With TV Everywhere, pay-TV industry seeks to fend off an Apple invasion

Last fall, Apple Inc.'s head of Internet services began making the Hollywood rounds with a proposal to launch a subscription television service that would offer a package of broadcast shows for $10 a month. The service was intended as a dazzling new entertainment feature to spark sales of Apple's soon-to-be-launched iPad. But the plan fizzled when several of the biggest studios rejected the concept out of hand. They also dismissed Apple's comeback pitch: to charge 99 cents per TV episode. Apple's plan conjured a nightmare scenario for the TV industry, which worried it would suffer the same dismal fate as the music business. Apple's iTunes service, after all, had created a market for 99-cent single downloads, helping cripple the sale of $12 music CDs. Some feared that Apple's proposition would wreak the same havoc upon the average $70-a-month cable-TV customer. The cable industry and the studios are working to hold Apple at bay, racing to come up with an alternative that will keep their business intact. As consumers increasingly expect to watch TV on their computers and portable devices, the future of online television is up for grabs.