NBC Direct launch a dud

NBC copped a panning over the weekend when it launched its NBC Direct site for downloads of programs from the network. The tech press mauled  NBC for  releasing a proprietary client which only worked in Windows. Firefox and Apple users may still not be a majority but it is a long time since any serious web team would dare release a product which only worked for IE Windows users.  Mobile users also were forgotten.

Nor does it do your brand any good to release only for U.S. users --at last count, there were about 1.2 billion global internet users. Of these, approximately 20 percent live in North America. Also upsetting the commentators was the 48-hour restriction on the downloads and that they only were available for seven days after NBC aired the program. Unfortunately for NBC the New York Times correspondent could not get any thing to work other than the ads.

My criticism, for what its worth, is the new video site looks like something the Internal Revenue Service would have bee proud of in 1999. Text, text, text everywhere. Hard to read orange type faces and an information architecture that will win awards NBC will not want to remember. The internet may be over a decade old, but the whole exercise reminds of how far some traditional media cultures have to go before they get the web!

For More:
- NBC Provides Downloadable Shows, Sheer Frustration. Wired Report
- NBC Direct Beta Is Not Quite Ready for Prime-Time NYT Report