During an earnings call today, CBS CEO Les Moonves is reported to have revealed that CBS had turned down an Apple TV service that would rely on advertising revenue.
When asked about CBS’s appetite for striking deals with new streaming providers that might not have the money to pay cash upfront to license its content, Moonves said that CBS had decided against joining an Apple TV service because it was based on an ad split.
Apple has been long rumored to be working on some sort of TV subscription service over the past few years. A Wall Street Journal article from December, 2009 described one possible iteration of the service:
The proposed service by the maker of iPhones and iPod music players could, in at least some scenarios, offer access to some TV shows from a selection of major U.S. television networks for a monthly fee, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Such a service, of course, has never launched. But it's not clear if that particular plan was canceled or is awaiting the arrival of a full Apple television.
Rumors of a full blown Apple TV set were recently revived after Steve Jobs' biography quoted Jobs as saying he had "finally cracked" the problems standing in the way of an Apple television set.
Tuesday September 8, 2026 10:19 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The next Apple TV 4K will be equipped with an A19 or A19 Pro chip, according to evidence in Apple's code uncovered by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. In particular, the device's model identifier points towards the A19 generation of chips.
Accordingly, the next Apple TV would have 8GB or 12GB of RAM, up from 4GB in the current 2022 model with the A15 Bionic chip. Other rumored upgrades for...
Apple today released the sixth public betas of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, tvOS 27, and macOS Golden Gate, allowing anyone with a compatible device to download and test the new software. The sixth betas come a week after Apple seeded the fifth betas and a few hours after the eighth developer betas.
You can get started by signing up on Apple's beta website and then opting in to the public beta by...
Thursday September 10, 2026 2:33 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple has updated the design of the virtual Apple TV Remote for the iOS 27 Release Candidate, which was released yesterday, and there are two new features that have been added to the iPhone app's interface.
First up, Apple has added a new button to the top-right corner of the Remote UI with a glyph showing four squares. Pressing the button pops out an app menu similar to the Apple TV home...
I cut the cord 2 months ago and it was the best thing I've ever done. A Macbook Pro, iPad, and Apple Tv are all I need. CBS is making a huge mistake. There's a new subscription world upon us and either they embrace it or people will steal content. I'm not paying over $100 for Hillbilly Handfishing and the rest of the garbage they feed us. Oh and I also haven't seen a commercial in 2 months!!
Networks have gotten so use to getting paid twice on content (selling access to providers then selling ad space) I say good riddance to them all. There's a need for a new standard for delivering content and it's not going to break my heart when these greedy corps die because they can't change.
I think I’d rather pay (or even view-with-ads) on a per-show basis than per-network. Support current quality shows that tend to fade into cancellation, and boycott the endless reality clones!
(I’ve never opted for cable, but my iMac does have HD rabbit ears!)
During an earnings call today, CBS CEO Les Moonves is reported to have revealed that CBS had turned down an Apple TV service that would rely on advertising revenue. 
