Speaking at a conference in LA on Saturday, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves explained how Steve Jobs approached him with a pitch for an Apple subscription content service. Moonves, however, wasn’t convinced, and he decided to turn Jobs away.
While many rumours point to the idea of Apple launching a subscription TV service before the end of this year, the journey hasn’t been an easy one. During a meeting around a year ago, Moonves recalls:
“I told Steve, ‘You know more than me about 99 per cent of things but I know more about the television business.’ ”
Moonves went on to turn down Jobs’ pitch, according to The Hollywood Reporter, arguing that the deal could disrupt CBS’s existing revenue streams. The Reporter goes on to explains how Jobs, in characteristic fashion, “strongly disagreed with [the] assessment.”
At the same conference, however, Moonves also mentioned that he was happy about the benefits that content deals with Netflix and Amazon bought the company. Bad luck, Apple. [The Hollywood Reporter]