If I were Apple I would be very nervous, If I were NBC I would be even more nervous. The game they are playing here is one of chess. But what NBC has forgotten is that the iPod is King in portable media devices.
This means that iTunes on the desktop is worth a significant amount. Very few applications on my desktop are loaded 24/7 iTunes is one of them.
Apple at the same time has to be worried that this move by NBC will impact the sales of their media players. People want content and when their is no content for their devices they are going to look for it someplace else.
But at this point all Apple and NBC have done is hurt consumers. NBC’s own portal is going to be a failure before it ever gets off the ground because people are sick and tired of having to deal with all the restrictions the big media players put on content utilization.
I am sure their will be more media companies pulling the plug from iTunes because it is very obvious that they do not like their content being served up by a middle man. NYT