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NBCU Offers TV Shows Through Amazon’s Unbox

Sep 4, 2007  •  Post A Comment

In the wake of a falling out between NBCU and Apple, NBCU will sell episodes of shows such as “The Office,” and “30 Rock” through Amazon.com’s video-on-demand service, Amazon Unbox, the company announced Tuesday.
Episodes are available through Unbox for $1.99, the same price charged through Apple’s iTunes service.
Starting September 10, NBCU series pilots, including “Bionic Woman” and “Chuck,” will be available for free on Amazon Unbox. New episodes will be available on Unbox the day after they air.
NBCU material has been appearing on the Unbox site over the past few weeks, an NBCU spokeswoman said.
However, Tuesday announcement just makes the move to Amazon official.
Previously, NBCU had a film distribution deal with Amazon.com offering movies from Universal Pictures, Rogue Pictures and Focus Features since September 2006.
NBCU announced on Friday it would not renew its contract with Apple, which was set to expire in December.
Apple announced shortly thereafter it would not carry any new fall NBC shows.
The reason for the termination, Apple said, was due to the computer company’s refusal to pay double the wholesale price for NBC TV content.
The doubled wholesale price, Apple said, would have resulted in a consumer price increase from $1.99 to $4.99 for NBCU content.
Amazon sets the retail price, the NBCU spokeswoman said, and it would be up to the Internet retail company if its prices would increase.
Comment from Amazon was not immediately available.
Amazon Unbox will also feature other NBCU content, including Sci Fi’s “Battlestar Galactica,” and USA Network’s “Monk.”

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