Apple pitching TV plan to broadcasters
Industry insiders are saying that Apple is currently speaking with a wide range of broadcasters about the content that would be required to support their rumored upcoming TV subscription service.
Apple will need to sell their rumored $30 TV subscription service to two groups: consumers and the producers of entertainment. That latter group, broadcasters and other producers of television entertainment, will need to be on board first in order to lure subscribers into the net. Representatives from Apple are making the rounds of broadcasters, trying to get them on board with the plan to offer unlimited television to subscribers for a $30 monthly subscription fee, according to a story in the Inquirer.
This subscription plan would be a natural for Apple TV, but that market is not nearly large enough to support the likely cost paid for the entertainment content. So instead of tying the subscription service to a single piece of hardware, Apple is tying it to a single piece of software (iTunes) that can then deal with multiple hardware platforms, including Apple TV, the iPhone, the iPod Touch and any computer that can run the extremely popular iTunes software.
Apple has a great deal of experience, and has had significant success, with this business model. It is exactly how the music side of iTunes works, just with a different source, the large music companies such as BMI, Warner, and Sony. This sort of sale is always tough, and relies largely on getting the first big broadcaster to sign on the dotted line, starting the rush to the new idea, in this case Apple’s subscription TV service. Given their success with the music industry, it would be difficult to dismiss Apple’s chances with the tycoons of television. There may yet be a lot of iTunes television in your future. It is even possible that a deal like this one will be enough to launch that other less popular product line, Apple TV, into successful territory.
