This is all just hype. There's absolutely no reason why Apple would alert Comcast and other ISPs to products which (unlike wireless providers and phones) require no special support on their part.

What's really going on is that these ISPs are well-aware that Netflix is 30% of their traffic. Given the likely wide adoption of an Apple "iTV", ISPs have to consider what a popular new device that streams video would do to their networks. Given that it takes years to plan and install huge bandwidth upgrades, you can't blame ISPs for doing these kinds of "what if" calculations.