Apple has "pressed the hold button" on its live television service, in the words of CBS president Les Moonves. The broadcasting executive spoke today at Business Insider's Ignition conference in New York, saying Apple was "looking for a service" but ultimately decided to put it on the back burner. Apple hoped to unveil a streaming TV service next year — if not sooner — but pricing disputes for content deals were to said to have continually pushed it back. Now, Moonves seems to suggest it may no longer be an immediate priority.

Apple's take on live TV is said to be an internet-delivered subscription service, similar to Dish Networks' Sling TV. But Apple is reportedly seeking far more than the two dozen or so channels Sling offers and for a price far lower than that of traditional cable at around $30 to $40 a month. Apple nixed a September reveal for the service alongside the Apple TV, according to an August report from Bloomberg. The company also planned on revealing the service first in June, according to The Wall Street Journal, but those plans too were scrapped.

Apple halted a September launch of its live TV subscription service

Apple has repeatedly referred to its set-top box as "the future of television," yet the company will have to cut unprecedented deals with content creators to make that happen, as it did with the music industry more than a decade ago. Moonves did note today that such a service "will happen" eventually because "people will not be spending money on channels they don’t want to watch."