Here is what I think happened. Netflix has "new media" rights to the content. They can't play the content over cable. Some cable companies provide a TiVo as

Here is what I think happened. Netflix has "new media" rights to the content. They can't play the content over cable. Some cable companies provide a TiVo as a cable box, and Netflix works on TiVos. This presents a legal problem: is playing netflix on a cable company's tivo box "cable"? Well no, but they probably had to get the content providers to agree. Now that the content providers agree, the Netflix app can be installed on these cable company provided Tivos. I am speculating, but the article makes no sense otherwise.