CBS management, including Executive Chairman Sumner Redstone, President and CEO Leslie Moonves, and Executive Vice President and CFO Joe Ianniello, yesterday discussed the company’s Q2 2012 results of OIBDA of $901 million, up 3%, operating income of $769 million, up 5%, diluted eps of $.65, up 12%.
One of the anaylst’s questions centered on Apple TV:
Anthony J. DiClemente – Barclays Capital, Research Division: I’m sure you may have seen that Apple TV added Hulu onto its platform this week. I’m just wondering, when you think about Apple, are you in any way philosophically opposed to offering CBS on the Apple TV platform? And I know I, just from prior experience, I’m sure your answer will have something to do with getting paid for your content. But more specifically, is there anything you need to see or specifically anything you need to get in order to be convinced that that’s a smart strategy for CBS?
Leslie Moonves: Look, Anthony, you’ve — we’ve had this discussion many times before. You’re right, it depends what the terms are, it depends what we get paid for. It depends on what effect Apple TV would have on either our advertising, our syndication or our retrans, which are our 3 main buckets of revenue for our content. So if it sits in well, like Netflix did and Amazon did, we’re happy to discuss it. If it doesn’t and we’re — they’re using our content to build a business, we’re not quite as favorable to that. So the devil is in the details. I know it sounds like a pat answer, but it’s really true.
Complete conference call transcript here.
MacDailyNews Take: Whatever finally worked for Hulu (NBC, Fox, ABC, CBS, Nickelodeon, etc.) certainly should work for CBS, no? (We’re talking channel-as-app on Apple TV, not CBS TV shows via iTunes Store as they current offer.)
Les ought to get his ass in gear before his only remaining option is Google’s Nexus Q. Smirk.
Related articles:
Apple launches Hulu Plus on Apple TV – July 31, 2012
Google postpones Nexus Q indefinitely – July 31, 2012
Some hobby: Apple TV outsold Xbox 360 last quarter – July 25, 2012
Strategy Analytics: With 32% share, Apple leading ‘Connected TV’ market with ‘hobby’ Apple TV – December 12, 2011
Well, Les is known to be very very very cheap cheap cheap. I’m sure he would pick the Google Nexus Q if it were a better “deal”.
Don’t cable companies use their content to build a business?
So in translation to all that B.S. he said, the answer is NO!
Re MDN Take- CBS is America’s most watched network and has been more years than any other. They are not going to give away content worth billions to Hulu or Apple for peanuts.
Les Moonves has been very clear and very consistent- it’s all about getting paid a fair price for content. CBS ventures a truckload of money on programming up front- some of which pans out and some which does not. What they make on what pans out keeps the lights on. They are not about to give their meal ticket away to Apple.
That’s okay, I can still get CBS.com content on my Mac and Airplay it over to my AppleTV.
its about time…
honestly most of my shows i watch are CBS, USA, Disc, SyFy/Sci Fi/ScYfy/WTF they call it this month…, and Sho/HBO.
rarely do i watch any ABC/NBC stuff.
If they have an appletv/iOS app.. i’d be pretty much set.
The Clash of the Titans, Chapter XVIII
Nice touch MDN.