Negotiations to bring subscription television to Apple TV have come to a halt with a report Wednesday that Apple has walked away from the negotiating table.

According to Re/Code talks between the tech giant and media companies broke down due to Apple’s desire to offer what is referred to as a “skinny bundle” of channels, an offering that would have seen subscribers able to purchase access to around a dozen channels for $30 a month or less.

The report notes that the price Apple was willing to pay for the individual channels wasn’t an issue versus what each bundle itself would have included; traditionally networks have been able to dictate what is available and often include less desirable channels with the headline, more appealing ones, whereas Apple didn’t want the chaff and instead only offer the appealing channels in a bundle.

An example of such an arrangement might include 21st Century Fox being reluctant to sell Fox and Fox News without it being bundled with FX, FXX and other channels, or Disney not wanting to sell rights to ESPN, ABC and Disney unless Disney Junior, ESPN2 and ESPN Classic was included.

Apple is said to have offered to sell additional tiers of programming, for example, a sports tier, but remained insistent that the base package is limited to a small group as that’s what customers want, and it would also keep the price low.

Dying media

Times are changing, people are cancelling their cable subscriptions by the millions and flocking to video on demand (VOD) services such as those offered by Netflix, Inc.

The reticence of the legacy media companies to come to the party with Apple simply proves once again how out of touch they are with the changing media landscape.

Apple was offering channels such as ESPN, who have been bleeding subscribers by the million, the ability to stake a claim in the brave new world of connected streaming television and potentially stem that flow, but none the less the answer in return is no simply because the media executives don’t want to lose a limited level of control; you can nearly envisage those very same executives being the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, continuing to deny they are injured until the very end.

For existing Apple TV users it’s doubtful many will care as they purchased the device without the ability to obtain access to the channels, but it may stunt sales growth in the device as Apple would have been hoping the ability to offer cable channels would have been an extra selling point.

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