NBC has suddenly decided to side with Microsoft and publish its television shows on Microsoft’s video store of late for use on their Zune media player. This is after NBC and Apple parted ways last August after months of tedious negotiations. Though Apple had quoted differences in pricing as the main reason for the split, NBC later made a statement that the split was also due to Apple’s reluctance to address the piracy issues that NBC had been extremely concerned about.

Earlier, J.B. Perrette, the president of digital distribution at NBC clarified with an elaborate statement, what exactly where the steps taken by Microsoft and supported by NBC to curb the problem of piracy on Microsoft’s Zune -

“Mr. Perrette said the plan is to create filtering technology that allows for playback of legitimately purchased content versus non-legitimately purchased content. He said this would be similar to systems being tested by Microsoft, Google and others that are meant to block pirated clips from video sharing sites. NBC is also working with Internet service providers like AT&T to put similar filters right into the network.”

All those files downloaded illegally from file sharing networks would not be allowed to be played on Zune and would be blocked. The system reportedly is being developed.

However, yesterday, Microsoft issued a statement negating NBC’s claims. “Microsoft has no plans or commitments to implement content filtering features in the Zune family of devices as part of our content distribution deal with NBC,” the software maker remarked.