Moonves: CBS No Longer Interested In CNN

Les Moonves

During Thursday's Earnings Conference Call with anaylysts, CBS CEO Les Moonves gushed about opportunities for CBS in the coming quarters, in part because of the demise of Aereo, the coming debut of Thursday Night Football on the network and what he expects will be "a frenzy of political spending this fall."

CBS will soon be producing original shows for digital video channels like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, C.E.O. Les Moonves told investors Thursday.

He also said that Nielsen ratings that measure viewing seven days after broadcast is a big deal.

Moonves also addressed speculation that CBS would be interested in acquiring CNN. He acknowledged interest, but said the opportunity is off the table since 21st Century Fox said this week it would not pursue a merger with CNN's parent company, Time Warner.

"We thought about it, we talked about it, it is obviously something that is not going to happen," Moonves said, adding that the value of the channel being mentioned in the press (as much as $10 billion), was not what CBS would have paid. "The numbers they were throwing around were silly."