What’s missing from Apple TV 4K? Try Disney, for now

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It’s a Small (Apple) World: But, will Disney be a part of it?

The new iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and especially the iPhone X, with its $999 base-level price, took the spotlight at Apple’s big event in Cupertino on Tuesday. But there were a few other things of note at the soiree, including the new Apple TV 4K set-top box, which starts at $179.

The big deal about this new Apple TV model is right there in the name: 4K. As in 4K and High Dynamic Range (HDR) quality video, which is the Next Big Thing in televisions. If you haven’t seen 4K TV in action, just go down to your local Costco. There are probably a few 4K TVs set up right there inside the entrance that are meant to entice you into making a purchase you hadn’t planned on. In fact, just get things out of the way and grab one of those big Costco flatbed carts on your way in and prepare to hook up a new Apple TV 4K to that TV you had no intention of buying today.

But, when you get home and set everything up, don’t expect to see the new Apple TV support 4K movies from Disney. At least not yet.

When Apple showed off the new Apple TV device on Tuesday, the company made sure to note which movie studios were on board with selling 4K versions of their films via Apple, and thus make them available to watch in 4K on the Apple TV. After all, if you’re going to pay $179 for a box, and whatever it costs for a 4K TV, you want to be able to watch your content in 4K. Among the studios that are down with Apple’s $19.99 4K movie price tag are Universal Studios (owned by Comcast) and Warner Brothers (which is owned by Time Warner).

But nowhere to be found was the Mouse: Disney.

Word is that Disney and Apple are at an impasse over that $19.99 price point. Apple, naturally, wants to drum up enthusiasm for its new Apple TV, and has decided that what is in effect 20 bucks is a fine price to pay for a 4K movie. That price is also what Apple has set for current, HD movies that you can buy via your iTunes account, and then play on your TV.

Why Disney isn’t on board with $20 for 4K movies from Apple is a bit of a mystery, but you can probably suss out some of the reasons for the company’s decision.

Disney already sells 4K movies for $24.99 through other digital outlets, such as Vudu, which is owned by Wal-Mart. For what it’s worth, Wal-Mart remains a retailing giant, and Disney might just be pulling in some healthy sales through Vudu. And if Disney is doing well selling movies at its current prices, it might be loath to cut a deal that eats into sales and earnings, no matter how big of a 4K audience Apple might eventually have.

It’s hard to tell how well Apple TV sales are doing, anyway. The company doesn’t divulge unit or revenue numbers for Apple TV in its quarterly results. It just lumps the gadget in with “other products” such as the Apple Watch, any iPod sales it still brings in, Beats products and whatever other items bear the Apple name that aren’t iPhones, iPads or Mac computers. During its fiscal third quarter, which ended in June, sales of such “other products” came to $2.74 billion, a 23 percent increase from a year ago. There had to be an Apple TV or two in there somewhere.

Disney has also said that it will launch its own streaming service in 2019 that will be the only on-demand place where you can stream “Star Wars” and “Marvel” movies, and other Disney-owned titles. Disney hasn’t said what it will charge for the service, but maybe the company has plans for its own 4K subscription offering (kind of like what Netflix has with its Ultra HD plan that lets viewers watch Ultra HD videos on up to four screens at a time for $11.99 a month) and it doesn’t want to give away to someone else what it hopes to keep for itself.

It will probably all end up being moot, anyway. This is Apple’s world, after all. The company that changed how we listened to music and used our mobile phones now wants to take over your living room for real. Disney will either come around, or Apple will make a deal. This isn’t going to be a long, drawn out ordeal akin to the years it took Apple to get the Beatles catalog on iTunes. After all, Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger is on Apple’s board of directors. There’s no way Iger and Apple CEO Tim Cook want there to be any kind of public spat over a few bucks per movie. And those movies will look great in 4K, regardless of the cost.

Middle Innings:

When You’re A Square…: Not even Apple gets everything right all the time. And social media is letting the company hear it over the company renaming its Apple Stores as “Town Squares.” Apple said it plans on transforming its stores into places where people can gather and participate in sessions for learning more about Apple products, software and apps. No word yet, however, if the new “Squares” will come with the characteristics of many city centers such as litter, panhandlers and the odd-occasional food truck in the lobby.

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Quote of the Day: “There are no front-runners at this point.” — Amazon, in a tweet the company put out in response to a Bloomberg News report that said Boston was the lead location to be Amazon’s second corporate headquarters. Last week, Amazon said it was looking for a second location to serve a co-headquarters with its Seattle main office, and that the new HQ would employ about 50,000 people.

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