I saw this linked to on IRC today…

NBC to Offer a Free Video Download Service.

..along with some tech info about the system.

This is NBC’s huge response to the fact that The Kids are watching less TV than ever, and getting their entertainment from the Internet instead. In effect, they’re squaring up against torrented captures of their TV shows, so you’d figure they’ll need to offer something WAY cooler like regularly updated mini-episodes, interviews with actors and writers, back and side-story to the shows, etc. The kind of thing that’ll drive people to their site and their downloads, and fuck the torrents, dude, because NBC’s shit has so much going on.

Yeah. You’d figure that. However, you’d be totally wrong. Instead, the downloads they offer are:

– The basic show, no extra stuff at all. Not even a commentary track by the Key Grip.
– All shows contain Advertisments (!!)
– That you can’t skip over (!!)
– All shows WMA wrapped in MS Windows Media DRM and thus:
– All shows can’t be played on anything except Windows PC
– Including Video-capable ipods
– Also can’t be played on _other_ Windows PC’s, only the one you downloaded them on
– All shows expire after 7 days. (!!)

I, for one, would like to wish NBC well in this hilariously doomed business venture.