My husband just sent me an email with this article attached.

NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker has said that along with flexible pricing experimentation, the company was seeking a cut of Apple’s hardware sales during iTunes contract negotiations. Speaking at an event organized by Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, Zucker said “We wanted to take one show, it didn’t matter which one it was, and experiment and sell it for $2.99. We made that offer for months and they said no,” Zucker said. “Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content and made a lot of money,” he added. “They did not want to share in what they were making off the hardware or allow us to adjust pricing.” NBC Universal, in partnership with Fox, today launched a public beta of the Hulu.com video service. Responding to a separate question, Zucker said that “Apple has destroyed the music business. If we don’t take control on the video side, they’ll do the same” to video.

Well, okaaaay then. How many of you dropped $150-$500 to buy an iPod just so you could watch “The Office” via iTunes? The sheer arrogance of Zucker’s position flat out amazes me.

As far as Apple killing the music business, I spent about ten dollars a year on new music for the 5 years preceeding iTunes. I’m strictly a per-song girl, and after the Music Business got out of the per-song model by not selling the equivalent of 45s I just started buying used CDs to get the songs I wanted. ($5.99 at Great Escape is less than $16.99 at Tower.) Once iTunes came and brought back the per-song model I grew up with, I’ve spent about $400/year on music. How that’s killing the music business I have no idea.

I think Zucker may need to pull his head out of his antiquated distribution model.

I wonder what Terry Heaton has to say about this.