Fox Network – led by News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch – reportedly is the lone hold-out in what one report characterizes as nearly unanimous opposition to Apple’s proposition of selling TV episodes for 99 cents each. Murdoch, who also owns several high-profile newspapers – including the Wall Street Journal – apparently sees CEO Steve Jobs’ iPad as a way to save the floundering print news industry.
Murdoch, although he owns the Fox Network, has ink in his blood. He is pushing for a news network oriented toward the iPad and other tablet devices. “That makes the iPad a keystone in Murdoch’s ambition to launch a digital national news product this year,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
NBC Universal, CBS Corp. and Time Warner have “dug in their heels in opposition” to offering 99-cent television shows via iTunes, according to the Times. (Disney, where Jobs holds the largest block of shares, has already approved the Apple plan.) The executives fear such a plan would only be a repeat of the music industry, which shot itself in the foot when agreeing to sell 99 cent songs on iTunes, thus sounding the death knell for CD sales.
For TV executives, there’s more than chump change involved. Warner Bros., for instance, hauls in $2 million per edisode for reruns of the CBS series “The Big Bang Theory.” NBC is also wary because such a deal could cause some subscribers to drop its parent cable provider Comcast.
