Variety: NBC Wanted Cut of iPod Revenue

Variety delivers a bombshell: Remember the whole Apple iTunes-NBC fiasco, where NBC pulled out of selling their television shows on iTunes, and Apple summarily dumped them from the iTunes Store immediately instead of waiting until the end of the year?

It turns out that in addition to variable episode pricing, or perhaps in lieu of it, NBC CEO Jeff Zucker wanted a cut of Apple’s hardware sales.

“Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content, and made a lot of money,” Zucker said in the article. “They did not want to share in what they were making off the hardware or allow us to adjust pricing.”

Let’s stop and think about this for a minute. When Samsung sells a television, do they give a cut to NBC? What about Casio, when it sells a little 3-inch LCD television for $100? Zucker’s request took some serious you-know-what, is all we’re saying.

Zucker says Apple deal rotten [Variety]

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