Can Apple do with TV what it did with the smartphone and MP3 player?

Steve Smith, head of thought leadership at Starcom MediaVest Group, wonders whether Apple has a major role to play in the television market?

There are rumours that Apple want to produce television sets.

In theory, as with the iPhone and iPod, doing so is likely to result in people giving Apple a further role in their everyday routines, only this time embedded in the routines of whole households rather than individuals.

However, unlike with personal music devices and mobile phones, it is unclear that Apple has a major role to play.

Apple gave us ease of use and content through touch screens and apps, among other things.

Translated to the television, this means that Apple would have to change the content and navigability parts of the value proposition.

Navigability would be the simpler of the two to accomplish. But navigate what? Content wise, Apple would need to go beyond being able to access web content. Most likely this would mean iTunes, with people being able to access, rent and buy programmes they want.

Other media companies are already taking up this space, but within the confines of rights agreements. Any game-changer Apple would have to make would be around rights – something over which Apple has less control than it does over technology.

A major complaint about YouView is its short catch up period (seven days). This illustrates just how reluctant content owners are to cede ground over licensing.