NBC Direct Challenges iTunes, Fails

NBC has launched its answer to iTunes. A beta download of NBC Direct is now available via the network's Web site and provides downloadable versions of NBC shows such as "The Office" and "30 Rock".

The release comes after NBC failed to renew its iTunes contract in August. The two sides reportedly could not agree on a pricing scheme for downloads of NBC shows, so the network walked away with its nearly 1,500 hours of programming.

Content is ad-supported, so it's free for consumers--but access is somewhat limited. You can download Direct only on Windows machines equipped with Internet Explorer. Firefox, Mac OSes, and Linux are not supported, though NBC said it is working on having Firefox and Mac support by 2008.

Once you download Direct, you can peruse available shows and click to add them to your download queue. It currently features links to the most recent episodes of "30 Rock," "The Bionic Woman," "Friday Night Lights," and "Life."

I installed Direct on my work computer and tried to download the most recent episodes of "The Office" and "30 Rock." The shows were sent to my queue, and a bar that said "pending" showed up in the My Videos section, but then nothing happened. I tried clearing "30 Rock" and just letting "The Office" work through the download process solo, but after an hour, it was still sitting there with seemingly no progress.





If the program were actually working, I could sign up for subscriptions and have certain shows immediately downloaded to my player as they're posted. Because of licensing issues, however, anything downloaded is going to disappear seven days after NBC posts it online, and there's no burning to DVDs or transferring to portable players at this point.

Given these restrictions, I'm not really sure why someone would opt for NBC Direct instead of just watching streaming versions via NBC's Web site. Those with access to Hulu can also access recent episodes of shows available on NBC Direct.

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