CBS CEO Les Moonves says Apple puts live TV plans on hold; source says media firms want more money for their programming
Apple Said to Suspend Effort to Develop Live TV Service — Focus instead will be on App Store as platform for others — Media companies resist channel package at $30 to $40 a month
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple has been chasing a live TV bundle all year: it started talking to programmers in February, targeted an about-25-channel service anchored by ABC, CBS and Fox, then slipped to a 2016 target as licensing talks stalled. Along the way it asked networks to carry their own streaming infrastructure costs and pushed to include local stations — each move adding friction with the broadcasters whose channels the bundle needed.
Now Les Moonves has confirmed publicly that Apple put the effort on hold, with sources pointing to media companies resisting the $30–$40-a-month package because they want more money for their programming. The pivot matters because Apple is redirecting its video ambitions toward the App Store as a platform for others rather than an owned channel bundle.
First-order effects
- Media companies like CBS keep full pricing leverage over their channels: no Apple carriage fees arrive at the resisted $30–$40 package rate, and programmers stay free to negotiate with other distributors on their own terms.
- Apple abandons the fall/2016 launch timeline entirely and refocuses its video strategy on letting third parties sell through the App Store instead of licensing a curated channel lineup.
Second-order effects
- Any rival aggregator attempting a similar skinny bundle faces the same programmer price demands that broke Apple's talks — content owners now have proof they can hold out against even the biggest consumer brand.
- With no owned live-TV product to anchor it, Apple's distribution value to networks shifts to transactional sales through the App Store, weakening the carriage-bargaining position it spent 2015 trying to build.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the path into television runs through owning programming rather than repackaging others': as later coverage argued, Apple will likely only succeed in TV once it brings its own original shows to market — making originals the negotiating currency that licensing money could not buy.
- Content owners' demonstrated ability to stall a top-tier distributor strengthens the structural hand of programmers across future bundle negotiations, pushing aggregation economics toward higher per-channel costs or platform-owned exclusives.
The trend: Programmers' pricing power is forcing tech platforms out of licensed-channel bundles and toward original content ownership as the entry ticket to TV.