NBC - The other Shoe Falls
A little over two weeks ago, I wrote about how NBC had deliberately tried to price iTunes out of the market with a 100% price increase, and how Apple promptly kicked them off of iTunes with a swift kick in the ass.
Well, now the other shoe falls as NBC announces that they are launching a new service called 'NBC Direct' that will allow users to download shows from their website for free.
As long as they don't mind sitting through commercials or using severely restricted, DRM laden formats that will self-destruct a few days after you download it.
You can't even put the files on any portable media player and the service only works on windows so Mac, iPod, and even Microsoft Portable Players users are left out in the cold.
This is the move everyone has been expecting NBC to make since they killed off their deal with iTunes. They are continuing the entertainment industry's long running track record of trying to replace a wildly popular system with something much more restrictive, and like many similar previous attempts it is doomed to dismal failure.
Mark my words, eventually this service will fail and we will once again see NBC content on the iTunes music store, and it'll be soundly on Apple's terms.