This is kind of interesting. Speaking at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Telecom and Media conference today, Time Warner’s CEO Glenn Britt told investors that the cable company is in talks with a few tech giants, including Apple, over video streaming deals.
Britt says the deals are similar to the one Time Warner inked with Roku back in March, which allows subscribers to stream 300 cable channels to the Internet-connected set-top box. And his comments suggest we could see a comparable package land on the Apple TV…
FierceCable reports:
“You should assume we’re talking to everyone who makes devices like this, whether it’s Samsung smart TVs, Apple, Microsoft,” Britt said at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Telecom and Media conference. Britt’s remarks suggest Time Warner Cable may eventually offer the TWC TV app through the Apple TV set-top and Microsoft’s new Xbox One gaming console, which will debut later this year.”
The site goes on to note that Britt is one of the few executives in the cable industry that are embracing the idea of letting subscribers navigate their cable programming through interfaces running on third-party devices, like the Roku box, or maybe a future Apple product?
Remember, the Cupertino company has long been rumored to be working on a TV product—either a full blown TV set, an advanced digital set-top box, or both. The problem is it needs both live and on-demand content, which it doesn’t own. So it needs a partner like TW.
Last August, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was in talks with U.S. cable operators over letting consumers use an Apple device as a set-top box for live TV and other content. The outlet described the device as having an iPad-like interface and a cloud-based DVR.
But even if we take wild unannounced product speculation out of it, the CEO’s comments are still notable. A Time Warner Cable app would be a great addition to the current Apple TV, which already offers access to Netflix, Hulu, 3 major sports networks and soon, HBO.
Would Apple TV be more useful to you if it could replace a cable box?