How Apple's Steve Jobs Tried to Buy ITV (The Brand, Not the Company)
July 28 2016 - 3:36PM
Dow Jones News
By Shalini Ramachandran
In late 2006, British broadcast giant ITV's then-CEO John
Cresswell got a cold call from Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs.
"I want to buy ITV," Mr. Jobs said, according to Mr.
Cresswell.
Mr. Cresswell says he was shocked. He told Mr. Jobs that it
would obviously be the company's fiduciary duty to consider any
offer.
Then Mr. Jobs jumped in: "No, let me be clear: I'm interested in
buying the brand, not the company." The brand iTV, he explained,
would fit with Apple's brands like the iPod. Mr. Cresswell told Mr.
Jobs "it's a very strong, powerful brand for us," but the board
would consider an offer.
Mr. Jobs never followed up, Mr. Cresswell says. But the bold and
impulsive move showed him how much Mr. Jobs personally viewed TV as
the next Apple frontier. Apple declined to comment on the
exchange.
When Mr. Jobs gave a sneak peek in 2006 of Apple's set-top box
designed to help consumers enjoy media on their big-screen TVs, he
said the internal code name for the coming device was "iTV," in
keeping with the company's branding convention at the time like
iPod and iMac. When the device was officially launched the next
year, it was called Apple TV, as we know it today.
At the time when Mr. Jobs approached Mr. Cresswell, Apple had
just started selling downloads and rentals of videos on iTunes.
Since then, it's tried numerous other efforts to revolutionize the
television business, as detailed in The Wall Street Journal on
Thursday. The company has outlined visions for a TV experience that
sound like a consumer's dream: everything from full seasons of all
hit shows to easy ad-skipping functionality on newly-aired
programs.
But it has been tough to convince the television industry to
hand over the keys to the kingdom and risk jeopardizing its
still-lucrative business. Some of Apple's hard-charging business
tactics, like its assertive negotiating style, have alienated cable
providers and networks along the way, keeping Apple from
transforming the TV experience.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 28, 2016 15:21 ET (19:21 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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