As reported by the BBC’s own Leo Kelion, the iPlayer app is being rewritten as a native Apple TV app, which means it can now be searchable, right alongside Netflix, Hulu and other third party apps.

A key part of Apple’s pitch for its new box is that owners can use their voices to request programmes and movies by theme from across a range of services without having to open and close individual apps.

Users can, for example, ask for popular science fiction shows and be shown a range of suggestions from Netflix, NowTV and other apps that communicate their content with Apple’s computer servers.

Searchability is a huge selling point for Apple TV. Rather than dig into the Netflix interface, then slogging through the Hulu interface, etc., all to find a specific show, this new generation of Apple TV puts Siri front and center on search. Ask Sir to find a specific show, and Apple TV will show you an availability screen, listing apps that stream that show.

This is a tipping point. If Amazon wants their Instant Video to become a player on the level of Netflix and Hulu, they have to make it available as a searchable Apple TV app. Imagine the Kindle without an iOS app. There’s no way the Kindle Store becomes the giant it has become without the ability to read books natively on the iPhone and iPad. To me, this same holds true for Apple TV.