Apple has a major fight on its hands with the big media companies over its new 99-cents TV show rental pricing unveiled this week along with a slew of new iPods and musics features on iTunes. (You can watch Steve Jobs’ press conference here.)
Although Disney, Fox and ABC are on board, the other TV networks – NBC, CBS and Viacom – have balked at the plan because Apple gets too big of a cut of the deal, about 30 of the 99-cents.
The networks want more money and have argued for higher prices per rental. Apple thinks the cheaper the price, the more consumers will go along. I agree with Apple here.
It’s the same thing in the newspaper, book and music industries. They have resisted lowert prices, thanks to online news, eBooks and music downloads, content costs have dramatically dropped in recent years.
Guess what? That’s reality. I’m betting the network holdouts will be forced kicking and streaming to go along as they watch consumers gobble up their competitor’s shows.
For more on this and other tech news today, check out my daily Audioboo report:
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