Roger Fingas
Comcast is sidestepping development of an Apple TV app for Xfinity TV customers in favor of its plans for Roku boxes and technology based on Sky's Now TV service, a report claimed on Friday.
Comcast told Apple about its plans in December, shortly after buying U.K. broadcaster Sky, according to BESTAppleTV sources. Now TV is based in the U.K., Ireland, and Italy, but Roku already licenses its platform to companies like Sky, making it relatively simple to adapt that technology to the U.S. During a Jan. 23 earnings call, Comcast executives said they were planning to offer Comcast-branded Roku boxes to Xfinity TV customers sometime in 2020.
"At this time, we have not reached terms with Apple to bring our Xfinity Stream app to Apple TV devices," a spokesperson commented to BESTAppleTV.
Xfinity Streamis already available for iPhones and iPads. Bringing it to the Apple TV would presumably create conflict with the Roku deal, especially if Comcast were to offer support for tvOS 12's "zero sign-on" feature. That lets an Apple TV automatically authenticate a cable provider if it detects the same company's internet service, making it trivial to sign into channel apps.
One of Comcast's rivals, Charter Spectrum, released a promised zero sign-on app at the beginning of January. Effectively it turns an Apple TV into a cable box, giving access to every Spectrum channel and the provider's on-demand content.
Other companies using the Apple TV as a cable/satellite box replacement include France's Canal and Switzerland's Salt.
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40 Comments
Now is actually pretty good. Small payments for getting live sports etc for a day or a week out of contract is a good idea.
It is up to Comcast customers to put pressure on Comcast to make them offer Xfinity Apple TV App the way done to Amazon Prime video App. If it requires to work with Apple than so be it. Customers should say, Comacast make it happen when all other cable service provider has done it.
Xfinity Stream on Roku works well as long as you're not looking to change the channel too often. It's delayed by about 45-60 seconds from "live" on the rest of X1 boxes (which are still usually delayed 30-45 seconds from true live). Almost an X1 cable box replacement if it had more DVR functionality. Perfect for a guest/spare room or office. Even better if you want to bring a TV outside in nice weather.
Roku's cheap sticks and cheap models are ok, but their more expensive models are fantastic.
X1 boxes are also becoming more like streaming boxes with apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime directly on the X1 box. No need to switch TV input to Roku. Will be interesting to see how this develops over next few months/years.
It still requires a Comcast subscription to run on Apple TV so you might as well use Comcast’s box. Having Comcast streaming is useless and sucks compared to their cable delivery.
Apple needs needs to provide a service similar to Comcast not simply allow their streaming. Amazon Prime is different because they only stream.
My smart TV is Roku. Not bad at all. Only thing I use my Apple TV for now is AirPlay and watching Apple keynotes.