Roger Fingas
Major Israeli carrier Cellcom is bringing its internet TV service, Cellcom TV, to the fourth-generation Apple TV, in what could potentially be an important sales driver for the set-top.
The carrier made the announcement on Tuesday alongside launching a new app, Reuters said on Tuesday. Cellcom TV includes a mix of live channels and on-demand content, making it somewhat similar to Sling TV or PlayStation Vue in the U.S.
It's not clear what unique features the Apple TV app might get, or if it will support tvOS 10.1's single sign-on functions when that update launches next month. Compatibility would allow people with a Cellcom subscription to authenticate once and watch content in multiple apps.
While Cellcom TV is a fledgling service with just over 100,000 subscribers, it may be poised to catch up with local cable company Hot and satellite TV provider Yes. Whereas those two firms lost customers in the last quarter, Cellcom actually gained about 12,000, perhaps reflecting global cord-cutting trends.
Apple could benefit if it can position the Apple TV as an ideal way of watching Cellcom programming on a big screen. The company already markets the set-top as "the future of television," and in fact tvOS 10.1 will also include a native "TV" app making it easier to use an Apple TV as a cable/satellite replacement.
Malcolm Owen
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22 Comments
Simplifying and integrating the AppleTV boot up with TV makers (I.e., TV automatically switches inputs when AppleTV is turned on) and making sign-ins easier with key content players will be much better "sales drivers," IMHO.
With convenient buttons for Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, etc on my new TV remotes, and the availability of pretty much all the movies and TV shows via On Demand (as well as the ability to just use voice with the remote to bring up Netflix on Comcast) I find that I use my AppleTV less and less. Except for my photos and music.
PlayStation Vue is amazing and between my Roku, Chromecast, Xbox One and Smart TV, I really have no reason to get a Apple TV. There's nothing it'll provide that I don't already have even though I can get a nice discount on one.
Apple have really missed the boat with TV, and I cannot see how they will recover from this in the TV space. They have paid too little attention to it and allowed everyone else to overtake them. This is part of why I have just sold all my Apple shares even though I keep on using their products - they are in real danger of being marginalised in an increasingly android-dominated world. It hasn't happened yet, but personally I don't see any serious evidence of them understanding what it takes to be at the leading edge, and if you're not at the leading edge marginalisation in the future is a serious threat. Just going on doing what you have done before like Apple are doing is not an option, and what's more others are doing a better job of forging relationships than Apple nowadays which will give Apple's competitors a big prime mover lead. I wonder whether the bottleneck is Jonny Ive? Maybe he just can't design any more products than they are producing now. Possibly they are so well- ( or over-, take your pick) designed that there is no spare bandwidth for new categories of products?