20 Years After a Landmark Disney-Apple Deal, Anne Sweeney Recalls Negotiating With Steve Jobs

On Oct. 12, 2005, Apple and Disney stunned the media world with an unprecedented deal to make primetime TV programming available on mobile device for digital purchase without needing an antennae or multichannel subscription to watch it.

Twenty years later, former Disney Media Networks co-chair Anne Sweeney looks back on the pact she was instrumental in closing with a keen eye on how seismic the impact it had on the many different industry constituents who never saw it coming.

“To say that there were many hard conversations after the announcement was an understatement,” she said in an interview commemorating the anniversary of the groundbreaking agreement on the latest episode of Variety’s “Strictly Business” podcast. “This literally tilted our media world on its axis.”

Sweeney recounts her extensive secret negotiations with Apple CEO Steve Jobs that resulted in top-rated series like “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” being made available for viewing at $1.99 per episode the night after they aired on ABC via the first version of the iPod featuring video screens. The arrangement essentially blazed a path to a streaming future that had yet to unfold via Netflix, which at the time of the Apple deal was still entirely focused on shipping movie DVDs by mail.

As if it wasn’t difficult enough crafting a contract with no precedent with Apple, a company with which then Disney CEO Bob Iger had only begun to repair a relationship that had been strained under previous management, Sweeney also had a separate set of challenges to navigate in the aftermath of the deal announcement. Local TV stations, pay-TV distributors were just a few of the parties left with tough legal questions for her over a new alliance she had to defend.

And then there was the rewarding challenge of dealing directly with Jobs, who died 14 years ago this month. She recalled one particular deal point in the negotiations that elicited a response from him that was alarming but ultimately eye-opening.

“When I put it in front of Steve, he went nuclear,” she recalled. “He said, ‘Why would I ever do that? That’s not the way we operate.’ Then we realized we had to come together in a new way. This wasn’t just putting our shows on the video iPod, this was creating a template for the future.”

In her time at Disney, Sweeney presided over a broad portfolio of business units including broadcast, cable, studio, news, sports and other assets. She left Disney in 2015 and currently sits on the board of directors at several companies including Netflix and Lego.

“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes debut every Wednesday and can be downloaded at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.

(Pictured top: Apple CEO Steve Jobs as he unveiled the groundbreaking Disney-Apple licensing pact for the video iPod on Oct. 12, 2005, in San Jose, Calif.)