After a pricing pettifoggery with Apple led NBC to pull its video recording subject matter from iTunes , the spreader has struck a lot with Microsoft ’s Zune online store .
On Tuesday , as part of an announcement about new Zune features , Microsoft planned to say that it will start selling television program at the Zune store for viewing on its portable music player . NBC is among the broadcasters provide telecasting for the service .
The videos , which also come from Comedy Central , MTV , Nickelodeon , Turner Broadcasting and VH1 , will be $ 1.99 each . Users will be able to choose from 800 installment .
The price is significant because it is the same that Apple charge for most TV programs in iTunes . However , at the fourth dimension of the dispute between Apple and NBC last twelvemonth , Apple say NBC wanted to increase its wholesale terms of each sequence by so much that Apple would have to charge $ 4.99 per instalment . Apple said it would n’t accord to that price variety .
At the time , NBC disputed Apple ’s version of events and enounce that NBC want to offer customers a variety of pricing options , including big bucks of programs for located fee . When NBC ’s contract with Apple expired in December last yr , it was not renew .
Microsoft ’s flexibility over price was one rationality NBC wanted to deal its message through the Zune store , according to Microsoft . “ We have act upon tight with them around flexibility and protective cover of IP , ” aver Julio Estrada , universal manager for Zune Social . “ Zune will operate the Leontyne Price of the episodes , but we ’re overt to understanding which episodes can be priced lower and how we may put in bounty contentedness which may be priced high than $ 1.99 , ” he aver .
Estrada also hinted at possible next services to be offered through the Xbox . For now , he would only say that when customers buy any of the TV programs , they ’ll be capable to watch them on their television through their Xbox , link up to the Zune .
NBC did not respond to a petition for comment late Monday . Microsoft ’s announcement admit a quote from JB Perrette , prexy of NBC Universal Digital Distribution , say the great deal with Zune offers NBC flexible promotional material and pricing options .
ITunes currently offer computer software that admit a whole season of a television set show for a discount rate .
In addition to the new video offerings , Microsoft is updating the Zune software on the gimmick , the software for the PC and the on-line store . The updates orbit around an effort to make it easier for people to discover raw euphony and an attempt to offer new social - networking opportunities , Estrada say .
Users of the Zune Card will be able-bodied to share and update cards on their Zune machine . A Zune Card is an electronic shot that lists favorite tracks and latterly played songs . While users could previously regard and partake Zune Cards on the web , they ’ll now be able to drop back and drop friends ’ cards onto their Zune and encounter updates of song that their friends are listening to each time they sync their Zune .
The software update includes many other minor changes , such as one that let users browse their video collections by genre and an editing change that rent users redact track and album information more easily .
Zune users will be notified that there is a new version of the software available for download .
Microsoft launched the Zune in belated 2006 , joining a market that had been picking up steam since Apple set up the iPod in 2001 . Microsoft has sold more than 2 million Zunes . That liken to more than 10 million iPods sell in the first three months of this year .
