News that Apple is to start offering the HBO app on the Apple TV in the US has lead to speculation that similar deals could see Apple offer Sky Go, iPlayer, 4OD and other OnDemand apps on the Apple TV here in the UK.
Consumers who subscribe to HBO via their cable provider will be able to watch HBO shows on the Apple TV when the app becomes available later this year. HBO is a premium cable television network owned by Time Warner. It has 30 million subscribers.
This is first time that Apple has agreed to place a subscription-based app on the Apple TV that requires authentication.
There are currently HBO Go apps for the iPad and iPhone.
HBO has already made its content available to subscribers with a Roku or Xbox.
HBO sources told Bloomberg that cable and satellite subscribers who pay for HBO will be able to watch more than 600 hours of films and television shows on Apple TV.
HBO told AllThingsD: "We’ve said we would like HBO GO accessible on all preferred platforms so we are always having discussions with a variety of companies."
The Apple TV currently offers very few third-party apps. In the UK users have access to Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, MLB.TV and Wall Street Journal Live alongside the iTunes content.
It's interesting to note that The Wall Street Journal is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Sky News is also partly owned by Rupert Murdoch.
Apple sold two million Apple TV boxes in the just gone quarter. "We sold more last quarter than we did ever before," Cook said during the conference call to discuss quarterly earnings.
The TV area is of a lot of interest to Apple, Cook said. "I tend to believe that there is a lot we can contribute to this space," Cook said. "I don't want to be more specific."
Apple is widely expected to launch its own television within the next couple of years.
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Tim Cook on Television: Apple has a lot it can 'contribute to this space'
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Comments received
Razattax said on Fri, 01 Feb 2013
"This is first time that Apple has agreed to place a subscription-based app on the Apple TV that requires authentication."
How is that any different from Netflix?
mikfrak said on Fri, 08 Feb 2013
Apple is just taking too long and moving with glacial slowness. Rumours of an Apple TV set have dragged on for years and having to wait 12 months for minor updates to the Apple TV box mean that as far as I am concerned they have already missed the boat. It should have had apps from launch and the small number of apps it does have are all targeted at a US audience. Until Apple TV gets its own app store so that foreign TV audiences can download content specific to the channels they receive and sports they watch it will remain an odd little hobby for Apple. Now that Jobs is dead I suspect innovation at Apple means endlessly pandering to Ives's obsession with minimalist design, even if that means crippling performance (3D hardware won't fit in his pretty little boxes). I expect the only update we will see for Apple TV will be an ever smaller box and a TV set will have to wait for Ives to finish agonising for another 12 months over whether he can shave another millimetre off the bezel.
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