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Report: Apple suspends plans for web TV service as it struggles to negotiate w/ networks

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According to a report out of Bloomberg, Apple is putting a hold on its plans to launch a streaming web TV service amid resistance from cable companies and networks. The report claims that Apple, while not entirely giving up on its plans, is instead shifting focus towards creating a platform on which companies can sell directly to the customer.

Media companies have reportedly been driven away by Apple’s desire to launch its package of around 14 channels for between $30 and $40 per month. The media companies want more for their content and Apple ideally wanted to keep the price below $40 per month.

Corroborating the Bloomberg report, CBS CEO Les Moonves stated that Apple has put its plans “on hold.” Moonves stated that Apple and CBS were close to agreeing on a $35 per month price point before Apple backed out and decided to reconsider.

Apple’s web TV service has been long rumored and was originally expected to launch in conjunction with the fourth-gen Apple TV, but that didn’t happen due to slower than expected negotiations with networks.

The fourth-gen Apple TV, however, supports Apple’s new tvOS platform which features an App Store. Instead of putting its efforts towards securing deals for a streaming service, Apple will now continue to encourage developers to build for the tvOS app store and allow users to choose what they want to watch and how much they are willing to pay to watch it.

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Comments

  1. $40 per month? Apple is right, that’s not going to work for the consumer. Instead they might consider investing a billion or two per year into original content. The networks will eventually come knocking if Apple can put enough boxes into people’s homes.

  2. animatedude - 8 years ago

    cool! can they release a full fledge TV set now?

    • François Luneau - 8 years ago

      I’ll offer two arguments against this idea, which I never understood. First, you only change your TV set, hopefully, once every decade (unless trying to keep up with the Jones’), thereby adding a barrier to buying a new Apple TV every few years. Secondly, there are so many advances in the software, which pushes hardware as well, that you’ll want to upgrade your hardware/software solutions every few years, so having a separate box, compatible with any TV, is a much better solution to allow you to keep selling new solutions.

  3. Casey Christian - 8 years ago

    This SUCKS! I’ve been excited about the new Apple TV for years and bought it the day it was available. Love the new hardware and remote, no complaints. I’m a cord cutter who hasn’t paid for cable in more than three years and while I have no real regrets, I do still miss my locals, live broadcasts, and certain sports. That being said, I refuse to give Time Warner or any other cable provider a dime of my money other than for their “dumb pipe” internet service.

    However, I would have happily given Apple $40 a month for their service if it met my needs. I cannot believe the lock networks and cable providers have on content and that their oligopoly is still legal. It’s so frustrating! If a company with Apple’s clout and money can’t make it happen, I’m afraid it never will.

    That being said, I genuinely hope this comes back to bite the networks and cable companies in the ass sooner or later. I’d love to see them suffer the way the music labels have by refusing to accept new technology and the way new generations wish to access their media. It could happen but if, and only if, the public finally stops paying a crazy amount of money every month for hundreds of channels they never even watch.

    • shoegazer4 - 8 years ago

      just get an nvidia shield and use kodi

      • srgmac - 8 years ago

        Yep — The Shield & Fire 4k are really the best right now in terms of STBs. Kodi, apps, air play, etc…Can’t beat it…PLUS they both support local storage! Something the Apple TV will NEVER support — ever.

  4. Han Solo (@HanSolo_52A) - 8 years ago

    I really cannot stand TV networks. They are greedy scum. I have no problem paying for TV content, but I should be able to watch it where I want, when I want, and on the device I want. If consumers are willing to pay for cable, they shouldn’t be so greedy about how that consumer watches it. All they are doing is pushing people away. In a decade, they will be in trouble if they don’t change their ways.

    • iSRS - 8 years ago

      you can, if you buy all your content on iTunes.

      This web/a la carte isn’t turning out to be much cheaper than what your cable company is charging, assuming your cable company is also your internet provider.

      Comcast has, so I’ve read, a stream package for their Internet Only customer (like myself) for $15/month. Started in Boston (I am in Southern NH, which is considered part of the Boston market). Comcast doesn’t have any information they will share.

