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Unnamed Media Exec: Apple's Not So Hard to Work With

Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 9:45 PM - by

Apple's consistent record of being a difficult partner to work with is undeserved, according to an anonymous media company executive quoted by Reuters. In a story looking at Apple's iTunes pricing policies, this exec told Reuters, "The conversations I've had with them over the last quarter are markedly different than they were a year or two ago," and that, "Apple is much more flexible than people presume."

At the heart of the story is whether or not multi-tier pricing at iTunes for TV shows being offered by HBO signals a major policy change for Apple or just an exception for a single media company (HBO) with premium-quality programming.

NBC left iTunes after Apple reportedly refused to let the TV network charge up to $4.99 for some shows, having variable pricing based on popularity on others, and forced bundling deals. That was more than six months ago, yet Apple announced HBO programming this month on iTunes at the standard $1.99 per episode rate alongside three programs (The Sopranos, Deadwood, and Rome) priced at $2.99 per episode.

This subject will be closely watched, at least by the media companies -- and possibly by music labels, as well -- as they all try and figure out how to monetize this newfangled Internet thing as a content delivery vehicle.

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Fri May 30, 2008 3:56 am

Apple was never hard to work with, they demanded our way or noway. And that gave us iTMS.

Its the media business that is hard to work with because they have stupid demands that screws the customer (multi-tier DRM, multi-tier pricing), and they are unable to cooperate to a level where they actually can sell their products (gettingTV and movies to europe).

Sadly the mediabusines won over us as customers. But there is no reason to be smug and gloat about it.

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