• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, October 14, 2011

With the passing of Apple's Steve Jobs, TV reality has set in for media and technology news both big and small.

While there have been many discussions relating to his accomplishments, when it comes to the TV industry, one accomplishment initially stands out: iTunes.

By itself, the creation of iTunes -- the web-based media content platform and its related iPod, iPhone and iPad hardware -- isn't all that compelling. But throw in an overused word, "vision," and you’ve got something. Jobs had a vision of what TV could be like in the digital world.

In 2005, Disney-ABC was first to put TV shows on iTunes, which in its four years of existence until then was essentially an area for downloading music. Not to use the word lightly, this revolutionized the TV business. Dare I say, it gave TV executives -- big and small -- lots of hope this popular form of entertainment was nowhere near on the way out.

The iTunes move spawned all sorts of TV-video digital business -- as well as upsetting traditional TV partners, such as cable operators and stations, to start "thinking different."

Real innovation is really tough to come by in the TV business -- for programming, advertising or technology. Long known for many years as an easy profit-making machine that took few risks, TV needed someone outside the business to shake it up.

So you might want to ask: When it comes to TV programming during this same period, how many shows -- dramas, comedies, news, sports or reality – could be ascribed as “revolutionary”? "Lost," "Breaking Bad," "Glee," "Amazing Race," "American Idol," or "True Blood"? Perhaps some show that caused you to say: "Wow. What was that!?"

Pixar Animation Studios, a little film company Jobs started before his big return to Apple, pushed a new kind of computer-generated movie with a big "aaah" factor -- both creatively and in a business sense. Pixar movies have performed at a nearly insane box office performance level, compared with average box office take for other theatrical films.

According to many, Jobs was pushed to find great stuff by crazy urgency, not always with smooth management style, and by the desire for perfection. Jobs would probably be honored even more if media/technology/entertainment-minded people could achieve similar results, not only in figuring out what consumers want now, but down the road.

Job’s passing might prod some hard-core realism for new entrepreneurs. At a Stanford commencement some years ago, he said:  "Death is very likely the single best invention of life."