Apple TV Deal Failed Because Of Ad Share Tips CBS CEO

Rumors have swirled for a long time now that Apple was working on a deal to stream a cable-like TV network that would fight cable and satellite providers. That never came to be even though it sounded like something that would be interesting. In fact, there was never confirmation made by Apple or anyone else that the plan was ever anything more than a rumor, until now.

CBS CEO Les Moonves was on a conference call talking about earnings this week and he let drop the tidbit that Apple had in fact worked on making the Apple TV streaming deal come to market. Moonves said that CBS had passed on the potential deal because it was based on an ad split system. The insinuation is that CBS might have taken the deal if not for the as split.

The rumors had pointed to the Apple TV streaming deal being a service that aggregated content from all networks. The lack of network support is the reason why it never came to market. CBS traditionally expects any content syndication deal to be paid entirely up front reports Gigaom. I am curious why with all the money Apple has in the bank it wouldn't have just paid upfront and brought the service to market.

[via Gigaom]