A very interesting story broke this past week in the entertainment world. In case you missed it, Steve Jobs released the news that Apple plans to enter the cable TV industry.

Offering streaming television services via the internet through iTunes, Apple would essentially offer television programming online for a fee of $30 per month, less than half the amount of money that a typical cable TV subscriber pays for their programming at home.

On the back end, the company would pay $3 to $4 monthly per subscriber to the major networks and $1 to $2 monthly for cable television. By giving people access to only the channels they want, the theory is that people would pay less money, cutting out on the unnecessary expense of channels that they never end up watching anyway.

The company would certainly have the reach to make its services know relatively quickly. As reported via the news, everything would be offered through iTunes, where Apple already boasts over 100 million subscribers. Therefore, getting the eyeballs on it wouldn't pose much of a challenge, if any at all.

And the networks may be welcoming the opportunity as well. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that both CBS and Disney have been in talks with Apple about jumping aboard and offering their programs. Since CBS also owns Viacom (MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, etc.) and ABC also owns other giants like ESPN, this would open up the doors to a ton of different options. You'd expect the cable networks to follow suit as well, as they wouldn't have much to lose.

These shows would be on demand, meaning that people could access the content whenever they wanted to without having to depend on start times and being there for them. There's also speculation as to whether the content would have advertisements, though that hasn't been revealed yet at this point.

Are people willing to pay to watch television on their computers as opposed to their TV sets? Is the world ready for this yet, and do the cost savings outweigh the novelty of watching everything on a bigger screen? Time will tell.

Some are beginning to speculate that if successful, this could deal a crippling blow to many of the cable TV giants out there who offer their monthly subscription services. Others think it may never take hold of the mainstream, similar to the fate of Apple TV.

What happens from here should definitely be interesting, and more options are certainly never a bad thing.