He watches TV when not taking part in the few activities at the long term care home. It is challenging enough to get him a to press the on/off button on the remote. We got him a remote that has "On/Off" written on it and that helped. I have a tablet and looked for many video players but none are customizable enough. He doesn't remember 2 vertical lines mean pause. He needs the word "pause". Also the slider button is there and he will inadvertently tap it. Right now he is stuck watching the movie channel. No way could he handle a netflix interface. He doesn't change channels either.
Any time I call a computer help desk, they might as well be talking in Klingon. And here many light years ago, I use to teach how to use our office DOS software. And my Dad use to write code onto flippy discs. Eventually it got to a point where he couldn't remember the steps to open up his email :(
It so, I might sit with dad and observe just how he is watching things on tv. If he has cognitive decline or dementia, his tv perception may be quite different than it used to be or what your standards are. We have to adjust our idea of the types of things we might need if we were in their situation. They see things differently though.
With my cousin's dementia, I had to adjust to the idea that her ability to focus and process the tv content was severely effected. Before dementia, she loved tv shows, including, series, sports, movies, etc., however, the dementia robbed her. While I pushed to get her tv, cable, easy basic remote, etc. SHE EVENTUALLY NO LONGER GOT PLEASURE from it. She was just not that interested and she forgot what she watched, so, everything she watched was new, since she forgot it a few minutes later. Then she grew unable to focus. So, I would suspect that just one movie channel is great with him. No need for all kinds of different ones.
Also, their initiative to change the channel goes and there really is no way to get that back. Sometimes, you have to rely on the staff to turn things on for them and then turn it off at night. Others tried to explain this to me and I didn't get it, until I saw it for myself.
Whenever I would visit Dad, I would check the weather channel as Dad loved to watch tornadoes and that station would have some of those storm chasers. Nice change of pace.
At least Dad's TV would shut off automatically after 2 hours if he doesn't touch the remote. So at night, no waking up to turn the TV off. Forget the CD or DVD players, too complex.
Oh well, it was his TV, his choice what he wanted to watch. Guess that 24-hour news channel was a routine he had when he lived at his house.
Sorry, I know this is not a particularly useful answer. We can be stuck deciding if more can be done or if this is as good as it's going to get. You know him, so probably have a better idea than we would.