The app requires either the fourth-gen Apple TV or the Apple TV 4K, and Charter is encouraging subscribers to buy one by softening the initial hit to your wallet. You can buy an Apple TV 4K outright from Charter's Spectrum stores for the usual $179, but you can alternately tack on $7.50 per month to you cable bill for two years if you intend to maintain service for that long.

This is the first American cable provider to use the Apple TV's zero sign-on feature, but Apple is no doubt hoping it isn't the last. Zero sign-in potentially gives the media hub an advantage over rivals that have to 'settle' for single sign-on. The Spectrum TV app is a marketing tool that way. If it works well and leads to more people sticking with cable, you might see other cable (and satellite) giants following suit.