NBC's boss Jeff Zucker whined Monday that iTunes ruined the market for online videos by driving down prices and, consequently, turning media revenues "from dollars into pennies."

Zucker said to New Yorker that NBC U wanted to experiment higher pricing for hit shows such as "Heroes" by raising the price from Apple's standard $1.99 to $2.99.

"We wanted to take one show, it didn't matter which one it was, and experiment and sell it for $2.99," he said. "We made that offer for months and they said no." Then, NBC U sought a cut of Apple's hardware sales which Zucker alleges were significantly boosted by their content. "Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content, and made a lot of money," Zucker said. "They did not want to share in what they were making off the hardware or allow us to adjust pricing."

The company released in September a statement announcing NBC Direct, an ad-supported free service that allows users to download full-length episodes of NBC shows straight to their desktops starting in October. The shows are playable, at first, only on Windows PCs as the company has yet to develop solutions for Macs and iPods. Users are able to download the shows and watch them the week after they air, after which their license will expire. The actual distribution of the high-resolution programs may be made available via a closed peer-to-peer network of some sort.

NBC explained that is only the first step as the company intends to provide further business models in 2008, including download-to-own, rental and subscription.

Just days after its September dispute over TV shows' pricing on iTunes, NBC Universal has left the iTunes store for good and announced a new partnership with Amazon Unbox, none other than iTunes’ biggest rival. Their shows are thus also available on Unbox -- for a price, but ad-free.

Just yesterday, NBC Universal and News Corporation have launched their joint project, the Hulu online video service. Hulu is now available in private beta phase at www.hulu.com. The two rivals in 20th century media joined forces to compete with YouTube, Google's leading online video service. All the shows available on Hulu are viewable inside a Web browser and festooned with advertisements.