Forget about Google TV, Apple TV, Boxee, and all the other platforms trying to aggregate online content into an easily accessible interface that bypasses traditional providers of television programming.  Their inability to access the amount of basic content available with a cable TV subscription is their Achilles heel.  Announcements today at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show by Samsung, Sony, Time Warner, and Comcast indicate the direction in which the cable industry will migrate to mitigate potential losses from 3rd party OTT platforms and the “cord cutters” that adopt them.

As we predicted earlier this year, MSO’s like Comcast and Time Warner are developing their own renditions of Internet TV that will leverage their massive customer bases, existing content distribution deals, and an inherent scalability.  By announcing early deals with TV makers like Samsung and Sony to provide the necessary hardware support at their direction within new televisions, the cable operators can eliminate the need for set-top boxes of any type and entice consumers with a simplified and content rich version of connected TV viewing.  This minimizes the likes of Google or Apple TV in much the same way that TiVo was minimized as the cable companies enticed customers with their own version of the DVR.

Specifically, Time Warner plans to offer its customers the ability to view live TV, in addition to other Internet based content, on Internet connected Samsung and Sony TV’s, as well as other devices like tablet computers and smartphones.  While other platforms try to scrape together a patchwork of distribution deals, Time Warner customers with compatible Sony or Samsung TV’s can access all the programming regularly available to them across multiple devices without the need for an intermediate box.

“We’ll be bringing live subscription TV to our customers using the Advanced Digital Cable Platform. Furthermore, our customers can use Samsung’s Smart TV to access content from any DVR in the entire house.” — untangled

This first step in the migration to an entirely IP based television distribution system is important.  It demonstrates that the cable companies recognize the consumer demand for and competition from their online counterparts.  Barring any unforeseen government regulation, content distributed this way could tear down the territorial boundaries traditionally enjoyed by cable operators, thus increasing competition and customer choice in an industry often cited as a monopolistic.  It would be relatively simple for Time Warner to sell and distribute its content to any Internet connected TV, even if that TV is outside the geographic territory encompassed by its network.

But challenges to this grand vision for the future of TV definitely exist.  Will popular (yet possibly redundant) services like Hulu and Netflix cooperatively function along side the live and VOD cable content?  Given Comcast’s recent peering dispute with Level3, how will the cable companies deal with vast amounts of Internet traffic that originate from their competitors and undermine their own products?  Could the threat of increased competition actually decrease cable subscription prices?

Would you reconsider cutting the cord if presented a suite of Internet TV products from your cable provider?