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This might be Apple's best chance to change the future of TV

On Wednesday, The New York Post dropped a bombshell: Apple is potentially interested in buying Time Warner, the huge media company that owns CNN, TBS, and HBO. 

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At first blush, it sounds like a strange marriage. After all, Apple is one of the most innovative hardware companies of our time, responsible for the Mac, iPod, and the iPhone, and Time Warner is a legacy media company that owns cable channels and movie studios.

Game Of Thrones
It wouldn't be out of the question for "Game of Thrones" to be owned by Apple. HBO

But it actually makes perfect sense.

Apple has been trying to build its own streaming TV service, which would compete with cable and satellite providers like Comcast, DirecTV, and Dish.

But Apple has had to put those plans on hold, as Bloomberg reported last month, because media companies want more money from Apple to license their programming.

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Programming is the most important element when it comes to providing a TV service. After all, people won't subscribe to something if it doesn't have any of the channels or content they want to watch.

It would give Apple a ton of content

If Apple were to buy Time Warner, it would, overnight, give Apple a stable of channels to choose from. Time Warner's big networks are HBO, CNN, TBS, TNT, and The CW, but the list goes on: Cartoon Network, TCM, truTV, HLN, and more.

anderson cooper barack obama cnn
U.S. President Barack Obama talks with CNN's Anderson Cooper on January 7, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

But Apple would gain so much more than that. Time Warner also owns Warner Bros., the entertainment company that's not only behind the "Harry Potter" and "Lego" movies, but also behind DC Comics, which owns "Batman," "Superman," and more. It would also get New Line Cinema, which has the distribution rights for titles like "The "Lord of the Rings" and "Rush Hour" franchises.

But there's even more! Time Warner also owns the video game company Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, which is behind games like "Shadow of Mordor" and the "Lego" video games.

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DC Comics' "Batman v Superman." Warner Bros.

It would give Apple leverage

Beyond getting the TV networks and studios, owning Time Warner would also give Apple a leg up in negotiating for other companies' content — that is, it could make it easier for Apple to get more programming for its streaming TV service.

Here's how that could go down: Other TV providers need Time Warner's content for their own cable services. But now, they'll have to negotiate with Apple to get those rights. This brings us to Comcast.

Comcast isn't just a TV and Internet provider. It also owns NBCUniversal, which owns networks like NBC, Bravo, E!, USA, CNBC, Universal, and much more.

So if Apple buys Time Warner, Apple will have something that Comcast wants — Time Warner programming, like HBO, CNN, and more — and Comcast will have something Apple wants — NBCUniversal programming. This will make it easier for Apple to negotiate with Comcast for content.

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"The Voice" on NBC. NBC/Contributor/Getty Images

Apple has the cash

Time Warner has a market capitalization of around $57 billion, so buying the company would, of course, be a huge purchase for Apple. Beats is Apple's largest acquisition to date, and it was only $3 billion. But Apple definitely has the the money — as of last quarter, it had more than $205 billion in cash and a market cap of about $549 billion.

There are also reasons, however, Apple should stay away

The purchase would come with some risk. Apple is a hardware company, and that's where its strength is — designing and selling great products — so a Time Warner acquisition would be a huge departure from Apple's core business.

Plus, traditional TV, which is of course a huge part of how Time Warner makes money, is being chipped away at by on-demand offerings like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and even HBO Now.

It gives Apple its best chance to revolutionize TV

Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, has repeatedly lamented that TV is "broken" and that it's stuck in the 1970s. Cook has said that it's hard to find what you want to watch, consumers can't choose when to watch something, and the user experience is awful. Apple has made some progress in fixing the TV experience — it released a new Apple TV set top box a few months ago — but the company's larger TV ambitions have hit roadblocks with content owners, as we mentioned above.

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A purchase of Time Warner would be a step toward fulfilling Apple's vision of what TV should be like.

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