Apple Set To Begin Streaming TV Service? Time Warner CEO Thinks So

If you ask Time Warner’s CEO, Apple’s Streaming TV service is a sure thing.

CNET is reporting that Jeffrey Bewkes, speaking on a conference call to discuss Time Warner’s latest earnings, said he was “pretty confident” Apple was about to begin a streaming TV service. “We think Apple is very forward-thinking about television,” he said, noting Apple’s deal with Time Warner as HBO Now’s streaming TV service partner. “It’s no surprise to anyone that Apple would be interested in launching a TV product.”

The climate for streaming TV is changing. Apps like Sony Playstation’s Vue and Dish TV’s SlingTV now allow real-time streaming TV with appropriate devices. Before this, companies were reluctant to allow this, for fear of lost revenue. Now, those companies see streaming TV as another channel for increased revenue, since so many people are now watching more videos via streaming, like with Netflix.

Time Warner and Apple are now closely associated with the deal they completed that makes Apple the exclusive carrier of the streaming TV online service HBO Now, for the moment. Richard Plepler, head of HBO, said other deals are in the works.

“We are having very productive conversations with our traditional partners,” he said, referring to pay-TV companies. “By the end of the year we will have deals with them for HBO Now as well.”

According to CTV News, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, during a conference call regarding earnings this week, announced that there were “major, major” changes coming. Being Apple, of course, no further information was revealed. Even without any overt announcments to its plans, both Cook and former Apple CEO Steve Jobs were public for their dissatisfaction with pay TV as it currently worked. With smartphones, tablets, and video on demand, both felt streaming TV technology dictated a new way to watch TV.

For most of the last two years, many have felt that Apple was creating at High Definition television to take the market by storm. However, it seems more certain that Apple is going to utilize their Apple TV tabletop device to allow a streaming TV service to owners of the device.

Any new devices or services will be announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference, which begins on June 8. The new streaming TV service will coincide with a new streaming TV device, which would respond to voice commands and gestures. The new device will also make available access to console-like gaming and iOS Apps to any TV with an HDMI interface.

[Image courtesy of Pavtube]