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.”

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