Are Apps channels?

AllthingsD "Apple TV on the Outside, Same Old TV on the Inside" states that an Apple TV, without an a-la-carte channel subscription model cannot succeed, and the cable/Sat TV operators will never give up on their bundled channel subscription and give the Apple TV the option of individual channel subscription, because it will hurt their existing revenues.

I contend that Apple already has those channels individually, and does not need the consent of cable companies. Why, just take a look at your iPad.

You see, you can pick up your iPad, click on the Apps for ABC, NBC. FOX, HBO, Starz, Cinemax, Discovery, CNN, ESPN, MSNBC, etc... and watch any show, any time. Let's take sports as an example: Feel like watching any NBA game, click on NBA Gametime. ESPN? click on Watch ESPN. NFL? NFL Sunday Ticket......I could go on. Same goes for the "News", "Movies", etc...

All Apple needs to do is to make its AppleTV box a bit more powerful so it can run those Apps, and voila, it has an a-la-carte channel model for its next-gen TVs. It does not need any consent, or any Cable/Satellite operators' blessing. It already has the channels in the form of Apps