NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker has some sour grapes over Apple"s continued success with iTunes and wants to make sure the whole world knows it. According to Zucker, Apple has "destroyed the music business" and must be stopped before it does the same to video. He revealed that the iPod maker rebuffed NBC"s proposals to raise prices on some of its content, and downright refused to give the company a cut of Apple"s iPod sales. All of those things combined led to a bitter NBC, which eventually decided to take its ball and go home.
Apple currently prices all TV shows consistently at $1.99 per episode—a price that many thought was outrageous for what you got when video made its debut on the iTunes Store, but has since proven to be wildly successful. That wasn"t enough for Zucker, though; he explained that NBC "wanted to take one show, it didn"t matter which one it was, and experiment and sell it for $2.99," according to Variety"s recounting of the conversation held yesterday at Syracuse University"s Newhouse School of Public Communications. "We made that offer for months and they said no."