Universal Not Renewing Annual iTunes Contract
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Major press sources including The New York Times this morning are citing anonymous executives reportedly with direct involvement in negotiations, as saying Universal Music Group has opted not to renew its annual contract with Apple's iTunes. The company will instead opt for a month-by-month arrangement, similar to what it has with smaller MP3 distributors.
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News Corp has no plans to pull its  television shows from iTunes like NBC Universal, but echoed the  media industry's calls for Apple to offer more flexible  pricing, a top executive said in an interview on Tuesday.
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News Corp. (NWSa.N) will not pull its  television shows from Apple Inc&#39;s  iTunes as rival  media group NBC Universal has done over a pricing dispute,  President Peter Chernin said in an interview on Tuesday.
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An update to Apple Inc.'s iTunes music software still hasn't resolved some of the compatibility problems with Microsoft Corp.'s new operating system.
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Apple Computer Inc. has settled a dispute that was keeping the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" off its iTunes music store in Britain.
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(InfoWorld) - Contract negotiations between Apple and NBC Universal regarding video content in iTunes are getting nastier and staying public. In a statement, NBC disputes Apple's characterization of the companies' contract renegotiation and says that its TV programs will be available on iTunes through early December. Late last week,Â Apple said that NBC wanted to increase the price for its video contentÂ so much that iTunes would have to sell individual TV shows for $4.99, instead of $1.99, like the rest of the available programs. Because Apple wasn't willing to agree to that price hike, NBC declined to renew its contract, Apple said. So that it wouldn't have to stop selling programs in December -- the middle of the TV season -- when their contract ends, Apple said it wouldn't offer any NBC shows for the upcoming season. But Apple may have a bigger battle on its hands if it does pull those shows from the iTunes video store. In its statement, NBC said that all returning series including new episodes would be available on iTunes through the end of the contract. NBC also said that rather than asking to double the wholesale price of its programs as Apple contends, it wanted to offer end-users more flexible pricing, including bundling packages of shows for a set price. Apple has mostly stuck to a policy of flat pricing despite pressure from content owners to allow for variable pricing. The exception is in the music store where a selection of songs that come without copy protection cost more. Both companies took jabs at each other in their statements. Apple called NBC's suggested pricing change a "dramatic price increase." NBC responded thus: "It is clear that Apple's retail pricing strategy for its iTunes service is designed to drive sales of Apple devices, at the expense of those who create the content that make these devices worth buying." NBC also sells programs on Amazon.com and very soon plans to start offering its shows and others for free on Hulu.com, a joint venture company with News Corp. So far, sales in the iTunes video store are relatively low. During 2007, the store should generate about $300 million, according to estimates from Forrester Research.
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Gearing up for the holidays, Apple is coming up with new versions of its leading musical products. Its iTunes site with its online charging for downloaded music will become available in 10 new countries, including Canada and Belgium.
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'I want WMA on my iPod', squeals Hogmanay bellyacher Steve Jobs has received a New Year nastygram from a woman who is upset that iPods won't play Microsoft DRM-crippled songs as well as Apple DRM-crippled songs.â¦
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NBC Universal has told Apple Inc. that it would not allow its television content to be sold on iTunes following a dispute over pricing.
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Apple escalated a dispute with NBC Universal over the pricing of television shows by announcing yesterday that it would not sell any of NBC's programs for the fall season on the iTunes online media store.
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While the release of iTunes 7.1 does include a number of compatibility fixes that enable the software to work with most Windows Vista editions, Apple warns that users may still encounter problems. The company is working with Microsoft to resolve outstanding bugs.
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Universal Music Group will not renew its long-term licensing agreement with Apple iTunes, instead moving to an 'at-will' model.
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Universal Music Group, the world&#39;s  largest music company, has declined to sign a long-term deal  with Apple Inc.&#39;s iTunes music store, leaving open the  possibility for exclusive deals with other services, an  industry source said on Sunday.
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On Wednesday, Apple will stop allowing people running version 4.2 to purchase songs from the iTunes Music Store. &quot;As of today, customers will need to use one of the three most recent versions of iTunes -- 4.7
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UK regulator the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has not initiated an investigation into Apple&#39;s iTunes UK pricing. The Consumer&#39;s Association (CA) yesterday filed a complaint with the OFT, alleging that Apple is &quot;ripping-off&quot; UK music buyers.
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British consumer group Consumers&#39; Association has raised its voice over the iTunes&#39; pricing in the United Kingdom. Most notably, its anger is aimed towards the different pricing model Apple uses for its online music store in European countries.
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(InfoWorld) - NBC Universal's pullout from the iTunes online store is more of a loss for Apple and points to fierce resistance among media companies to potential Apple dominance of online video sales, an industry analyst said. On Friday, Apple announced it won't sell NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season after NBC's decision not to renew its iTunes contract. Apple explained that NBC wanted to increase its wholesale price for each episode by so much that Apple would have had to charge $4.99 per episode instead of the current rate of $1.99 for all videos on the site. Apple wouldn't agree to that price change. Shows from ABC, CBS, and News Corp.'s FOX and The CW, plus 50 cable networks, are available on iTunes for the flat rate. The incident reflects how poorly the iTunes video store has done relative to the iTunes music store, said James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research. "It shows how paltry and uninfluential the video side of the iTunes house is," he said. Few major music labels could similarly afford to pull out of iTunes, which dominates the online music industry. iTunes does make up the bulk of the online video resale market, but the market is small. Because the segment is still budding, many of the media companies are resisting Apple's attempt to dominate the video market as it does the online music business, he said. Forrester expects the online video resale business to generate about $300 million this year with iTunes taking in most of that. He estimates that NBC will bring in about $60 million from iTunes video sales this year. The loss of that revenue would be "not that big of a cost if it helps them undermine Apple's monopoly aspirations in the video world," McQuivey said. In the meantime, NBC is building a new platform for watching shows on its own Web site for free with paid advertising. NBC has already sold its online advertising inventory for the upcoming season, which represents revenue it won't have to share with Apple. Revenue from that service is likely to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in a few short years, McQuivey said. The rift with NBC is more damaging to Apple than to NBC, he said, because Apple is pushing several video products, including the Apple TV, the iPhone, and video iPods. While other big content providers are probably cheering NBC's decision, they're unlikely to follow suit, McQuivey said. They may, however, use the incident to continue to push Apple to allow variable pricing. So far, Apple has insisted on a flat rate for all videos. Media companies would prefer to be able to charge more for exclusives or season finales, he said.