I saw this as a potential other use for the Wii U system, and the screen with it.  I had an idea where Nintendo partners with various cable companies to have a special version of the Wii U system that received video input into the system, and spools it out both to the TV and the controller.  The touch screen controller could serve as an advanced TV remote and also be able to do picture in picture.  In case where two people wanted to watch TV, the Wii U system could allow one person to watch TV regularly and the other person channel surf through the touch tablet remote, without disrupting the main picture.  

There you go, BLAMMO, Nintendo gains control over the living the room, the way Microsoft and Nintendo have failed to do so.  The Wii U system then could be able to broadcast high def TV to those who aren't able to see it.  All that would be needed is for the Wii U to receive video input and spool it out to the touch tablet/screen controller.

This is actually a good idea, but when has Nintendo ever partnered with a North American firm for media?

I suppose it's a nice ided, but I don't think it will happen.

Point is they don't need to be.  They remain neutral on it.  They could look to offer the feature separate of the cable box itself, as an option.

But if you're watching TV, you're not playing video games. I like to imagine my TV is the top half of a Nintendo DS and the Wii U controller is the bottom half--with a few new tricks.

No, I refuse to imagine this.

sounds cool! good for people who watch TV

You could then also switch to the playing of a game on the Wii U system and back to TV.

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.