Everyone is talking about the new video Ipod, but in reality this is not the most important news that has come out of Apple recently. The big news is the fact that Disney has given Itunes customers access to some of their best selling series, Desperate Housewives and Lost. Of course this has the television affiliates and the director's guild of America up in arms about not getting their "fair" share out of the deal (link) I believe everyone is a little naive about the motivation behind Disney's move. It is obviously driven by "$", but I think Disney has a a longer term vision than what most critics of the deal believe. I think a fact check may be in order.

First, we must look at the state of one of Disney's cash cows, the family movie industry. Michael Eisner's reign as CEO of Disney drained to company of any creative talent. They couldn't produce a hit if their life depended on it. So along came Steve Jobs and Pixar and with a distribution deal came some great movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and the Incredibles. Of course their contract is just about up, and Eisner and Jobs had a falling out of sorts with Pixar wanting to find a new distributor.

Well Eisner left and in comes Robert Iger. He has a large mission of rebuilding Disney's fragmented image and needs to keep up the image of "producing" quality movies, but where is the talent? Working for Pixar, of course. How can he get a new deal? Well Steve Jobs is a shrewd businessman and isn't going to take Disney back without getting a little extra and he has a new video Ipod coming out. So what better way to promote the Ipod by having video streams that people would actually want to watch. Of course since Disney owns ABC and Touchstone (which produces Desperate Housewives and Lost) it is quite easy to make a deal.

Now we can see that while a new deal between Pixar and Disney has yet to be struck, I would be surprised if it isn't in the works. Everyone wins, even those in Hollywood who are bitching about not thinking of this first.

-Trevor