that in addition to more pricing flexibility, his firm was also seeking a cut of Apple hardware sales -- such as the iPod and iPhone -- which were capable of viewing content downloaded from the iTunes Store.

"Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content and made a lot of money," he said. "They did not want to share in what they were making off the hardware or allow us to adjust pricing."

That's cuz it's a dumb idea. Apple is really good at finding sweet spots. .99 a song, perfect!, 1.99 an episode, perfect! Plus the die is cast! The Post office can get away with raising prices every six months, there's no alternatives. When NBC raises their prices to 5 bones a show... people will do what they used to, watch it on TV or Bit torrent it for free. Greedy Bastards!

I wonder if NBC has demanded a cut of the profits from companies like Memorex, 3M, etc who make CD and DVD media. They're making money on the backs of NBC content....  Heaven forbid NBC figure out how to run more lean, na why bother? Figure out how to take more money than they deserve, that'll solve the problem

He said that 50 million streams of TV shows accessed on NBC.com during the month of October are proof that there is a demand for traditional TV series on the web.

uh, If I'm not mistaken, those 'streams' are free! so since free is doing so well, let's raise the price to 5 bucks? Great idea!

Here's my parting thought...

leave the damn commercials in! You think any one cares? We don't! we'll watch them, or we'll skip over them just like we do with TiVos. How am I the only one that came up with idea? NBC, are you hiring? Maybe it's time for a Chief Executive?