Apple has added another experienced executive to its leadership team with the hire of Peter Stern, a former chief product, people and strategy officer at Time Warner Cable. Stern parted ways with the cable provider earlier this year after it was bought out by Charter Communications.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the hire which has been confirmed by Apple.

The 44-year-old executive is already quite familiar with Apple. In addition to helping his former employer navigate the unstable waters of multiple takeover attempts, Stern was reportedly involved in talks with Apple a few years ago with regard to bringing live television to Apple's set-top box. Those talks stalled due to a number of issues and no deal was ever reached.

As The Journal notes, Stern is a vocal proponent of cable companies moving away from leasing proprietary set-top boxes to customers. Instead, he believes service providers should be focusing their efforts on creating apps that deliver TV service across a variety of devices.

Sources say Stern will serve as a vice president at Apple and will report directly to Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet software and services.

Although there's no confirmation, it would seem as though Stern is being brought on to help lead Apple's streaming television efforts. Numerous rumors over the years claim Apple has tried repeatedly to break into the industry - perhaps with a vision to reinvent it as it did with music and iTunes - but thus far, they've come up short.

Lead image courtesy Getty Images