Hollywood Reporter:
CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said Saturday that he was approached about a year ago by Steve Jobs to provide content for Apple’s long-rumored television service but he declined to participate.
Moonves told a conference audience that he met with Jobs, the late Apple CEO, and heard a pitch for what was billed as a subscription content service, but ultimately he said he wasn’t interested in providing CBS shows or films to the venture.
It would be intersting to know the reason why he declined this.
Also, was it that CBS, as an entity, wasn’t interested or was it that Moonves himself wasn’t interested. Because on the face of it, this looks like a severe case of myopia.
If these guys are going to stay glued to their cable package contracts, they’re going to get left behind.
If Apple was willing to pay the networks for a subscription service, just like cable or satellite, they’re stupid not to take it. Allow people as many ways to buy your content as you possibly can. If what’s happened to music, and now print wasn’t enough indication that they’re a big shift coming, then nothing will…
I wonder if Moonves was scared of the dread pirate (insert favorite name here). When will somebody at a network (over-the-air or cable only) wake up and realize that, if they can provide a convenient product at a fair price, piracy will be not much of a concern. Doesn’t HBO (for example) realize that, if they offered a $20 per month streaming service (HBO GO) directly to consumers WITHOUT requiring a cable subscription, that they would make a metric buttload of money?
Money most likely. Steve probably wasn’t willing to let Leslie pick the pricing. Plus Les likely thought it too low. Particularly if there were no ads to add to the income. Probably didn’t want to give up even 1% to Apple
Les probably also didn’t want someone else controlling timing or being told he couldn’t exclude titles. etc
heck just put the shows up to buy on iTunes day after airing at a fair price and many folks would go for that and not the torrent game
Let’s just take it as a given that any business story involving Les Moonves will invariably also feature the worst possible decision-making and the least-interesting entertainment products.