Rumor: Comcast, NBC deal to hinder Apple

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple Corporate, Multimedia, Rumors

Last week, cable giant Comcast purchased a controlling interest in US television network NBC, resulting in a media behemoth to rival Disney. The results remain to be seen (Must See TV ... it's Comcastic!), but it's been suggested by AppleInsider that the switch could affect Apple's rumored TV subscription model.

Last month we heard a rumor that Apple was working on a deal to offer iTunes customers a subscription for content. For $30 per month, Peter Kafka mused at the Wall Street Journal, customers could stream all the content they want.

You'll also remember that NBC and Apple had a spat a while ago that resulted in the network pulling their content from the iTunes Store. They eventually made up, but Wall Street Journal analysts believe that a Comcast-owned NBC would be less likely to participate in an "all-you-can-eat" subscription model.

If Apple charged me X amount of money per month for unlimited access to the iTunes library of television and movies from any approved device, including Macs, iPhones, iPods and, of course, Apple TVs, I'd be a happy customer. Yes, I want to have my music files physically on my hard disk. But if the shows and movies I wanted to watch all lived on a server farm in Cupertino (or North Carolina), that'd be fine with me.

I'd save a lot of disk space. There'd be nothing to sync, or forget to sync, before a vacation. I wouldn't have to cough up three bucks just to watch The Office, and and Apple would maintain its revenue stream. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

TUAWRumor: Comcast, NBC deal to hinder Apple originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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