Parks Associates director of research Brett Sappington said that he expects Apple to keep its user interface free of ads, given the brand’s emphasis on elegant design.

But, he added, you shouldn’t think of the new TV platform as just a very large iPhone, despite the relation between tvOS and iOS.

“I suspect the list of top Apple TV apps will be quite different than the lists of top apps for Apple’s mobile devices,” he said.

Sappington also noted that Roku and smart TV makers have already tried out the idea of a TV-as-app platform.

But I would note that Apple has a long and very successful history of moving into markets where the existing players are simply not nailing the basic opportunity and then putting the pieces together with elegant design to make it work.

My family owns a smart Samsung HDTV, which was rated one of the most advanced on the market when I got it. But I find using the apps on it — even Netflix — is so clunky we rarely do it.

From the article "Here’s how the new Apple TV platform could redefine apps, ads, and mobile" by BARRY LEVINE