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Saturday Nov 04, 2006

Linux, Mac, and Solaris Users need not apply

How lame is this?

NBC Sports is offering an online video feed to tomorrow's New York Marathon for US $4.99. It's limited, however, to Windows users because (from their FAQ).

Regrettably at this time, you cannot watch MediaZone's live events or other entertainment using the Macintosh or Linux operating systems due to lack of Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) support for these operating systems.

Why should a subscriber operating system choice limit his/her ability to view some video content that they're actually willing to pay for? Turned around, why in the world would a provider use a video format that limits the number of desktops they can reach, and subsequently reduces the amount of cash they bring in?


Posted at 07:40PM Nov 04, 2006 by Peter Schow in Sport  |  Comments[5]

Comments:

Good question.

Posted by 82.152.202.156 on November 04, 2006 at 08:13 PM MST #

Fair point about doing a press conference on Second Life, and I was excluded too, but that was delivered through a video game. About the Sun feedroom, what platform cannot view the videos presented there? I just watched a few via my Solaris x86 system.

Posted by Peter on November 04, 2006 at 08:35 PM MST #

The market for Macintosh and Linux hasn't reached a point where content makers can get a decent ROI for they would need to spend to get their junk working on those systems.

Its as simple as that.

Posted by jeremiah johnson on November 04, 2006 at 09:47 PM MST #

Jeremiah, I'm just glad I can use the web (search on Google, watch a video on YouTube, get weather forecasts, and check my email) even though I don't run on a desktop with dominant marketshare numbers. I'm also grateful to the IP protocol for advancing past the vendor-favorite protocols (and adoption rates) of the day and giving everyone worldwide an equal chance of playing ball. Someday live video will work like this.

Posted by Peter on November 04, 2006 at 10:30 PM MST #

What are they worried about? That without DRM, someone would bother to save the live video and then actually give it or sell it to many thousands of people, depriving NBC of revenue? Only a moron would think that could be a real problem for content from live sports events because they lose their relevance after a few days.

Posted by crf on November 05, 2006 at 02:12 PM MST #

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