Today, September, 12, 2017, at Apple’s big iPhone event, in addition to the expected Apple Watch Series 3, iPhones 8 and 8 Plus, and Apple TV 4K, Apple’s Eddie Cue noted that with the new Apple TV 4K you would need some 4K content and that Apple would have your back.  Indeed they do, as Cue stated that movies from the major studios would be available for purchase and download from iTunes on the Apple TV 4K in 4K HDR formats and at the same price as current movies in 1080p HD!  In addition, for those HD movies you’ve already purchased, Apple would upgrade those to 4K HDR as they become available in the format.  That is HUGE news for movie lovers.  But there was one interesting item glossed over.  And you’ll find it in the screenshot from the presentation above.

Cue mentioned that Apple would be able to provide Apple TV 4K users with 4K movies from the “large Hollywood studios” and his slide showed six big studio logos.  But this six does not correspond to the “Big Six” as its exists today.  LionsGate, while considered a “mini-major” by many, and the distributor of popular films such as the “Hunger Games” series, is not one of the “Big Six” major Hollywood movie studios.  Those are:  Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Sony/Columbia, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and Walt Disney Studios.  Well, five of those are shown in Cue’s slide and have presumably signed on to provide 4K movies at the same prices as HD.  But one – and it’s a big one these days – Walt Disney, is missing from the list and presumably has not yet signed on to match HD pricing.  There had been rumors ahead of the event that some of the studios wanted to charge more for 4K content than for HD content – as they had for HD versus SD content last decade.  It appears that Disney was one of those and remains a holdout.

This is particularly intriguing as Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, is also on Apple’s Board of Directors, and Disney has often been at the forefront of distributing their content on Apple devices.  It is also significant to many as Disney reigns as the highest market share studio this year (and last) thanks largely to its ownership of the Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm (i.e., Star Wars) production studios.  That’s a lot of popular content that won’t, at least for now, be coming to iTunes in 4K.  But stay tuned… things may change.