We weren’t sure what could be next for the company, but now a report from Recode has revealed that Apple’s plans for TV have shifted quite dramatically.
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Apple has a new strategy for how it will take over your television, only instead of selling you TV streaming service that replaces cable, the company is reportedly working on a interface that will help users find what content is available on every iOS and tvOS app. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said in the past that he believes the future of TV is apps.
The idea is to let users see what kind of programming is available in video apps made by the likes of HBO, Netflix and ESPN, without having to open up each app individually, and to play shows and movies with a single click. Instead, the company seems to have opted for just offering the interface for customers to access the content from their different TV providers.
Industry sources said Apple’s plans are an outgrowth of the TV service it wanted to launch past year.
Much like what Apple is allegedly working on, the Yahoo Video Guide lets you search all your services, including Showtime, Amazon Video, and Hulu.
Apple is in talks with TV programmers because it wants to bring additional metadata to its universal TV guide.
And if Apple’s guide became a popular way for people to access video, then Apple could have real power in the TV ecosystem – power it had in the music industry when it built the iTunes store in 2003, but doesn’t have now when it talks to networks and studios. Not only that, but this TV guide app seems to already exist: Yahoo released a Video Guide app for iOS in December 2015.
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Apple, it seems, will have to come up with something for Apple TV that is nothing shy of revolutionary in order to put the ball back in their court when negotiating with TV executives. While some may be excited at the prospect that their shows will be easier to find, on the other hand they might have concerns about users’ focus moving away from their respective apps to a universal guide.
