Rumors have circulated for years that Apple will be getting into the TV business, but so far nothing has come to fruition. But now, Re/code reports that industry executives are telling them that Apple is in talks with TV programmers about content deals that would allow it to offer a pay-TV service.
Industry executives say Apple is in talks with TV programmers about deals that would allow Apple to offer an “over the top” pay-TV service, like the one Dish has started selling with its Sling TV product, and the one Sony is getting ready to launch.
The idea is that Apple would sell bundles of programming in the place of an entire TV lineup à la cable providers. The bundles would be sold directly to consumers, via the Internet.
Re/code’s source tells them that Apple has shown programmers demos of the proposed service. However, talks are said to be in the early stages, which means things like terms and pricing haven’t as yet been ironed out. In some cases, talks with Apple have yet to start at all.
As is normal with rumors/reports such as these, Apple declined to comment.
Apple has previously attempted to getting into the TV business via talks with cable TV providers such as Time Warner Cable. Those talks never proved fruitful.
It now seems that Apple has decided to go to the source for its programming, the TV content owners.
It is likely that any service Apple provided would be similar in business plan to the agreements both Dish and Sony have reached with content providers.
As usual, this is all at the rumor stage for now, so keep that grain of salt handy.
