The Apple rumors continue to spread, the latest claiming that the company considered buying Time Warner at the end of last year.
iTunes and services chief Eddy Cue put the idea on the table during a meeting at the time with Olaf Olafsson, head of corporate strategy at Time Warner, according to three people with knowledge of the situation. However, neither Apple CEO Tim Cook nor Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes were present at the meeting, which reportedly never progressed past the preliminary stage.
The sources told The Financial Times that the goal of the meeting was to discuss other potential partnerships between the two companies, such as including Time Warner's cable channels in Apple's rumored video streaming service.
Such a deal would be beneficial for creating a service that customers could stream on the Apple TV, iPads and other Apple devices, as Time Warner's media properties include CNN, HBO, TBS and TNT. The media giant also owns the rights to NBA in the U.S.
The partnership wasn't the only move to come out of the report, with the sources also saying that Apple intends to get a lead ahead of Amazon, Netflix and other competitors by increasing spending on original content to "several hundred million dollars a year."
The rumor comes after it was reported earlier this year that Apple executives talked to TV producers and Hollywood studios about creating original TV shows that would be exclusive to iTunes customers, and the tech giant is also currently working on a scripted series for the Apple Music streaming service that stars and is produced by hip hop icon Dr. Dre and focuses on the app economy.
One of the sources added that Apple has not ruled out buying a media company in order to get ahead of its rivals.
Launching a streaming TV service has been a priority for Apple for quite some time, with Bewkes saying in April 2015 that he was "pretty confident" the company would eventually make this service a reality. However, Apple's issues with securing deals with CBS, ABC, Disney, Fox and other media providers has caused numerous delays with this plan. Providing original content could put Apple back on track with this objective.
The report follows shortly after Apple was also rumored to be preparing to compete with Amazon's Echo speaker and Alexa assistant with its own intelligent speaker that is powered by Siri.
