Remember this alternate Apple TV remote? It is now available through Deutsche Telekom

In November, Universal Electronics announced the launch of a third-party Apple TV remote control to be supplied to cable, satellite and MVPD customers. At the time, it was not known which cable companies could offer the remote control, but it now appears to be available through parent company T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom.

According to Universal Electronics, Deutsche Telekom will supply the remote control to German customers subscribed to its MagentaTV service, which includes an Apple TV 4K. Deutsche Telekom allows customers to obtain ‌Apple TV‌ 4K as a rental or purchase device to access the MagentaTV service.

Deutsche Telekom’s website for MagentaTV says the remote control “was developed for MagentaTV” and has been certified by Apple. The Bluetooth-enabled remote can be used to directly access MagentaTV content and offers functionality similar to Apple’s Siri remote.

The MagentaTV button goes to the service’s electronic content guide and there are dedicated up / down buttons for browsing. A ‌Siri‌ button activates ‌Siri‌ on ‌Apple TV‌ and there are also buttons to control content playback.

Universal Electronics says its remote control has an ergonomic form factor with hardcover keys to enhance touch feedback, along with an accelerometer and ambient light sensor to power backlit keys in low-light environments. Includes Apple’s Made for iPhone authentication chip to ensure secure connectivity to Apple TV.

There is no way to purchase the Universal Electronics remote autonomously, even though Universal Electronics offers it to other cable providers. Spectrum offers a similar version of the remote control, as does France’s free internet provider.

This is not the first time that an alternative “Apple TV” remote control has been made available to cable customers. Swiss telco Salt in 2019 launched a third-party remote control option for “Apple TV,” for example.

Apple in April 2021 upgraded the Apple TV 4K and introduced a revamped version of the larger and thicker ‌Siri‌ remote, with an aluminum body. The new version of the remote control removes the touch surface that was on top of the previous remote control and instead adopts a gesture-compatible numeric keypad.