Apple’s talks with Time Warner Cable have been going on since at least the middle of last year and are aimed at offering customers a wider array of TV channels. At the moment, Apple TV only offers individual channel apps, including Disney, ABC, ESPN, HBO and PBS. Each different app requires a login and password to be entered. Apple has been working to streamline the process with the new Apple TV and has run into problems with Comcast and DirecTV, the two largest pay-TV distributors, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Eddy Cue, the head of Apple’s iTunes, has been trying to convince the two companies to let customers use Apple IDs instead of credentials from Comcast and DirecTV. The distributors would prefer keeping their customer information separate from Apple, according to the report.
