NBC Universal Returns To iTunes!

NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO—September 9, 2008—Apple® and NBC Universal today announced the return of NBC programming to the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com) including NBC networks’ top 10 series available immediately for purchase and download in both standard definition and stunning high definition. iTunes customers can choose programming from NBC, USA Network, SCI FI Channel, Bravo, Sleuth and NBC News including favorites such as the award-winning and critically acclaimed “Heroes,” and the Emmy award-winning programs “The Office,” “Battlestar Galactica” and “30 Rock.” NBCU standard definition television shows on the iTunes Store are $1.99 per episode and HD programs are available for just one dollar more at $2.99 per episode and select library content is available for $.99. Additional NBCU programming from Oxygen, Telemundo, Mun2 and NBC Sports will be available on iTunes soon.

“The return of our shows to iTunes is terrific news for everyone who loves television and the ease and convenience of Apple’s iTunes,” said Jeff Zucker, President and CEO, NBC Universal. “And now, by offering consumers a variety of new options, our fans have even more ways to enjoy our content.”

“We are thrilled that NBC is back on iTunes in time for the Fall TV season,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “NBC has some of TV’s most popular shows and now customers can purchase and download them from iTunes in SD or stunning HD.”

iTunes customers can also purchase a Season Pass which allows viewers to buy an entire season of programming at a discounted price. In addition, NBC Universal is offering one free episode from each of their top series, available in either SD or HD, on the iTunes Store for the next two weeks. The premiere episodes of upcoming NBC shows, such as “Knight Rider,” “My Own Worst Enemy” and “Kath & Kim” will be available on iTunes a week before their broadcast premieres later in September and October, with subsequent episodes available the day after broadcast. NBC is also making full episodes of several vintage television shows available on iTunes for $.99, including “The A-Team,” “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,” “Miami Vice,” “Kojak” and the original “Battlestar Galactica.”

The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 8.5 million songs, over 30,000 TV episodes and over 2,500 films including 600 in stunning high definition video. With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as iTunes Movie Rentals, integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, the ability to turn previously purchased tracks into complete albums at a reduced price, and seamless integration with iPod® and iPhone™, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac® and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.

Pricing & Availability
iTunes 8 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download from (www.itunes.com). Purchase and download of songs and videos from the iTunes Store requires a valid credit card from a financial institution in the country of purchase. Video availability varies by country.

NBC Universal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80 percent owned by General Electric and 20 percent owned by Vivendi.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

Press Contacts:
Alyssa Donelan
NBC Universal
alyssa.donelan@nbcuni.com
(201) 735-3568

Tom Neumayr
Apple
tneumayr@apple.com
(408) 974-1972

Apple music files embedded personal information

It has come to light that Apple has embedded personal details into music files bought from its iTunes music store.
Ars Technica, one of the first websites to unveil the hidden information, said: “Everyone should be aware that while DRM-free files may lift a lot of restrictions on our personal usage habits, it doesn’t mean we can just start sharing the love, so to speak. Sharer beware.”
Personal data, including the names and e-mail addresses of purchasers, are inserted into the AAC files that Apple uses to distribute music tracks.The information is also included in tracks sold under Apple’s iTunes Plus system, launched this week, where users pay a premium for music that is free from the controversial digital rights management (DRM) intended to protect against piracy.

The Electronic Freedom Foundation, said it was possible that the data could be used to “watermark” tracks so that the original purchaser could be tracked down if a track appeared on a file-sharing network, although experts said that it would be relatively easy to “spoof” such data.

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A couple of recent posts on Ars Technica and TUAW pointed out that Apple is embedding personal information, such as the name and email address of the purchaser, in all of their AAC files (including the DRM-free ones). We got curious, and wondered whether Apple might also be watermarking the underlying audio data in these tracks.

We've found that there isn't a watermark in the compressed audio signal itself, but there are surprisingly huge differences in the encoded files. Much bigger differences than just different tags, or even different signed/encrypted tags.

We compared two DRM-free copies of the track Daftendirekt by Daft Punk. When decoded to PCM/WAV data, both copies produced an identical audio signal (the MD5sum is e40b006497f9b417760ca5015c3fa937). So there is no audio watermark. But one of the .m4a files is almost 360K larger than the other!

We haven't finished examining these differences yet, and we don't have in-house expertise on MPEG codecs, but some of them have an intriguing amount of structure. There's a region (see around offset 0x11470 in the Daft Punk track for example) where the files contain what look like tables with sequential indices but different data in the table.

We'll post again if we learn more about what's going on here. In the mean time, some pure speculation: it may be that large amounts of iTunes library data are present in each file. It's also possible that Apple has found a way to watermark the AAC encoding itself, such that users would need to either crack the watermark or transcode the audio signal in order to produce a file that does not identify them as the source."

Apple's DRM-free AAC..

Tags: Apple, DRM, AAC, EFF, iTunes

Lionsgate plays iTunes

In a major move favoring iTunes, Lionsgate Entertainment has begun selling 150 theatrical releases through Apple's iTunes Store. Now that the gates are open, iTunes customers will be able to purchase blockbuster Lionsgate films like "Terminator 2," "LA
Story," "Basic Instinct," "The Blair Witch Project" and "Dirty Dancing" and more than 150 titles coming to iTunes this month. The iTunes Store has become the world's most popular online movie store, with a catalog of over 400 titles.

"We're delighted to offer these incredibly popular Lionsgate films on iTunes, and look forward to adding even more films in the future," said Steve Beeks, president of Lionsgate. "iTunes lets users download these wonderful films to watch on their computer, TV or iPod, so movie fans can take their favorite Lionsgate films with them anywhere."
"The iTunes Store is by far the most popular online movie store in the world," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We're thrilled to be adding this phenomenal collection of Lionsgate titles from Hollywood's leading independent studio, including such blockbusters as 'Terminator 2.'"
Lionsgate's renowned collection of movie titles available on iTunes in the coming weeks include legendary action adventure films and thrillers such as "Total Recall" and "Rambo," indie classics such as "Monster's Ball" as well as perennial favorites such as "Chaplin" and "The Boys From Brazil."
The iTunes Store features the world's largest catalog with over four million songs, 350 television shows and, with the addition of Lionsgate, over 400 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over two billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies, making it the world's most popular online music, TV and movie store.

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Tags: iTunes, Lionsgate, movies online