Apple CEO Steve Jobs approached CBS approximately one year ago in an attempt to secure a content deal for a streaming television service that was in development at the time. CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves publicly spoke of the negotiations once before during an earnings call late last year, and now he is quoted again after having reportedly discussed the matter on stage during a presentation at the UCLA Entertainment Symposium. ”I told Steve, ‘You know more than me about 99 percent of things ...

Amazon and CBS have reached a licensing deal in which CBS will provide Amazon Prime subscribers with access to its television shows.The deal will add 2,000 TV episodes from popular shows such as The Tudors, Medium, Frasier, Cheers, Numb3rs, and the full Star Trek franchise to the Amazon Prime library, which already has more than 8,000 movies and TV shows. Amazon expects the content to be available during this summer and it confirmed that its Instant Video customers will also have access to the library. Read o...

CBS confirmed today with Dow Jones that it will pull some of its Showtime television shows from Netflix, and apparently Netflix is pretty shocked by the news. A Showtime spokesperson said that it will remove the episodes of shows that are currently still airing on television from Netflix’s portfolio when the current partnership deal between the CBS and Netflix ends this summer. “We’re perplexed by this,” Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesperson told Dow Jones. “We have great Showtime...

Netflix on Tuesday announced a new deal with CBS that will bring shows from the CBS library to Netflix’s portfolio of streaming content. The news comes on the same day Amazon finally debuted its new streaming video service for Amazon Prime members. Netflix and CBS did not disclose the terms of the deal, saying only that it will bring CBS content to Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service for the next two years. CBS also has an option to extend the deal for another two years. Content cover...

CBS-owned Last.fm announced on Monday that it will soon discontinue its free ad-supported streaming music service for cell phones and home entertainment devices. Last.fm is a custom Internet radio service that competes with the likes of Pandora and Slacker Radio. The service currently streams to computers, to cell phones and to various home entertainment devices such as DVD players and set-top boxes, with two available subscription models — a free ad-supported version and an ad-free version for $3 per month...

What’s the deal network television? No love for Google TV? Major broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC have already put a software block in place preventing Google TV appliances from accessing their content, and now it seems like Fox is joining the party with its own anti-GTV stance. Blog gtvhub is reporting that basic cable network Fox is blocking access to its online streaming-video content from Google TV devices. Seems pretty lame to us. What do you think, does this affect the utility of Google̵...

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple is in “advanced talks” with News Corp., CBS Corp., and Walt Disney Co. to allow iTunes users to rent their programming for 99-cents an episode. The report reads: “The content deals would give Apple users access to some of the most-watched shows on TV and increase the appeal of its devices [...] Added programming also would build on iTunes’ role as the biggest retailer of music and mobile applications, and help Apple ward off companies like Netflix Inc. an...

Two of the biggest names in the new wave of personalized internet radio, Pandora and Last.fm, have announced new mobile offerings this week that are sure to please subscribers. For those who aren’t familiar with these services, we’ll give you quick rundowns: Pandora is a free ad supported service (with an ad-free subscription option) that delivers custom radio stations based on the tonal qualities of each song. The user starts by entering an artist or song and Pandora continues the stream with son...

As we near the end of 2008 and approach the holiday season, layoffs get harder and harder to swallow. No one wants to close out the year with workforce cuts but sometimes it’s just inevitable. Such is the case with CBS Interactive, which announced internally yesterday that it would be undergoing a reorg attached to what is rumored to be just south of 300 layoffs. While CBS has not announced yesterday’s move publicly, the layoffs were estimated to account for between 10 and 14 percent of its workfo...