As rumors of a "real" Apple TV heat up, ideas that could upend the industry resurface
Photo: Michael Copeland
In late 2009, the Wall Street Journal ran a story that sent shivers through the television industry.
Quoting unnamed sources familiar with Apple's (AAPL) negotiations, the Journal reported that CBS (CBS) and ABC (DIS) were seriously considering Steve Jobs' plan to offer TV subscriptions over the Internet.
One form those subscriptions might take, according to these sources, was a $30-per-month package of advertising-free shows from a bundle of top cable and broadcast networks -- something Apple was calling the "best of television."
Although the Journal reported that Apple was hoping to launch the service in 2010, it met fierce resistance, particularly from cable companies that reap tens of billions each year in advertising dollars and in the fees subscribers pay for access to channels they don't want in order to watch the handful of shows they do.
"You don't want to shoot a hole in the bucket to create another revenue stream," one media executive told the Journal at the time.
Apple's TV subscription service did not launch in 2010, obviously. Or in 2011, for that matter.
But the idea has not gone away. In a note to clients issued Wednesday, Sterne Agee's Shaw Wu noted that what's missing from Apple's current TV offering -- Apple TV coupled with the content available for purchase on iTunes -- is access to live broadcast television.
One way to get that access, he writes, is to have users subscribe to satellite or cable TV services, the way they do now.
But another way -- in his words "a more revolutionary, disruptive and differentiated way" -- would be to offer the content via the Internet, in a subscription service that sounds a lot like Jobs' original "best of television" idea.
"We continue to hear," Wu writes, "what AAPL would love to do is offer users the ability to choose their own customized programming, i.e., whichever channels/shows they want for a monthly subscription fee. This is obviously much more complicated from a licensing standpoint. And in our view, would change the game for television and give AAPL a big leg-up against the competition."
The drumroll begins with Walter Isaacson's appearance on CBS TV Sunday night
Source: CBS
This just tweeted by @60Minutes:
SUNDAY: Steve Kroft sits down with historian Walter Isaacson for the first look at the authorized biography of Steve Jobs.
This is the book every serious student of Apple (AAPL) will want to read.
It's been kept under extraordinarily tight wraps. No review copies have been distributed. The worldwide lay down is scheduled for overnight Monday.
For MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 19, 2011 4:32 PM ET
The network has dropped the celebrity blogger whose site issued the erroneous report
Shira Lazar. Source: Facebook
Hours after a false report Friday that Apple's (AAPL) CEO had died set newsrooms around the world scrambling for confirmation, CBS News severed its relationship with both What's Trending, the site that issued the erroneous tweet, and the celebrity blogger who produced it, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Shira Lazar, 28, a Canadian-born actress and MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Sep 10, 2011 9:40 PM ET
Says he's addicted to "the damn thing." Reads top 10 reasons to buy one.
Update: CBS posted a non-iOS friendly version of the video to YouTube. Oh, the irony. iOS users and those who just prefer HTML5 can check out the Late Show website, where CBS posted an iOS friendly video. H/t Sac to Joe.
Apple (AAPL) scored another free media coup on Tuesday night's episode of Late Show with David Letterman. MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Mar 16, 2011 7:26 AM ET
To me, this is one piece of shovelware that makes a lot of sense
Unlike, some old-line media giants, CBS's (CBS) 60 Minutes isn't looking to Apple's (AAPL) iPad to save its skin.
The longest continuously running prime-time show in any format, 60 Minutes is still the most successful broadcast in U.S. television history. It was a top-10 rated show for 23 seasons in a row -- from 1977 to 2000. For MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 22, 2010 8:16 AM ET
It appears that the networks are letting some content through to GoogleTV users.
Yesterday, GoogleTV users were greeted with messages that ABC, CBS and NBC would not work. This morning however, I had a look around and was able to watch an episode of 30 Rock on NBC as well as a few minutes of Talk (my threshold, not GoogleTV) and Medium on CBS. Disney-owned ABC and Hulu are still blocked, MORE
Seth Weintraub - Oct 22, 2010 9:26 AM ET
Every day, the Fortune staff spends hours poring over tech stories, posts, and reviews from all over the Web to keep tabs on the companies that matter. We've assembled the day's most newsworthy bits below.
Photo: Google
ABC, CBS and NBC are blocking TV programming on their web sites from being viewable on the newly-launched Google TV. (IT World)
HP is finally releasing a tablet, the Windows 7-loaded MORE
Steve Jobs, with the new Apple TV. Photo: Michael Copeland
This is the spot for our live coverage of Apple's (AAPL) Sept. 1 music event.
In sum, Steve Jobs delivered on most of the rumored new products and services. The headlines:
A new $99 Apple TV that streams (rather than downloads) $4.99 movie rentals and 99-cent TV rentals from ABC and Fox.
A new lineup of iPods, chief among them the iPod touch MORE
Steve Jobs is not the TV networks' enemy. BitTorrent is.
Image: Showtime
The second episode of The Big C, Showtime's bittersweet hit comedy about a suburban mom with melanoma, aired Monday night at 10:30 p.m. Less than three hours later, a digital copy was posted on an Italian website, where it spread like crabgrass. By Wednesday morning, there were 3,387 "seeds" of The Big C, Season 01, Episode 02, on MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 25, 2010 10:46 AM ET
Rather than a "best of TV" subscription service, Apple will be streaming programs a la carte
[UPDATE: The event is actually scheduled for Sept. 1. See here.]
Fuzzy rumors about Steve Jobs' next move in the TV market have been swirling for the better part of a year, but the picture snapped into focus on Tuesday.
A report by Peter Burrows, a veteran BusinessWeek reporter now writing for Bloomberg Businessweek, lays out the MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 24, 2010 6:28 PM ETEvery morning, discover the companies, deals and trends in tech that are moving markets and making headlines. SUBSCRIBE
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