NBC Chief: Apple Destroying Video Biz

At the same event where he told Variety that his company only made $15 million off of video sales at iTunes, NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker also apparently urged colleagues to follow his company's lead.

Zucker was attending a breakfast hosted by Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Communications on Sunday when he made the comments. He said now was a crucial time to take control of the situation before Apple "destroys" the video downloads like it did the music download business.

NBCU has stayed mostly quiet since the removal of its content from Apple's service. However, with the launch of Hulu, officials apparently see it prudent to take a more aggressive stance against the company.

Zucker also provided more details surrounding the company's decision to leave iTunes. Whereas Apple was claiming NBC was attempting to raise prices of video downloads to as much as $4.99, he said that was not the case. Instead, NBC Universal was planning to experiment with premium pricing only on a single program that would have been made available for $2.99.

Zucker claims that Jobs himself struck down the idea.