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Tuesday, July 3, 2007

NBBC to Shut Doors


First of all, I like NBC and appreciate its proactiveness in trying to understand this digital space. Second, I'm sorry to hear that this venture is ending but it seemed the writing was on the wall the moment the joint venture with Fox was announced. And third, I don't expect the joint venture to fly either and ultimately, NBC will go back to completely owning its digital distribution model. Why? Because you shouldn't confuse technology with distribution and at the end of the day, you want to own your content as long as you can through the pipeline. Given the deep pockets of many content owners, why share the milk if you own the cow. The NBC brand is too powerful to dilute it with other competing content partnerships; the quality of its content and synergistic abilities means that it can reach the consumer directly and guide them to any site or technology they wish. And while I use NBC in this example, the same applies to CBS, ABC, and FOX. And do consumers watch the channel? NO, they watch the show and it is the actual interest in the show that is the cow to milk.