Apple WILL announce the service, the Wall Street Journal reported, noting that the company “is prepared to cannibalize its download business in favor of streaming.” Meanwhile, the new service WON’T be announced at WWDC, Re/code reported (at more or less the exact same time), because it is “bogged down by negotiations.” Much of the delay has to due with licensing deals with the channels it plans to carry, Re/code claims, but the technology required by Apple’s plan to have broadcasters deliver their own content streams is partially behind the delay as well.
Initially, Apple planned to launch its streaming TV service in the fall to line up with the start of the new television broadcast season. Unlike its competitors, Apple planned to include local broadcast stations in addition to the standard cable networks included in Sling TV and Sony’s PlayStation Vue.
So who do you trust? All signs certainly indicate that Apple intends to carry on with this plan. CBS CEO Les Moonves told Re/code’s Kara Swisher that he had met with Apple’s Eddy Cue just a few weeks prior to discuss plans for the service.
Rights issues and financial discussions are apparently taking longer than the company had planned. The major networks don’t own all the affiliates that carry their programming, so these stations must be negotiated on a case by case basis, and that takes time.
Analysts are saying that it now appears that the service may not launch until late 2015, or even 2016. In the meantime, Apple will almost certainly have some entertainment-related news to share next week.
We’ve previously reported that Apple is preparing an update of the Apple TV featuring a redesigned remote including a touchpad, and Apple’s long-awaited revamp of its Beats Music will likely be unveiled next week as well.
WWDC runs from June 8 to June 12 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. For a look at what could be coming, see our previous coverage of the latest Apple TV rumors.
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