Apple TV Gains CBS All Access, NBC, and Made to Measure Channels
Juli Clover / MacRumors :
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2015 addition of CBS All Access, NBC, and Made to Measure to Apple TV is an early data point in Apple's pivot from selling a hardware box toward aggregating network subscriptions directly on the device. The related coverage traces that arc forward: The CW's app that dropped the cable-login requirement (albeit with a tight five-episode window) showed networks testing over-the-top access without pay-TV authentication, and by 2019 Apple had formalized the model into Apple TV Channels, an on-demand, ad-free storefront extended to Roku, Fire TV, and smart TVs.
First-order effects
- Apple TV owners gain direct access to CBS and NBC content on the box, while those two networks acquire an over-the-top distribution route that bypasses the pay-TV login wall The CW was still partially enforcing.
Second-order effects
- Pay-TV providers such as Charter Spectrum — which Apple later brought onto Apple TV for live sports and news — face networks negotiating their own direct-to-consumer terms, eroding the operator's role as exclusive gatekeeper.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Apple consolidates into the middleman position it eventually occupies: reselling third-party subscriptions through Apple TV Channels and bundling them, as with the later CBS All Access and Showtime package for TV+ subscribers, while building its own original-content service alongside.
The trend: Apple TV is evolving from a set-top box into a subscription-aggregation storefront where individual networks sell direct, setting up both the Apple TV Channels marketplace and Apple's own original-content ambitions.