Wide Open West has broken ranks with the cable industry and will support Apple’s single sign-on feature, which simplifies the task of authenticating TV Everywhere apps for consumers.
A WOW! rep confirmed an Apple Insider report, which said that the midsized cable operator had joined DirecTV, Dish Network and Sling TV, CenturyLink, Grande Communications and eight other small pay TV operators in enabling the Apple feature.
Apple last year enabled a single sign-on feature for Apple TV and iOS tablets and smartphones, allowing users subscribing to supportive pay TV services to punch in their username and password just once and have it work for all corresponding multiscreen apps.
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A DirecTV subscriber could, say, authenticate Watch ESPN, and they would simultaneously authenticate ESPN viewing through the satellite operator’s multiscreen app.
Notably, none of the top companies have signed on to support the Apple feature. Comcast has said it is working with industry org CTAM to develop the cable industry’s own single sign-on iteration.
"Home-based authentication is a feature that recognizes when a pay-TV customer is connected to their modem or gateway and automatically signs them in to participating MVPD and programmer websites and apps on devices in the home," said Matthew Strauss, executive VP and GM of video services for Comcast, explaining the new system in a company blog post from last year.