For the search tool to work, Apple needs content providers to deliver metadata about their catalogs, but it remains to be seen whether or not content providers want to give Apple that much influence over the streaming video market.

Having run into a brick wall trying to build an OTT-TV service with national reach and access to local broadcast TV feeds, Apple is now working on a new "digital TV guide" for Apple TV boxes and other Apple devices that would service as a smart aggregation point for other video and TV apps, Recode reported.

While it's a small list, the report highlights HBO, Netflix and ESPN as potentials. If Apple's guide becomes a popular way for people to access video, Apple would then have real power in the TV ecosystem. But the proposed guide would allow users who are not looking for a specific program to browse content from their subscribed channels without having to open up each app individually.

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We actually got an early glimpse of what could be a part of the groundwork for Apple's new project at WWDC in June. Except now TV is apps. Any app supported by Siri's universal search likely already provides the data needed, but Apple could be talking to them to in order to gain their permission for the data to be used in its guide - and presumably using its considerable industry weight to do so. The biggest thing Apple's TV guide seems to have to its advantage is a native tvOS version, too.

Some of them also suggest that Apple's plan would irk pay TV distributors like Comcast* and Charter, which are used to controlling TV navigation through their own guides.

The new Apple TV Guide could be great way for users to find what to watch, but TV industry executives are reportedly less enthusiastic about it because it could weaken their ability to promote shows if viewers come through the guide instead of individual apps.