CBS CEO Les Moonves is known to occasionally drop pieces of information that he?s not supposed to on his company?s earnings calls, and this quarter was no exception. When asked about CBS?s appetite for striking deals with new streaming providers that might not have the money to pay cash up front 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 is rumored to be working on a subscription streaming service that would have content from many TV networks and would go up against the typical cable and satellite services. From what has been reported the CBS philosophy of getting paid for upfront licensing fees for syndication of its content online, as opposed to partnering on revenue-sharing agreements. This is also why CBS didn’t join Hulu. Although it looks like that move is paying off as they struck a deal with Netflix and Amazon earlier this year and the CW also licensed its shows to Netflix and Hulu.
