Apple's 'Hard-Nosed' Negotiating Tactics Leading to Trouble in Television Market

[bpeeps]

It's just a grid of apps. What's superior about that?

Search. Not scrolling through endless menus. Clean, simple.

 

[Kobayagi]

He's a slimy, cocky, arrogant weasel with all the charm of a dirty rag used to wipe up puke from a bar stool.

Sorry for the vitriol... he really, really, really inspires a burning revulsion in me.

Oh man, this description is priceless.

 

[Rogifan]

Um...

 

[jdillings]

Cook better get Cue to change his attitude because Google is rumored to be less than 6 months away from launching YouTube Unplugged

 

[Robert.Walter]

I'm starting to get the same vibe from Cue as Forstall. Heck, I usually tune out during his awkward segments during keynotes. But the Music app has been on the decline since iOS 8.4 and Phil now has been taking over for him with the App Store. iTunes is also in much need of a complete rethink.

Cue looks too much at the TelePrompTer he doesn't practice enough to look authentic. Sometimes it's like he stayed out too late the night before and he's just going thru the motions. (I know that's not the case but he could sure up his presentation game a bit.)

 

[smaffei]

Well, Sling and Sony Vue were able to get it done.

 

[Robert.Walter]

When two sides of same coin face each other, one man's "too aggressive demand position" are another man's "save the status quote position."

 

[DTphonehome]

What better user experience does tvOS bring? I'm currently a DirecTV customer and I have no issues with their user interface. I think Apple has a long way to go before it can claim tvOS is a superior user experience.

I haven't used DirecTV, so I can't speak to that experience. But I have used Verizon FiOS and Comcast recently, and they are awful. I use my Apple TV whenever possible.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Well, Sling and Sony Vue were able to get it done.

Trick is like selling a house or car, you can do it quick and sell for less. You want more, be prepared to wait. Trick is in finding balance.

In the case here, the first deal sets the pattern, better to wait and do it right cause you will live with it for a long time.

 

[kwikdeth]

No... When Jobs brought music labels on board to iTunes the music industry was in a shambles, and the labels would have jumped at anything. They needed Apple. Afterwards, many music execs felt that they were played, ceeding too much to Apple.

Eh I don't quite remember it that way. Yes the execs felt they gave away too much after it turned out to be a success... At the time Jobs made his pitch though the labels were absolutely still clueless about digital distribution. It was an experiment for them and they let Jobs have his crazy terms as they figured it wasnt going to hurt them to try. They didn't get resentful until it became a wild success.

 

[centauratlas]

Exactly. The Steve Jobs reality distortion field didn't transfer to Cook and Cue

Apparently Cook and Cue don't share the same "je ne sais quoi" as Steve Jobs. (But, we all knew that already.)

 

[DoctorDoctor]

So Apple basically go into the talks and state WE WANT THIS AND WE DO NOT ACCEPT ANYTHING ELSE AND YOU WILL DO IT FOR THIS PRICE...

And everyone's surprised they are firmly shown the middle finger and where to go??
I'm surprised all they get told is where to go, it seems to have certainly damaged its reputation amongst content providers. As for ad skipping fetures and content for $30 a month...... What cloud cookoo land is Apple living in again???? It's certainly not reality that's for sure.
Then again it sells a watch costing several thousands of dollars with a mechanism made for $3 of a Chinese mass production line....

Wow. Why do you hang out here ? I just checked your post history and it seems you really have an issue with Apple. All of your post are very negative with a touch of hate towards Apple. You know there is a place for haters/Google fanboys and it is called Google+. You will fit right in with those idiots over there.

 

[johncarync]

According to my brief research...

• Apple has over $200 billion in cash
• ESPN (the most valuable network) is worth $40 billion
• CBS is worth $31 billion
• NBC/Universal is worth $12 billion
• ABC is worth $4 billion

Hey, Apple, just buy them all, make them sign a contract, make AppleTV great, and then you can keep the networks or sell them.

 

[agsystems]

What's Apple's leverage?

Afaik, cable companies in the US couldn't care less about Average Joe paying LESS for their content, let alone à la carte.

Oh and let me guess, it had to be US-first, hm?
No way could you try to make a new Apple TV and services for it that wouldn't launch first in the US.

Point I'm trying to make is this: in other countries, cable companies don't have such a tight grip and you would have had a much better position for negotiating and asking for favors.

This way it's pretty much cable co's way or bust.

Mind you, I'm saying this being totally clueless about most matters regarding this, but I do know that the stranglehold cable has in the US is unmatched afaik.

Glassed Silver:mac

Thank you for your insight...I've been saying this forever....any proposal that involves content owners making less money will go nowhere. There's got to be a deal somewhere that will work for everyone.

 

[MrX8503]

Apple changed the way we buy music and phones. I'm hoping they can do the same for TV, but I don't see Apple offering a compelling reason for cable providers and networks to sign a deal.

That's the reason why negotiation has stalled. What is it about the Apple TV that benefits cable providers and networks? If there isn't one, it doesn't matter how hard-nosed Eddy Cue is, the negotiation will fall through.

