Correction: You ‘Had’ a Good Relationship With Apple Until You Made That Crack About iTunes Pricing
by John Paczkowski
Posted on September 11, 2007 at 3:33 PM PT
Looks like NBC Universal is the lone protester in its hastily organized iTunes walkout. News Corp.–owner of the Fox movie and TV studios (as well as this site)–will continue to sell shows through Apple’s digital-media storefront.
In an interview with Reuters, News Corp. COO Peter Chernin said that, contrary to speculation from industry observers, News Corp. has no plans to follow NBC’s lead and pull its TV shows from iTunes. “Right now we have a perfectly good relationship with Apple,” said Chernin. He did seem to agree with NBC on one issue though: network control over the pricing of programming. “… We’re the ones who should determine what the fair price for our product is, not Apple.”
Ah. So by saying News Corp. has a good relationship with Apple “right now,” did Chernin, who was interviewed this year by BoomTown’s Kara Swisher at the D5 conference, mean to imply that it might not have that sort of relationship in the future? Because good relationships with Apple don’t seem all that enduring these days, especially where disputes over iTunes pricing are concerned.
