While it's not exactly breaking news, a new report claims that Apple continues to hit a brick wall with its HDTV ambitions as talks with content providers appear to be going nowhere.
Bloomberg is reporting that old-school media and cable companies are still not willing to "loosen their grip on the television industry," which means Apple will be tabling its HDTV ambitions this year.
Unlike Apple's ability to reinvent the music business, Cupertino is finding television a much harder nut to crack, which means the $99 Apple TV "hobby" continues to be its only foray into HDTV.
“It’s not a nice, simple, easy story that Apple is going to come in and turn the world upside-down and we’re all going to live happily ever after,” explains Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Craig Moffett. The analyst also warns that hopes for an Apple HDTV anytime soon “ignores the business realities that make this such a complicated industry.”
According to the Bloomberg report, "the main stumbling blocks with cable companies have included a tussle for control over the software that determines the screen interface -- the look and feel of the viewer’s experience," claim people familiar with these discussions.
There may be one bright spot, however.
"Apple is furthest along negotiating with Time Warner Cable Inc.," the report reveals. "Yet even if Time Warner Cable agrees to a deal with Apple, it wouldn’t represent a radical change for customers, who would still pay their monthly cable bill."
Of course, Time Warner Cable doesn't have coast-to-coast service, which means Apple would have to start regionally with an eye toward expanding the service "if it proves successful."
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
