| Arcturus said: If a cable company has an IPTV service, could the Xbox One (or other devices, like tablets) access that TV service from just an App, without the need for a cable box? |
It can but problem is that IPTV just isn't there yet for many reasons... One reason why cable box is needed here is because guys like Rogers, Comcast etc want to keep tracking TV viewership themselves and probably don't feel comfortable with Microsoft having access to this data directly. Cable delivery aside, the way cable companies insert ads in to a television stream VS how ads need to be inserted in to IPTV like setup is drastically different. Advertising is the main source of revenue for cable companies and the backend for ad delivery through IPTV just isn't there yet...
What Microsot has to do with Xbox One right now is offer the cable companies the ability to track show viewership securely like they would directly with their cable box and at the same time integrate with the service better than something like Google TV does. In a few years, once IPTV gets figured out, the Xbox One integration with TV will be sublime.
