For years there have been talks of Apple taking a bigger stab at the TV market. The Apple TV reboot was just the first step, as many believed an actual hardware TV set was next on the list. That rumor has been floating around for a couple years now, and it is beginning to look like it may never come to pass. Instead, Apple may be trying to partner with major US cable providers to bring content straight to an Apple set-top-box.

Earlier this week the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was in serious talks with some of the biggest cable providers in the US about delivering content to an Apple set-top-box (presumably an updated Apple TV). It doesn’t appear that a deal has been made yet, but given Apple’s great success in getting content for iTunes something tells me they won’t have problem courting cable providers either.

The Journal is also reporting today that Apple is looking to include a cloud DVR service along with the cable set-top-box that would allow users to watch any show they want at any time. On paper this sounds revolutionary, but in reality there may be too many hoops to jump through to deliver that exact experience. Regardless, a cloud-based DVR service for storing recorded programs would allow for greater storage capacity, and a new revenue stream as Apple would likely charge for adding additional storage.

Until some kind of formal announcement is made by Apple this should all be chalked up as nothing more than speculation. That being said the move does make a tremendous amount of sense for Apple (reasons for which will be discussed later). For now we will just have to wait and see.