      Couple that with companies, again, like Comcast, also own content providers, it just gets messy.

      • srgmac - 8 years ago

        Good luck having money for food and everything else if you buy all off our content on iTunes, heh.

      • iSRS - 8 years ago

        @srgmac – Depends on how many shows you watch. Plus, most shows are available next day on hulu or CBS All Access ($15/month) – Add on for premiums, but again, how many shows do you watch that aren’t covered?

        iTunes is an option though. I once did the math, and over the course of a year, I would save money vs DirecTV buying the shows I want.

  5. This is so dumb. Well I’ll be sticking with iTunes downloads and Netflix until this finally goes live. Would be nice to access a few live TV stations on my Apple TV, but the networks don’t want to take my money for that, so oh well.

    (And I live in a very congested city where OTA options are abysmal – I’ve tried many times).

  6. srgmac - 8 years ago

    I used to subscribe to Netflix — I don’t anymore. HBO Go & Showtime Anytime are my sole “cord cutting” services now…The content they have just can not be matched really. It’s all about content when it comes to VOD — If you have 10,000 movies and 90% of them are crappy, it’s going to get old after awhile. Unfortunately, this allows the content owners to basically have a monopoly — That’s why you are seeing a lot of “Premium” shows now, where they will literally throw budgets the size of feature films towards shows like GoT, Homeland, etc. Even Netflix is getting there — I dumped them because they raised the price on me awhile ago, but I really like OITNB.

  7. barcamatic - 8 years ago

    Roku is still the best option for streaming and now more than ever. I can’t believe Apple has’t been able to “break” the “stuck back in the ‘70s” TV service and technology Cook has complaint so much about. I guess we’ll have to wait for the Apple car to see more innovation from a company looking like running out of ideas… No Apple Watch sales number released is not a good sign of success with it’s newest device.

    • iSRS - 8 years ago

      “No Apple Watch sales number released is not a good sign of success with it’s newest device.”

      Before they sold one, they said they weren’t going to break them out. This is too new a market to give competition a clue as to what Apple it able to move.

      • barcamatic - 8 years ago

        You’re right indeed. That’s got to be the reason. Thanks for clarifying.

  8. taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

    For awhile looks like we will be stuck with premium streaming apps like HBO NOW, Showtime, and CBS Anywhere. If Apple doesn’t want to negotiate right now they should allow a Sling TV app on Apple TV.i wish they would just buy Dish. I don’t see why it’s so hard for Apple to do a comparable service to Sling TV.

    • srgmac - 8 years ago

      That would be a great idea — but didn’t AT&T just buy Dish? I have a love / hate relationship with Sling. I have had a sling box for awhile, but recently the arseholes at Sling decided to put ads into their software — so every time I watch the sling box that I paid for, along with the apps that I have paid for, I have to watch Ads with it now, and Sling gets money just from streaming ads to all their users. Such a horrible decision. SlingTV is different I know, but my experience with them is just so clouded by that I don’t think I would ever do business with them again.

      • iSRS - 8 years ago

        I was thinking of getting a sling box. So even the $15 iOS app has ads?

  9. Simon Potts (@simoncbp) - 8 years ago

    The writing was on the wall for the Apple’s Web TV since it started out – in essence, it couldn’t fit in with the rest of the product portfolio… All other Apple’s products and services whether hardware or software, have a truly global market. However a Web TV service will be limited on a country by country basis, for each group. Apple may have had problems negotiating with the content providers for the US but then it would need to negotiate with all of the content providers say for Europe (viewed as a single market which is bigger than the UK by GDP), which has 28 countries each with various content providers. As Chance highlights, the potential way forwards for Apple TV is as an App platform onto which each content provider then chooses whether to launch their own application

  10. bdkennedy1 - 8 years ago

    $15 a month for HBO? No thanks. That comes back around to the cost of content again. There are maybe 2-3 shows I would watch and I’m not interested in the rest.

Author

Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com