AAPL Apple Inc

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)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024