Comcast Says Apple is Exploring Development of Set-Top Box

This morning, Comcast and TWC filed their joint Applications and Public Interest Statement with the FCC in support of their deal to merge TWC with Comcast. Interestingly, in the statement, Comcast says that Apple is exploring the development of a set-top box.

The companies argue that a merger is necessary to compete against new competition in the marketplace.

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Today, Google competes as a network, video, and technology provider, and 8 out 9 of the next Google Fiber markets the company announced are in Comcast or TWC areas. Apple tablets are viewing platforms for cable services even while Apple offers an online video service, Apple TV, and explores development of an Apple set-top box. Microsoft just announced that it will feature ads on the Xbox One, creating a new video advertising platform. And just last week, Amazon announced its own set-top box while it continues to leverage its unequaled sales platform and family of competitive tablets to promote its burgeoning Prime Instant Video business.


The business reason for this transaction is to create the scale that will allow Comcast to make larger investments in R&D, innovation, and infrastructure to enable us to compete more effectively in this incredibly dynamic marketplace. Scale allows us to make the investments to launch a successful program like Internet Essentials, and invest in our broadband, video, and phone products.
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Notably, a recent report claimed that Apple is in talks with Comcast about a streaming television service. The service would use the Apple TV set-top box and get priority service on Comcast's network to bypass net congestion. If true, it's possible that Comcast's statement is based on first hand knowledge.

Apple is widely expected to release an update to the Apple TV in the near future to better compete with Amazon's new Fire TV and the Google Chromecast dongle.

Read More [via Deepak]