NBC Downloads Get Unboxed

Zap2It.com | September 5, 2007

'Heroes' stars Sendhil Ramamurthy, Masi Oka and Ali Larter

Network migrates from iTunes to Amazon service

NBC shows may be disappearing from iTunes, but fans will still be able to download the likes of "Heroes" and "30 Rock" when the new season starts.

A few days after breaking off its relationship with Apple's iTunes, the network says it will offer downloads of current shows -- including "Heroes," "The Office," "30 Rock" and all three "Law & Order" series -- on Amazon's Unbox service, effective immediately. The price for individual episodes is $1.99, the same as it was on iTunes.

NBC's four new series -- "Bionic Woman," "Chuck," "Journeyman" and "Life" -- will also be available on the Amazon service. The network will offer free downloads of each show's pilot episode starting Monday (Sept. 10). New episodes of all shows will be available the day after they air.

"Fans now have the ultimate convenience for enjoying their favorite shows whenever or wherever they want," says Jean-Briac Perrette, president of digital distribution at NBC Universal. "This further expands our long-standing relationship to bring a robust content offering to the marketplace in a variety of ways that will benefit the consumer and, at the same time, protects our content."

On Unbox, viewers will be able to buy packages of NBC Universal content -- such as full seasons of a show -- at a discount. NBC's desire to do package deals was a big sticking point in its negotiations with iTunes; Apple also said the network wanted to charge more per download.

Unbox does have a feature that iTunes doesn't: After registering, viewers who have TiVo (though not other DVRs) can order shows directly from their TiVo boxes. On the downside, the Unbox video player only works with the Windows operating system.