A group of news publishers sent a letter to Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook seeking similar deal terms in its App Store that Amazon.com Inc. gets for its video-streaming service.
Apple takes 30 percent of the revenue from most subscriptions in its App Store, then 15 percent after the first year. But in late July, a congressional antitrust panel disclosed internal emails showing a more-favorable deal struck between Apple services chief Eddy Cue and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. They agreed to a 15 percent revenue share for Amazon Prime Video customers who signed up through the iPhone app and no revenue share for users who already subscribed via Amazon or elsewhere, the emails showed.
"We would like to know what conditions our members — high quality digital content companies — would need to meet in order to qualify for the arrangement Amazon is receiving for its Amazon Prime Video app in the Apple App Store,” Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, wrote in the letter to Cook.