I don't know how a company like Apple could do this and not piss off their media partners. "Don't worry ESPN! We don't need you for our new content streaming appliance, but we'll still sell your content on our other App store!". Somehow I don't think Apple is quite ready to open the floodgates on something like this.
Apple is either going to do an Apple TV with all of their content in tow or not at all.
But after reading that rather interesting profile of Samsung earlier today[^1], I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see Samsung enter the ring before Apple did. Copy the best ideas from the PS3/PS4, copy the best from the upcoming Xbone, try not to give in to feature creep[^2] this time, and they might have a shot.
Just saying.
[^1]: http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/01/how-samsung-got-big/
[^2]: Feature creep tends to kill its hosts.
Just open up the current Apple TV to developers. iPad didn't have many purpose-built applications before it launched, and now most major broadcasters, cable networks target the platform. Open it and they will come.
Oh yes, and spend as much of that cash that you need to to get the NFL Sunday Ticket away from DirecTV. (http://www.adweek.com/news/television/directv-may-punt-away-...)
I don't care if the price goes up somewhat to compensate, but its absolutely aggravating when you're paying real money for this and you get a crappy product. There's no worse feeling than curling up to watch a game and finding out its blacked out.
The original "Modest Proposal" was a satirical article suggesting the Irish eat their children. If this essay is actually following that style, then it's far too subtle for my radar.