Wow there is calling someone out, and then there is calling someone out! Apple today issued a press release for millions of people to see with seemingly one purpose: to inform consumers that NBC is greedy.

As I talked about yesterday, NBC decided to pull the plug on their deal with iTunes over pricing disputes, but today not only did Apple opt to terminate the deal even earlier than expected(it was to be up in December, but Apple decided that it won’t put up ANY of the new fall season for any NBC show due to kick off any day now), they decided to make (very) public the ridiculous terms NBC was demanding – terms that would have raised the price of a show on iTunes from $1.99 to $4.99!

Yesterday, myself and others were critical of Apple for failing to make things work with the network that accounts for 40% of their iTunes video sales – but upon seeing just how ridiculous NBC’s price demands were (if true, and honestly who knows what goes on in those negotiations besides those directly involved) that puts a whole new spin on things.

Make no mistake, Apple will still be hurt by not having NBC content on iTunes, but could they really afford and/or justify passing on a four-fold increase in price to the consumers? Pretty soon all of the other networks would have been demanding similar price restructurings and iTunes’ sales would fall through the floor. Instead, it seems Apple opted to simply say “No” to NBC, cut bait and walk away.

What we have now is an old fashioned show-down. Apple no doubt thinking NBC will soon start to realize that they are in fact losing easy money by not having their content on iTunes – NBC no doubt thinking that iTunes video downloads will not be able to survive without them. C|Net thinks this battle is completely in Apple’s favor, and I would agree were it not for a couple factors I’ve mentioned before:

a) Apple still has no High Definition download options. In my opinion $1.99 is still a bit pricey for below-DVD quality video – especially for a show like NBC’s The Office where most episodes are only 20-some minutes with commercials taken out.

b) It’s no secret that a lot of the big media companies are unhappy with their deals with Apple, and if NBC shows even the slightest bit of success by moving their content to something like Hulu, those little dogs will start yelping.

Apple also has something else to potentially lose in this battle: AppleTV. The eventual “4th leg” of the company (with the iPod, the Mac, and the iPhone being the other 3 legs) is still in its infancy and the transfer of the hit NBC shows from your computer to your television was one of the few things AppleTV had going for it.

Apple needs to get their video strategy for iTunes in line; they need HD downloads, they need an AppleTV that can pull content right to it, content such as movie rentals. There’s a rumor on the street that Apple is close to debuting a wireless version of the iTunes store so consumers can download content right to their iPods, iPhones, and presumably AppleTVs. This would be big. Apple needs to leverage their devices to move videos. I didn’t think I would have any desire to watch a movie on a small-screened iPod, until I watched one on my iPhone and it looks great.

It’s sure going to be interesting to see what Apple announces next Wednesday at their event. More exciting may be what Steve Jobs says/doesn’t say about NBC. We’re finally going to have an Apple event with some drama!