It looks more like Apple will likely partner with a couple of satellite or cable companies and offer to recreate their TV/settop experience for them. Basically, replace Cisco and TiVO, and change the whole customer experience model to be on the set top box, no more calling in to add channels, deal with PPV issues, etc.
I would also bet they're going to try to find a way to make 4K video distribution work to have a reason to switch, perhaps building a dedicated high-speed VPN from the iTunes Store through the cable company's network where they get a cut of the price - since there's no way you could stream 4K over a wide area without dedicated QoS,.
The question is who will bite. Clearly the wireless carriers have benefitted a lot from Apple's presence - more data usage == more dollars. If Apple can do this with cable companies, they'll have a massive and eager channel to sell shiny 4K TVs and boxes through (and more iTunes content), and Cable companies will have incentive to experiment with a new a-la-carte vs. subscription content pricing model for 4K.
I would also bet they're going to try to find a way to make 4K video distribution work to have a reason to switch, perhaps building a dedicated high-speed VPN from the iTunes Store through the cable company's network where they get a cut of the price - since there's no way you could stream 4K over a wide area without dedicated QoS,.
The question is who will bite. Clearly the wireless carriers have benefitted a lot from Apple's presence - more data usage == more dollars. If Apple can do this with cable companies, they'll have a massive and eager channel to sell shiny 4K TVs and boxes through (and more iTunes content), and Cable companies will have incentive to experiment with a new a-la-carte vs. subscription content pricing model for 4K.