A couple of CNET items this week covering different aspects of the NBC vs iTunes dust-up.

First, Tom Krazit has a juicy blog entry in which he claims that "NBC wanted a cut of iPod revenue." He's reading mostly from a tip in Variety, the industry trade rag. Apparently, NBC really wanted "variable pricing" - a code phrase for 'charging more for popular items'. When they couldn't get that they reasoned that if Apple was going to use cheap downloads as an enticement to sell more iPods then they ought to get a slice of that pie instead. Yeah, right. I'm sure you can get Jobs to talk about that... oh, maybe right after you get the television set manufacturers to give you a cut of their revenue.

The second piece, by Greg Sandoval, takes a kinder look at NBC's hulu.com download site. He does note that it has a silly name, too few shows, and not much else. But Sandoval seems to be willing to grant that there's potential in the site. The big points seem to be "easy navigation" and "high quality" streams. Like, y'know, you'd get on iTunes. It also lacks a back catalog for people wanting to get into ongoing series. Like, y'know, you'd get on iTunes.

hulu is also free. Not even an ad to spoil the viewing experience. So NBC is spending a lot of money, or maybe it's getting money from MSN, AOL et al who are carrying hulu content. And they're not getting any revenue from downloads. Like, y'know, they'd get from iTunes.

Clearly I'm not fit to be a Cartel executive.