According to The Wall Street Journal, while Apple is still working towards an advanced TV set top box, the project has lowered its ambitions, and is no longer working towards the previous designs, including Advert free access for entire TV seasons, and on-demand content from iCloud.
Originally it was thought that Apple had planned to bypass the TV networks, but now are having to attempt to acquire programming rights from media companies, though they may try to acquire rights directly in the future.
Apple TV has been mentioned in many reports discussing the content, but it would now seem that Apple has been forced to work through Time Warner, Comcast and other Satellite providers. These media companies would be right to be concerned about Apple’s original plans to oust them from the supply chain, so it will be interesting to watch what happens as this unfolds.
“Apple’s latest approach is far less ambitious. Instead of asking for full current seasons of shows, it is asking programmers for just the most recent five episodes of current-season shows—the standard for video-on-demand services in the TV industry, a person familiar with the matter said. Apple is also proposing to disable fast-forwarding on shows for three days after they air, which would protect TV channels”.
Watch this space (we’ll let you know as soon as we hear more).