Meet Peter Stern, Apple’s no-nonsense former cable TV exec leading Apple’s subscription services

“Peter Stern joined Apple at a moment when its relationships with entertainment companies and publishers were at a low point,” Max Willens writes for DigiDay. “TV and entertainment companies were exasperated by Apple’s tough negotiating tactics. And publishers, who had watched Facebook and Google effectively get between them and their audiences, were bracing for the effects of Apple News, which was just a few months old as a broadly available platform.”

“Today, both industries remain wary. But Stern, who has led business operations for Apple’s services division for the past year, managed to do just enough to bring them into the new suite of digital content services Apple unveiled at an event in Cupertino on March 25,” Willens writes. “Stern is in charge of a portfolio that includes Apple TV+, a subscription video service that industry watchers have been expecting for years; Apple News+, a magazine subscription service both amplifies and undercuts magazine content; as well as legacy service businesses such as Apple Books, which got a major infusion of life Monday thanks to Oprah Winfrey, who promised to use Apple’s properties to create ‘the world’s biggest book club.'”

“‘I’d list him as one of my favorite partnership contacts,’ Cheddar CEO and founder Jon Steinberg said. ‘Smart, direct, fast, delivers on what he promises,'” Willens writes. “Said Gautam Mishra, the CEO of Inkl, a premium news subscription service who’s discussed Apple News+ with Stern, ‘He’s not trying to solve the long-term problems facing journalism. His view on this is that Apple has a firm view of how it wants to do things and what’s in the best interest of its customers.'”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Stern is just what the doctor ordered for Apple TV.

SEE ALSO:
Apple has no idea what they’re doing in the TV space, and it’s embarrassing – November 3, 2016
Apple hires former Time Warner Cable executive Peter Stern to work on cloud services, reporting to Eddy Cue – September 15, 2016