Will Apple TV Kill The Cable Box? Not So Fast.

Cable companies might not share Apple’s enthusiasm for making cable boxes obsolete.

- Jared Newman

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Cable companies are finally abandoning their stodgy old set-top boxes, and are finally ready to deliver television service through modern media streamers such as Apple TV.

That’s the argument Apple put forth during its Worldwide Developers Conference (go.macworld.com/wdc8), where the company announced that Charter Spectrum will deliver an Apple TV app later this year, complete with Siri integration and TV app support. Spectrum will also support a new “zero sign-on” feature for customers who have both internet and TV service, allowing them to log in into TV Everywhere apps on Apple TV without entering a username or password.

“[The] typical cable box is becoming a thing of the past as these companies embrace internet-based delivery,” Jen Folse, Apple TV’s lead designer, said. “And many of them share our vision of Apple TV as the one device for live, on-demand, and cloud DVR content.”

Though I’d like to believe that’s true, the past couple years have shown that cable companies have little desire to kill the cable box, at least in the United States. The revenue streams are too lucrative and the desire to control customers is too strong, and the Apple TV isn’t doing much to change the status quo.

SUPPLEMENT, NOT REPLACE

Charter’s arrangement with Apple doesn’t exactly break new ground. The cable giant already offers apps for Roku, Xbox One, and Samsung smart TVs, allowing customers to watch live TV and on-demand video without renting additional cable boxes. These apps even have a “zero sign-on” element to them, as they automatically bypass the login screen when they’re connected to the internet through a Spectrum-approved cable modem.