First NBC decided it was pulling out of iTunes despite that service arguably being solely responsible for the rise of one of its biggest hits 'The Office' - now NBC has decided to pull out of YouTube, the service that arguably brought around the resurgence of its mainstay, Saturday Night Live, thanks to a little viral video called "Lazy Sunday". NBC isn't just on the train of companies that "don't get it" (meaning basically the Internet), they're downright aiming to be the new conductor.

It's fairly obvious to everyone that both of these moves boil down to money (as most things do) - NBC wants a better deal from iTunes, and now they see an opening to launch their own online video site, hulu, where they can keep all of the money generated from it and can stop those pesky kids who share their YouTube videos on their sites. Such move are okay, they rationalize, as long as it's only the consumers they're screwing.

What NBC does not understand is that a) those pesky kids sharing their videos is part of what is keeping their often lackluster content alive (who wants to sit through hours of awful Saturday Nigh Live footage just to find that one gem that pops up every other week?) and b) that people do not want to have to go to 10 different sites to track down content, they want it all on one (i.e. YouTube or iTunes). This is part of the reason we saw so many people illegally downloading Radiohead's new album, despite the fact that you could get it for whatever price you wanted to pay anyways - it was simply easier to stick with what they've been using, BitTorrent.

Word is that this move could be a signal that hulu is finally ready to launch its beta and NBC better hope it's the best video service out there or this time next year they'll be right back on iTunes and YouTube. Look for NBC to make more moves in the coming weeks to grab hold of the "don't get it" train conductor reins - even if they have to pry them from Steve Ballmer's dead, cold hands.

[photo by flickr user MD111]