Apple has enabled a convenience feature that allows device users to authenticate their pay-TV subscription once and only once for iOS.
Subscribers to Dish Network and DirecTV, along with those of select smaller video providers, can now use the so-called “single sign-on” feature for TV Everywhere consumption on iPhones and iPads.
That means a Dish or DirecTV subscriber can enter their user name and password once, then launch pretty much every multiscreen app in their pay-TV bundle without having to do it again.
The news was first reported by enthusiast blog MacRumors.
RELATED: Apple TV’s new single sign-on feature eschewed by Comcast, Charter, other top cable operators
CenturyLink Prism subscribers can also enjoy the feature, as can those of Dish virtual service Sling TV. Smaller operators including Hawaiian Telecomm, Hotwire, MetroCast and GTA Teleguam (GTA) of Guam are also signed onto Apple’s single sign-on program.
In late October, Apple disclosed that the feature would be enabled for the latest version of Apple TV.
Notably excluded from participation are the major cable operators, led by Comcast and Charter Communications.
RELATED: Comcast shunning Apple TV single sign-on, working with CTAM on open solution
Comcast has revealed no plans to support Apple TV’s new single sign-on feature and instead told FierceCable that it will continue to work with tech companies Adobe and Synacor, and industry group CTAM, to develop a universal authentication scheme.
“We have made great progress and expect to enable SSO next year,” a Comcast rep said. “We are focused on helping create an open standard that is platform agnostic and easily adoptable, and will continue to share our best practices with the industry through CTAM and the OATC (Open Authentication Technology Committee).”