Warner Bros.' Barry Meyer not ready to bite Apple's TV rental plan

Walt Disney Co. and News Corp. may be drinking Apple's Kool-Aid, but Warner Bros. Entertainment Chairman Barry Meyer isn't ready to chug it down just yet.

Speaking at the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch 2010 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference Thursday in Newport Beach, the top executive at Warner Bros. expressed doubts about Apple's deal with Disney and News Corp. to rent television shows via iTunes for 99 cents an episode.

"We just don't think the value proposition is a good one for us," Meyer told analyst Jessica Reif  in an interview at the conference. He said in his view he'd rather license whole seasons of shows rather than "open up a rental business in television at a low price."

Meyer is not alone in his concerns about renting shows on iTunes. Both CBS and NBC are also, for now anyway, steering clear of Apple's rental plans.

Like many producers, Meyer's worries are that rentals -- or at least rentals at the price Apple is offering -- could undermine the potential long-term value of Warner Bros. shows. Of course, DVD sales of shows have proven to be a new revenue stream that has not necessarily harmed the market value of reruns for shows, as evidenced by Warner Bros. own recent sale of "Big Bang Theory" to TBS at a price tag of about $2 million per episode.

Meyer also hinted that Warner Bros. plans to step up its plans to exploit its DC Comics unit, particularly in the consumer products arena. "We've got a company that has a huge portfolio of brands ... I think we can grow our consumer products business pretty substantially, especially with DC comics," he said.

As for the departure of one of Warner Bros. biggest franchises -- "Harry Potter" -- Meyer said by the time the series is done, it will probably have generated over $7.5 billion in worldwide box office. The last movie comes out next summer and Meyer cracked, "get ready for the greatest gift box-set of all time."

-- Joe Flint

Photo: Barry Meyer. Credit: Thierry Monasse AFP/Getty Images

 

Comments

[theo]

Well, Mr. Meyer, this is why torrents will continue then. People will get the media they want, one way or another.

[Eric]

"open up a rental business in television at a low price." Funny how most people actually thinks 99c per episodes is expensive for something you can PvR for free and FF the ads. What about netflix, hulu, amazon and Gootle TV?

Imo studios need to wake up. 99 cents rental is actually a good thing because there are people paying for the show.

[keithh]

7.5 billion, too bad they couldn't have made 12, maybe they would have broken even.

[Artie]

This guy is clueless. How valuable is a TV show? It's worth A LOT less to the average consumer than a movie. If you can get people to pay $0.99 for a TV show, and you get even half of that, take it. It's $0.99 more than I would pay. TV shows are supposed to be free.

[stonee]

Could you convert a rented movie to other devices not apple tv not apple supported as many youtube users do with the help of ifunia youtube video converter? Would you purchase a video converter or dvd ripper with the 99-Cent TV Rental Service?

[AdamC]

It is amazing for these people to think making .99¢ rental for something that is free is a bad deal....no wonder corporate America is eaten alive by some cheap .99¢ manufacturers in the East.

Sad..

[Brian]

If he thinks people will pay more than a buck for a TV show, just because he charges advertisers even more than that for a pair of eyeballs, then he is seriously mistaken.

Apple SAVED the music business from the likes of Napster. The record labels make MORE from iTunes than they do for the archaic CD printing and distribution, but they HATE iTunes because iTunes will eventually make them almost irrelevant--they become basically talent scouts eventually. Of course, that was the service they always provided, basically, but they kinda liked taking 90% of the artists profits.

I suspect the studios feel about the same way. This would be a big win for independent studios, I hope they can see that for themselves. Imagine getting a hit show and not having to slep it to a network exec first.