A number of media outlets, lead by the New York Times, reported that the NBC unit of General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) would not renew its video content deal with Apple iTunes. NBC wanted Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to charge more for its content.

But, the news reports were not enough for Apple. It decided to make the parting unpleasant and announced that the TV network was being greedy. Charging more for programming downloads just wasn't acceptable. NBC's programming is about 30% of the video inventory at iTunes.

The question is whether this is a real blow to Apple. For the time being, the answer is no. Video sales for the iPod are modest. But, Apple is likely to launch new versions of the iPod that have better video capacity and upgraded screens.

Will video become an important part of multimedia player downloads? Content companies can try to take their business elsewhere. Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) is opening a multimedia store for cell phones. It sells almost 400 million handsets a year. Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) will have one.

Apple believes that content owners cannot bypass iTunes because it has too large a share of the market for digital content.

They are probably right and NBC will probably be back.

HarperCollins is a legendary book publisher with authors like Mark Twain, H. G. Wells, Agatha Christie, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Dickens, and even John F. Kennedy. The company was founded in 1817 by the brothers James and John Harper.

Since the late 1980s, the company has been a part of News Corp. (NYSE:NWS), and the division pumps out about $1 billion in revenues. However, the fact remains: the traditional book publishing business is ailing.

Well, this week, HarperCollins announced an investment in LibreDigital, which is a division of NewsStand (the amount was not disclosed). Basically, this will allow HarperCollins to digitize its content. What's more, the company will market these services to other publishers and individuals. In the Age of Blogging, this is definitely a smart move.

The services include: typesetting, digital warehousing, Net distribution, and online marketing. In the press release, HarperCollins indicated that " all publishers must develop this capability." That is certainly true.

Actually, HarperCollins has been fairly aggressive with digital technologies. For example, it has digitized more than 10,000 books over the years.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.