Apple, NBC Talks End, NBC Content Leaving iTunes Store

Strange doings here. Apple and NBC have been in contract negotiations to renew Apple's right to sell NBC TV shows at the iTunes Store. The talks ended when Apple refused to raise the price per TV show from $1.99 to the reported $4.99 that NBC wanted. The contract formally ends in the fall, meaning Apple could keep selling shows until then, including some shows from the new TV season, but is taking NBC shows down before that to prevent customers from buying part of a season from iTunes and not being able to get the rest of it.

Apple's position makes sense here. Why would they raise the price of a TV show by 200%? Sure, NBC content sells a lot of TV shows, but that's a big hike. NBC's position is much odder. A move like this seems almost certain to increase online piracy of its shows and decrease the network's revenues. Unless they're moving their content to a new online store, that is. We'll see what happens.