“While Apple harbors big TV ambitions, it’s having a tough time getting media companies to play along,” Claire Atkinson reports for NY Post. “Apple is pushing ahead with plans to launch a streaming TV service by Christmas — despite making little headway in its negotiations with content providers, The Post has learned.”
“For months, Apple’s point man, Eddie Cue, has been leading talks with content providers, which have largely balked at the tech giant’s efforts to exert control over all aspects of the video service, including pricing, sources said,” Atkinson reports. “Apple’s negotiating stance can be summed up as ‘we decide the price, we decide what content,’ according to one source familiar with the talks.”
“Apple is pitching the idea of offering channels as apps for its devices, including its Apple TV set-top box. It’s unclear whether it would group the apps together and charge a fee — similar to a cable-TV subscription — or offer the channels on an a la carte basis,” Atkinson reports. “Apple hasn’t given up, however, and is said to be pursuing deals with telecom companies such as Verizon and AT&T. It hopes to get traction with a single player in hopes of pulling the rest of them along. While Apple is also rumored to be working on its own actual TV set, sources believe its first priority is to bring a TV service to the market.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
“Content producers should get to work then on producing their own apps… We’ll make a folder of them on our iOS devices and it’ll look and act just like the channel lineup in the cable companies’ iPad apps.” – MacDailyNews Take, April 11, 2011
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]