“There have been rumors of an actual Apple television ever since Steve Jobs told his biographer that he’d “cracked” the interface problem, but it’s never been anywhere close to reality — you can’t make a successful TV without actual TV programming, and getting that programming has usually meant you have to plug in a cable or satellite box,” Nilay Patel reports for The Verge. “It doesn’t matter who builds your TV if you’re forced to use Comcast’s cable box; you’ll never see Apple’s interface anyway.”
“What Apple and the others have really needed is deals with all the TV networks to pipe in their channels directly, but it’s never been able to get them — many TV networks are owned by cable companies, and no cable company wants to give up control of that primary interface,” Patel reports. “But that might all change soon. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler just proposed a rule change that would require cable and broadcast networks to sell their programming to any company that wants to be a TV provider, not just cable or satellite companies.”
Read more in the full article here.