Imagine the Wii U as a cable box and the controller as a TV remote.

[richardhutnik]

miz1q2w3e said:

Why partner with anyone? Why not just take the cable signal or the TV video signal directly into the console, much like how TVs don't need to be "partnered", they just receive/display the signal

Anyways, even though it might be a cool idea (especially using the WiiU controller as a cool remote), I don't see this happening at all

Cable companies would want to have a device powerful enough to get into homes, that doesn't mess with what they want to do on their end.  They offer a next gen console to users that won't eat up their bandwidth.

Also, "cable box" here can be a general term for a device you use to control what channel you watch, and so on.