Apple's Eddy Cue talks over-the-top Apple TV services, interactive content in interview

Published by CNNMoney on Friday, the three-minute video clip and accompanying report largely echo what Apple brass have been trumpeting as Apple TV's key features, though Cue provides a few examples illustrating how the set-top box could be the "future of television."

The most important ingredient is the tvOS App Store, Cue said. Like Apple's epic success with iOS, Cue and company are creating an entirely new platform with Apple TV, one whose potential is defined not by a single entity, but by a cabal of developers. And there are thousands of app makers clamoring to get their wares on tvOS.

Cue notes the tvOS App Store opens the door to new possibilities in interactive television, a market some broadcasters are testing out through integration with Twitter and other forms of social media. With Apple TV and supporting backend technology, Cue said stations like CNN might completely reimagine the live interview by implementing a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" button in their tvOS app, for example.

On the topic of over-the-top services, Cue added some color to rumors of an Apple-branded subscription package, saying providers like Comcast can make complete packages available in-app if they so choose.

"We want to get to the point where customers are able to buy whatever they want, however they want," Cue said. "We're not fixed into 'There's only one way to buy it.' Just like we've done with the App Store, where there have been things that have been free; things that you subscribe to; things that you pay for; things that are in-app. All of those capabilities will be here and we want that market to be able to develop."

Apple is widely rumored to be working on a branded TV service, but negotiations with the entrenched industry are expectedly slow going. Early whispers said Apple would launch a Web-based service in 2015, but the most recent rumblings have pushed back that date to next year.