Apple may be planning its own paid web TV service
Rumours suggets Apple may be about to take on Sony's PlayStation Vue by offering paid TV channels which customers can stream online
Apple has made several attempts to break into the world of TV in the past few years, but so far it’s had fairly little success. However, the latest rumours suggest that the company may be readying its own US web TV service that would offer bundles of programmes to customers directly over the internet.
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According to Recode, industry executives are saying that Apple is currently in talks with TV content providers with the view to offer an ‘over-the-top’ pay TV service that customers would be able to access online. Recode’s sources also say that Apple has shown a demo of the proposed service to these programmers as well. However, talks still seem to be in “early stages” according to Recode, so it’s unlikely we’ll hear anything concrete about a price or release date any time soon.
Admittedly, it’s not a lot of information to go on at the moment, but if the rumours prove true, it would certainly make an interesting companion to Apple’s current Apple TV box. At the moment, Apple TV only offers a selection of movies and TV shows as well as built-in Netflix, but this proposed web TV service would likely offer content from specific channels which you’d then watch using Apple’s own interface.
Sony is also getting ready to launch a similar service in the US with its web TV platform PlayStation Vue. Here, customers will be able to watch live TV and on-demand content which they can stream over the web and on their PS3 or PS4 instead of paying for a cable or satellite service. Sony CEO Andrew House told The New York Times that it plans to have a recommendation service as well so customers can end their “frustration of not being able to really access and surface the content that they really want to see.”
So far, it’s been confirmed that Vue will launch with around 75 channels at launch, with CBS, Discovery Communications, Fox, NBC Universal and Viacom all on board to provide both live ‘linear’ TV shows as well as three-day catch-up services on popular programmes. PlayStation Vue is expected to launch in the US sometime in the first quarter of 2015, but there’s been no word yet on whether the service will be making its way to the UK.