Asa Mathat | Re/Code
Les Moonves at the 2015 Code Conference.
CBS is in talks with Apple about offering content on Apple's revamped TV offering, CBS CEO Les Moonves said Wednesday.
When asked whether he would consider a deal with Apple—which is working to update its Apple TV product—Moonves said he "probably" would.
What would it take? "Money."
Moonves said discussions were ongoing with Apple, and recently met with Eddy Cue, the company's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.
Moonves' comments came at the second annual Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
"Apple TV is trying to change the universe a little bit as did Sling as is Sony," he said.
What Apple will offer is "a more select group at a lower price. Any one of those groups will need CBS. We have the NFL, which is must have television. Any of those bundles we will be a part of that and we should get a better proportion of the share of that universe than we currently do on cable," he said.
Despite the rapid growth in non-traditional media, and the rise of a generation that thinks of on-demand television as normal, Moonves said he isn't terribly worried about digital and streaming media
Seventy percent or more of people who watch television do so while the show is being broadcast, and the average American still watches 5 hours of television a day, he said.
And, at least for now, network television remains a primary cultural institution in American life.
"For every Chelsea Handler who doesn't want to be on network television, I have a Steve Colbert who does," he said. "I think I've won."