 

[Razeus]

Cue can't ever seem to get anything done and when he does manage to get a service going, it's jacked up.

 

[rjohnstone]

According to my brief research...

• Apple has over $200 billion in cash
• ESPN (the most valuable network) is worth $40 billion
• CBS is worth $31 billion
• NBC/Universal is worth $12 billion
• ABC is worth $4 billion

Hey, Apple, just buy them all, make them sign a contract, make AppleTV great, and then you can keep the networks or sell them.

Most of those have parent companies and of course the DOJ, FTC, and FCC would never allow one single company to own them all.

 

[BuffaloTF]

Time to poach whomever negotiated Sony's deals... 30 bucks for what they offer is a grand divorce from cable. I think they're too busy listening to the people that seem to think the price of Netflix should be enough for everything they want... people that aren't standing in reality.

 

[psylence2k]

I remember the rumors over the years constantly describing what Apple wanted as a TV service and Sling seems very identical to what those rumors use to say. I wonder why they wouldn't be able to do something similar to that ?

 

[npmacuser5]

Bottom line, cable execs care about the bottom line. They aren't going to risk slaying the golden goose by handing control to Apple. Doesn't matter if Apple can provide a better user experience. Until their profits are so diminished by piracy that it threatens their business model (which is still a fair ways off), cable companies are going to make token efforts toward user convenience.

Sum it in one word why cable TV will be around for a very longtime, "Sports". Sports fan will pay any amount to watch, thus no loss in revenue will happen, at least for the now.

 

[Apple Corps]

Exactly. I work in the entertainment content industry here in Los Angeles and I can "reassure" you Eddy Cue haters that if you for one second you feel that it's all him and only him -- you got it wayyyy wrong.

Content is king. Period. The content players are not going to bend from pressure until the pressure gets so great they cave. it's not there yet. Cue is right on. It will get there. Sooner rather than later.

Some of you forget the bloodsport the content companies engaged in fighting between the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats. Some of you may not know that Apple was in the Blu Ray consortium but never adapted it's devices to play them -- ever.

While all of you "Cue Haters" don't like his style apparently you missed the Steve Jobs memo that took out disc drives from their devices right at the time Blu Ray and content companies were hoping to ride that gravy train longer. Do ANY of you think that move went over well?

Personally --- If I were Apple --- I'd be using Cue to "buy" their own content deals with everything from Football, basketball, soccer, etc -- start buying up "rights", start acquiring exclusive content and watch how fast negotiations change. Yes, i know easier said than done because they risk getting all their access to content cut off -- not likely -- but clearly the audience out there could care less where the content comes from that they like -- proven by success of Netflix and Amazon and HBO...

What role do you play in the entertainment content industry? I am trying to get to how well wired you are in the strategic positioning of the product in that arena.

Not sure that many are saying it is all on Cue - there are clearly industry dynamics that are quite tough. However, to many of us, Cue has a poor track record of accomplishment.

 

[69650]

Apple Television will never happen with Cue in charge because he's an arrogant SOB.

 

[TsMkLg068426]

Are they sure it is just Apple or the TV Networks just look at all the other streaming services such as Netflix which use to have a big streaming library and every first day of the month we use to get over 250 new or recently added movies or TV Shows. Now all they do is remove a bunch of streaming and only 20 movies/TV Shows. There is a huge library of movies/TV Show sadly we will never have a nice library of streaming to enjoy it.

 

[gweedo]

There are two sides of the table. Apple may be "hard-nosed" but networks are "reluctant" to change and evolve. Which of course worked real well for newspapers and magazines to dig heels in.

I agree and I don't think anything this article says Apple is asking for is out of line. Those are all features we all should want from a "new" TV/media experience. Anything less than these basic items really wouldn't be worth it. The resulting Apple/Cable combo would just be recreating the terrible cable experience we have today albeit with a different piece of hardware. Not much point in that. Motorola Rokr phone vs. iPhone

The cable companies asking about the interface is just comical... what they really want to know is if there is room to put ads on the screen everywhere.

 

[Swift]

Bottom line, cable execs care about the bottom line. They aren't going to risk slaying the golden goose by handing control to Apple. Doesn't matter if Apple can provide a better user experience. Until their profits are so diminished by piracy that it threatens their business model (which is still a fair ways off), cable companies are going to make token efforts toward user convenience.

Which is why they're going down. The more they act like a piggish and irrelevant monopoly, the quicker they will disappear. Gigabit ethernet for everyone makes cable agglomerators irrelevant. What's relevant, not only Apple but all the rest of the little boxes now available will make the cable operators irrelevant and expensive. At the beginning, cable was a great expansion of the programming available. Now it is an over-expensive and bloated service that forces too much programming down people's throats. The future is in a) a new broadcast TV on the local level, given by digital programming, soon to get much better with ATSC 3.0 -- 4K broadcast and interactive elements, and b) streaming, a la carte connections with a huge number of sources not limited to the usual crooks stuffing reality TV down our throats. If you follow baseball, compare TVs coverage with MLB.tv. There is zero comparison,