Tuesday ’s news that Disney plans on adding more content from its mixed broadcast and cable’s length operation to the iTunes Music Store has got me imagine : who ’s next ? sure enough , Disney andNBCaren’t the only media conglomerates to seethe valuein throw their lot with Apple ’s popular on-line music feat . How long before other broadcast and cable networks are ink iTunes deals of their own ?
More than loose speculation causes me to set the question . Macworld Expo kicks off next week in San Francisco , and a Steve Jobs keynote just is n’t a Steve Jobs keynote without the requisite chief operating officer cameos in which titans of industry substitution awkward handshakes with the Apple CEO as they attempt to bask in his glow . So who from the world of television might be waiting in the wing at Moscone Center next week?Rupert Murdoch?Les Moonves ? One of the dozens of thespian currently employed on the 13 versions ofCSIcurrently being broadcast ?
If I have any say in the matter — and no , I ’m not quite cozen enough to cogitate that Steve Jobs should confer me before take in any public say-so — I trust that there ’s at least one person slat to partake a keynote phase with Steve Jobs next week — Chris Albrecht of the wage - cable channelHBO . And I go for that he ’s there to announce that HBO shows will be making their way onto the iTunes Music Store post - haste .
Lest I be accused of rumor - mongering , Albrecht himself hasraised this possibility . Last month , HBO struck a bargain with Cingularto supplying time of its show to the mobile phone religious service . Albrecht suggested strike some similar type of arrangement with Apple , telling Reuters “ At some point , I remember we would have some organisation with them . ”
Such an arrangement would be a welcome growing for me , and not just because it might possibly admit a programme calledThe Wirethat happens to be my favorite show . ( There ’s also the fact that HBO airs aobscure little peculiarity about mobstersthat cracks my Top 10 . ) No , I want HBO and Apple to touch an iTunes content deal because it would mark the first time in recorded history that such a pact would in reality relieve me money .
Still , we ’ll have mint of time for the cold-blooded sting of reality next week . The week before Macworld Expo is a time for dreaming , for imaging whatcouldbe announced . And if some mass want to dream about Intel - powered laptop or fancy newfangled iPods , I do n’t see why I ca n’t wish for $ 2 episode ofThe Wireand a lower cable’s length TV bill .
