Roger Fingas
Apple has introduced another 10 U.S. TV providers to the roster supporting single sign-on, a feature which makes it easier to watch movies and TV shows across iPhones, iPads, and Apple TVs.
The latest additions are all regional providers rather than national ones. The biggest of the group is Wave, which despite operating in just three states — Oregon, California, and Washington — serves upwards of 1.7 million people.
The others on the list include:
- Comporium
- Fidelity Communications
- Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico
- MCTV
- Northland Communications
- Service Electric Cablevision
- Shentel
- Vast Broadband
- Vyve Broadband
The new providers bring Apple's total to 24. While some national options are on the list, most notably Dish, DirecTV, and Sling TV, there are many conspicuous gaps such as Comcast, Spectrum, Verizon, and Google Fiber. Dish's Sling is in fact the lone internet-only provider, despite competition from Hulu, YouTube TV, and Sony's PlayStation Vue.
Single sign-on lets people enter credentials once then access video in any iOS and/or Apple TV app with the same content. The feature's absence can be a particular problem on the Apple TV, since logins can be difficult to enter without an iPhone or iPad serving as a better keyboard.
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6 Comments
Apple should build in a simple, "Send PROVIDER Customer Service an email requesting Single Sign-on support" button for those providers who don't.
Was very excited to see Comcast XFINITY ... was disappointed to see it was just a placeholder ==> would love to have a few million people experience this letdown and slam Comcast's Customer Service with an email.
I'd like to Dish Network or at least DishAnywhere added. As a kluge I can use my iPad to run the DishAnywhere app and then mirror it on my AppleTV. Works, but is unnecessarily complicated with the wireless connection when it could just go straight through the AppleTV and its wired connection.
As usual, Cox Cable will be the last to join.
I am surprised that DirecTV is supported but not DirectTV Now.