DISNEY - WILL ABC STAND FOR APPLE BROADCASTING COMPANY?

As a result of the Disney-Pixar merger, Pixar chief Steve Jobs, who will become the merged company's largest individual stockholder, is likely to influence future plans of Disney's cable and TV companies and bring them into the embrace of his Apple Computer company, several analysts have observed. Before the merger was announced, they noted, ABC and the Disney Channel had already become the first broadcasters to make programs available for downloading from Apple's iTunes Music Store. (ESPN content was added later.) "Apple's already reaped a lot of benefits," Michael Gartenberg, VP and research director at JupiterResearch, told the online edition of MacWorld magazine. "Disney creates content, while Apple creates tools that make content," he added. "We'll surely see more ways for them to work together in the future."

27/01/2006