Apple pondered Time Warner buyout in 2015 - report
Eddy Cue, Apple's head of internet software and services, raised the idea of his company buying Time Warner in talks with the media giant late last year, a report said on Thursday.
The topic came up during a meeting with Olaf Olafsson, Time Warner's head of corporate strategy, three sources told the Financial Times. The meeting happened at Time Warner's Manhattan headquarters, and was nominally focused on potential partnerships, such as Time Warner channels being featured in an Apple streaming video service.
Talks of a buyout didn't go beyond a preliminary level, and in fact didn't reach Apple CEO Tim Cook or Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, the sources said.
A Time Warner takeover would have given Apple instant access to a wide range of content, since the company owns channels like HBO, TBS, The CW, and Cartoon Network, as well as studios like Warner Bros., Castle Rock, and New Line.
It's not clear why the talks fell through, but sources told the Times that Apple is planning to ramp up spending on original content to "several hundred million dollars a year," and that it still hasn't ruled out buying a media company.
The latter option might be difficult if it doesn't want Time Warner though, since many other media corporations have dual share structures and are controlled by founders and their families. Disney is technically an easier an option in this regard, but likely far too expensive given a $162.52 billion market cap.
Rumors of an Apple video streaming service have all but died, with reports suggesting that content providers have been hesitant to exclude some of their channels from a "skinny" bundle costing less than $30 per month. In January, though, Apple was said to be keeping a close eye on Time Warner going up for sale, possibly with the intent of snatching up individual assets.
The topic came up during a meeting with Olaf Olafsson, Time Warner's head of corporate strategy, three sources told the Financial Times. The meeting happened at Time Warner's Manhattan headquarters, and was nominally focused on potential partnerships, such as Time Warner channels being featured in an Apple streaming video service.
Talks of a buyout didn't go beyond a preliminary level, and in fact didn't reach Apple CEO Tim Cook or Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, the sources said.
A Time Warner takeover would have given Apple instant access to a wide range of content, since the company owns channels like HBO, TBS, The CW, and Cartoon Network, as well as studios like Warner Bros., Castle Rock, and New Line.
It's not clear why the talks fell through, but sources told the Times that Apple is planning to ramp up spending on original content to "several hundred million dollars a year," and that it still hasn't ruled out buying a media company.
The latter option might be difficult if it doesn't want Time Warner though, since many other media corporations have dual share structures and are controlled by founders and their families. Disney is technically an easier an option in this regard, but likely far too expensive given a $162.52 billion market cap.
Rumors of an Apple video streaming service have all but died, with reports suggesting that content providers have been hesitant to exclude some of their channels from a "skinny" bundle costing less than $30 per month. In January, though, Apple was said to be keeping a close eye on Time Warner going up for sale, possibly with the intent of snatching up individual assets.
Comments
TWC is different from Time Warner. Apple wanted Time Warner, not TWC.
Seems unlikely, as most services require cross-platform support to be successful (look at Netflix), and iOS has the most valuable subscriber base.
Lots of other things that Apple can do here vs. buying a studio, in the shorter term:
- Keep the upgrades coming in Apple TV (yearly updates) to keep it fresh & in the minds of consumers. Really be aggressive with the App owners to get that universal search API supported. Make it easier to work with content from your Mac. Give me back the ability to pull photos and music from my Mac in my house, rather than needing to upload everything to the cloud, only to then download it to each Apple TV.
- Use that cash to negotiate better deals for iTunes TV and Movie content. Get more bundled options, and lower prices for older content. Kind of ridiculous the prices to rent and purchase older movies, and TV show seasons. How about the ability to "rent" older TV content - like previous seasons - for much less? Make iTunes the best place to go to get access to the widest possible content. Netflix is great at $10/mo, but it is very hit & miss.
- Push to solve the H.265 codec issue (which despite claims here by many is likely the reason for not having 4K support on Apple TV). Then get all of the iTunes content encoded in this for both lower BW HD and to support 4K for many more homes.
Using TWC's app you actually have to scan past the channels you didn't pay for to get to the channels you did? Ugh aging corporatist F-_-'s just can't think any other way. It's like arguing with an old man who grew up in the 1920's without enough imagination to establish a viable Eco system that doesn't bleed customers dry. But I guess that's the end of all previous generations at this stage. They are eco system destroyers, figuratively and literally. They can't see that gaming for instance is going to be a huge competitor to TV as "web" in general has become. We don't all have to watch TV to be entertained or informed.
While I agree making the ATV more competitive to traditional cable is needed (more live streaming, more news , more channels offering slightly lower prices or custom bundles at a lower price with/ without premium channels, maybe bundle streaming only and pay extra for archived media?) ATV still gives you quite a bit of flexability. Premium anything and almost everything is yours to have on an ATV. Sports, HBO, AMC, A&E etc etc etc
At least I can turn off channels when I don't need them and I don't have to pay minimum 60/ month for a bundle full of junk and a cable box I don't need. After experimenting for almost a year with TWC's Roku cable plan, I'm still happier just paying for content via iTunes and streaming a couple of premium channels when something I want to watch is actually airing. Here's another part of the problem. HBO is really only useful 2 -3 months out of the year. Yeah veep and vinyl are ok (hate Vice) but for the most part I want GOT and Silicon Valley and it's cheaper to buy AND OWN both series than it is to pay for a years subscription (eight months I hardly watch HBO). Stars is a much better option for movies and it's cheaper but again the only show I have enjoyed regularly has been Black Sails. It's all relative when you start thinking about it and we're already paying out too many monthlies in this digital age anyway. Subscriptions for music, news, games, tv etc. breaking it up makes it akin to boiling the frog. Not only does it amount to about the same, but it could cost you even more just in smaller bites.
No no we need standards and standards that make actual sense. Not the wild f-_-_-_ west of "how much can we randomly change and further cinfuse our customers.
Its such a mess right now for everyone. Some networks have large libraries and no streaming, some stream and have small libraries of only the current months airing episodes. Everyone doing their own thing is ridiculous and that feature is regretfully endemic to every platform.