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NBC Teams with SanDisk's Fanfare

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 9:50 AM - by

NBC Universal is teaming with SanDisk and the company's Fanfare video download service to offer programming from its affiliate networks including NBC, USA Network, Sci Fi Channel, and more. Fanfare is still in a beta test phase, and is surprisingly proprietary: It is a Windows-only service, and requires SanDisk's Sansa TakeTV for TV playback.

SanDisk appears to be offering NBC Universal exactly what the company wants with heavy digital rights management restrictions, adjustable per-show pricing, and TV shows that can only be purchased as parts of bundles. Apple's iTunes Store refused to agree to those terms, which led to a contract negotiations breakdown.

NBC Universal's failure to reach a new contract agreement with Apple ultimately led to the removal of all NBC shows from the iTunes Store.

Jean-Briac Perrette, president of NBC Universal Digital Distribution commented "SanDisk is taking a leadership position within the consumer electronics industry with its commitment to protecting content, which marks an important advance for television entertainment in the digital landscape."

SanDisk and NBC Universal have not yet said how much NBC content will cost. Requiring the purchase of a Sansa TakeTV to view content from a beta service, however, may be too high of a price for some customers.

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MobiWan said:

member since 23 Jun 2006 with 7 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:08 pm

Their statement should read "SanDisk is taking a leadership position within the ANTI-consumer electronics industry with its commitment to protecting content AND PLEASING THE MEDIA GIANTS BY FORCING CONSUMERS TO PAY FOR THINGS THEY DON'T WANT IN ORDER TO GET AT THAT WHICH THEY DO which marks an important advance for television entertainment in the digital landscape."

And for any M$-apologists or anti-Apple folks, say what you want about iTunes lock-in, but at least Apple did open up to Windows. Be a cold day in hell before this service opens to Mac.

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jimothy said:

member since 04 Jun 2004 with 612 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:53 pm

Is NBC brass so anti-Apple that they'll partner with any also-ran service just to avoid having to eat some crow and get their shows back up on Apple? Swallow some pride, stand up for "shareholder value," and put an end to these shenanigans.

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fo said:

member since 23 Aug 2005 with 39 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:05 pm

I think NBC *wants* an "also-ran" service to partner with so they can pull more weight. They insist on being in the driver's seat, which is something they can't get with Apple. SanDisk is a second-tier player, but they do have good resources and a well-known brand.

This initiative shows nothing more than corporations assuming that they're in control of something they aren't. The consumer is in control, and pity the corporation that forgets this. It would be interesting to see an accounting of how much time and money NBC is going to waste on this venture, and then compare it to the amount of money they felt they were being shorted by Apple.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:47 pm

fo wrote:
I think NBC *wants* an "also-ran" service to partner with so they can pull more weight. They insist on being in the driver's seat, which is something they can't get with Apple. SanDisk is a second-tier player, but they do have good resources and a well-known brand.

This initiative shows nothing more than corporations assuming that they're in control of something they aren't. The consumer is in control, and pity the corporation that forgets this. It would be interesting to see an accounting of how much time and money NBC is going to waste on this venture, and then compare it to the amount of money they felt they were being shorted by Apple.

if you'd like an idea of just how clueless universal's ceo, doug morris is, check out the interview in wired magazine issue 15.12

they will waste a ton of money before they give up. or loose enough until morris is replaced with someone that has a clue.

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ctopher said:

member since 25 Aug 2006 with 134 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Dec 11, 2007 3:01 pm

I would like to thank Guest for the post about the Wired article. A little off topic, but it does show how the mind of one of the media publishers work:

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/15-12/mf_morris?currentPage=all

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tuscmat said:

member since 06 May 2004 with 35 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:21 pm

Good old arrogant NBC and Universal. Did anyone read today that NBC is refunding advertisers for poor ratings? This will be just as suucessful.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:16 pm

It's not that this is going to fail because it's not Apple, it's going to fail because it's a stupid model. Why should I buy a limited POS computer just to hook up computer content to my TV when simply putting in a new video card to an existing fully functional computer will allow me to access all computer content, not just some specific service's content. Why do you think the AppleTV has been met with such, well, apathy. It is pretty hard at this point to call AppleTV more than a flop.

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