Apple is said to be revamping the AppleTV to make it more of a force in the digital video sector, as it stands at the moment, the AppleTV hasn't lived up to most peoples expectations.
The biggest problem especially in market like the UK is the lack of any decent media, and the fact that any digital videos you own (Legal or otherwise) most likely will need recoding to a format that the AppleTV supports.
Apple has been rallying the troops as it were, in the form of 20th Century Fox, Disney and others, in a hope of temping users into 24hr rentals of their films, and there is a lot of speculation in regards to the iTunes store being accessible directly from the AppleTV negating the need for a Computer.