NBC Wanted Cut of iPod Sales, Claims Low Revenue

Now that NBC and iTunes seem to have parted ways, NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker is telling tales of how we got here. Not that these overly candid comments have anything to do with NBC launching its iTunes competitor Hulu yesterday. Nope, nope.

Zucker had lots of interesting things to say, including:

• NBC wanted Apple to share a cut of its sales from hardware like the iPod (no wonder Apple didn't go for it. Hard to imagine Steve Jobs wanting to do that)
• NBC didn't want to raise TV show prices to $4.99 as Apple said, they wanted to experiment raising the price on one show from $1.99 to $2.99
• NBC made "only" US$15 million from TV show sales at the iTunes Store.

As a nice parting note, Zucker said that "Apple has destroyed the music business -- in terms of pricing -- and if we don’t take control, they’ll do the same thing on the video side." That'll make rapprochement easier later.

No comments from Apple yet.