14 DAY TRIAL // A few tantalizing paragraphs in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs revealed – after the Apple co-founder’s death – that he had had a grand vision for revolutionizing the TV experience with a clean interface, an app for every channel, and a much simpler remote control.
That vision may soon materialize as “Apple is negotiating with production studios and networks to provide content for a television set that would emphasize apps over cable TV,” according to people familiar with the negotiations, cited by Quartz.
The people reporting this are said to be well connected (some of them coming from the Wall Street Journal).
The report in question mentions “Disney’s ESPN, Time Warner’s HBO, and Viacom, which owns MTV Networks, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central,” as just “some” of the companies that have talked to Apple to deploy apps on a future television set envisioned by the Cupertino giant.
The cheap, puck-sized Apple TV set-top box that the company still markets as a “hobby” has been performing well lately, and Apple has already started its paradigm shift by deploying channels as apps.
“Instead of organizing everything around channels, it would organize around apps from networks, studios, and others that own content,” according to Quartz.
“Other features, like search, might help eliminate the notion of channel-flipping altogether. Cable companies, in that scenario, could become just another app that consumers choose to pay for or not, rather than the core of the TV set,” the report reveals.
It’s certainly a tantalizing prospect, but the cable companies are clinging to their existing business model which essentially plans to put boxes in people’s houses for the rest of eternity.
Apple, which is seen as a disruptor, is having a hard time convincing these people to change their business model. Understandably, they won’t have it. Their profits are ridiculously high, but Apple wants a piece of the pie, whether they like it or not.