NBC iPhone/Touch streaming

Owners of an iPhone or iPod touch can now stream episodes of select NBC TV shows, observers note. By visiting nbc.com, users can gain access to complete episodes of 30 Rock or The Office, presented free of advertising and in an unprotected QuickTime format. The video quality is extremely rough, however, and at least one publication has reported iPhone lockups.

Any form of NBC support for Apple products is unusual, as the two companies had a public falling-out in 2007, which resulted in the removal of NBC videos from iTunes. The studio also went on to form a rival collaboration with Fox, Hulu.com, which operates in Flash and as such does not support iPhones or iPod touches. The company's main complaint has been Apple's inflexibility in pricing schemes; the impasse may be nearing an end though, as the UK iTunes Store recently began selling NBC videos at varying price scales. Apple has not commented publicly on the matter in recent weeks.

by MacNN Staff