Apple has hired former Time Warner Cable exec Peter Stern as a vice president working on cloud services, which includes the technology company’s subscription offerings such as Apple Music and a potential streaming television service, reports the Wall Street Journal.
He was most recently chief product, people, and strategy officer at Time Warner Cable, but left when it was bought by Charter Communications. Stern will report to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, according to the WSJ. His hiring is sure to revive speculation that Apple is preparing its own streaming television service (which may be true).
Apple’s Web TV offering, as originally planned (at least according to the rumor mill), was to be anchored by broadcasters such as ABC, CBS and Fox, but wouldn’t include smaller channels typically included in a standard cable TV package. In January TheStreet claimed that Apple was looking to product original content for its upcoming TV streaming service a la Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. The Cupertino, California-based company began sounding out Hollywood’s creative community late last year, but never signed any agreements, the article said.
An interesting tidbit: Apple considered a buyout of Time Warner in late 2015. Cue supposedly raisedthe idea at a meeting with Time Warner’s head of corporate strategy, Olaf Olafsson, according to The Financial Times.
