Charter will offer its Spectrum pay-TV service as an app on Apple TV later this year. The Apple TV Charter app will provide access to the Charter lineup to nearly 50 million households, according to an Apple press release.
In addition Charter will add Apple’s TV 4K offering to its lineup. AppleTV 4K offers 4K HDR movies. Charter is joining DirecTV Now in the United States,as well as operators in other countries that are offering Apple TV 4K.
The Charter/Apple news came in connection with Apple’s preview announcement for tvOS12, the operating system designed to support Dolby Atmos audio and Apple TV 4K, as well as new convenience features.
Apple TV Charter Spectrum App
The Apple TV Charter Spectrum app will work on Apple TV 4K, iPhone and iPad and will be seamlessly integrated with Siri and the Apple TV app.
The Apple deal is not a first for Charter, which is the second largest U.S. cable company. Charter in late 2015 began offering its programming through an app on the Roku streaming platform. The Charter Roku app can be access on any television connected to a Roku device. These include set top boxes, streaming sticks and Roku-powered TVs.
Comcast also has been pursuing similar deals. In early 2017 Roku released the beta of the Comcast’s Xfinity app. It includes an enhanced viewer guide that includes graphics, personalized recommendations and detailed information that makes content searching and discovery easier.
Apple TV 4K
In today’s press release, Apple noted that when used with the tvOS 12 operating system, Apple TV 4K will support new capabilities including:
- tvOS offers several new features to Apple TV 4K and Apple TV 4th generation: With iOS 12, users can securely AutoFill passwords from iPhone and iPad to Apple TV to easily sign in to Apple TV apps.
- The Apple TV Remote will be automatically added to Control Center on iPhone or iPad for Apple TV users, giving users quick access to Apple TV controls.
- Home control systems like Control4, Crestron and Savant can be used to control Apple TV, including using Siri for voice search and control.
