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Analyst: Content is key for Apple television to disrupt cable industry (with video: Steve Jobs on television)

Thursday, December 29, 2011 · 5:01 pm · 17 Comments

“Apple’s television set isn’t being held back by technology problems, it’s being held back by partnerships with big content companies, says Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu in an investor note today,” Jay Yarow reports for The Business Insider.

“Apple wants to offer customizable channels for users, disrupting the cable industry as we know it,” Yarow reports.

“Understandably, Apple is getting resistance from the content providers like CBS, NBC, etc. who are generally happy with the cable model,” Yarow reports. “(At least they know the cable companies. They don’t really know Apple.)”

Read more in the full article here.

Categories: News

Tags: Apple HDTV, Apple iTV, apple tv, connected television, integrated television, steve jobs, television, TV

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Comment Feed

17 Comments

Daggar

Thursday, December 29, 2011 - 5:09 pm · Reply

He wasn’t just a marketing genius, he was a comedy genius too!
G4Dualie

Thursday, December 29, 2011 - 5:20 pm · Reply

How good is Netflix without broadband? Likewise, content maybe key but without a delivery mechanism, an Apple television is a tough sale.
James

Thursday, December 29, 2011 - 5:32 pm · Reply

No. Wrong. this is not about content.

This is about accessing content. Apple is going to simply the nauseating way content is accessed. Their only challenge is getting everyone onboard.

Guess what? No Google advertising or access to customers. That will be locked into Apple’s Siri universe.
- patranus
  
  Friday, December 30, 2011 - 1:48 pm · Reply
  
  Just wait until Google completes its acquisition of Motorola. You know all those cable boxes you have no choice in getting from your cable company? Wonder where all that viewing data is going to end up.
HughB

Thursday, December 29, 2011 - 5:45 pm · Reply

If Apple does not do 1080P (and maybe 3D) it will not be a game changer.. I see rumors of 32 and 37 inch sets. I doubt many among iPhone Airbooks are excited about those small screens. I buy everything Apple and have no interest in 720P. Heck I get that on my 2 Apple TVs now.
- HDMan
  
  Friday, December 30, 2011 - 12:54 am · Reply
  
  +1. I refuse to buy AppleTV until it is 1080p.
  - 3l3c7ro
    
    Friday, December 30, 2011 - 5:58 am · Reply
    
    From your couch, you can’t tell the difference between 720p and 1080p with your eye sight. Get real. Also 3D is a gimmick and the technology is limited to focus only on the main subject. In the real world, you can focus on anything you want and aren’t limited by a director’s choice. The rest of the scene is there for a purpose and should be in focus too.
    - Greg M
      
      Friday, December 30, 2011 - 8:30 am · Reply
      
      It depends on the size of the screen and the distance you are from it. Once you get to 50″ you begin to see the difference. I can tell you that on my 133″ screen there is a very noticeable difference between 720p and 1080p. There is also a huge difference between a DVD and Blu-Ray.
      
      There’s another problem Apple will have and that’s delivery of that content. If anything Apple puts out starts to take business away from cable then you’ll see the cable companies putting stricter caps on bandwidth with higher and higher prices for using more bandwidth.
      
      Apple has to either find their own delivery system or they’re going to be forced to play nice with the cable companies. The cable companies hold all the cards.
    - Lukeskymac
      
      Friday, December 30, 2011 - 8:31 am · Reply
      
      That means nothing if the thing is compressed to death. But I’d take a less compressed 720p video over uber-compressed 1080p ***for screen sizes that are less than 50″*** anyday.
      
      Agree that 3D sucks
    - HughB
      
      Friday, December 30, 2011 - 5:18 pm · Reply
      
      3D is a gimmick? I heard this so much at work I invited 4 engineers I work with to come over and watch my passive LG 3D TV and then give me their reaction. College basketball, soccer, and samples of several 3D movies, animated as well as native.
      Every one of those doubters gave the experience a thumbs up. And 3D will grow. These were the same engineers who said the iPad was just a big iPod and a toy. Everyone of them now has an iPad 2. Oh, I can tell over the air 1080i compressed cable broadcast 1080i, and from AppleTV 720P easily from my theater chairs. You must have an inferior system or need glasses.
    - jg
      
      Friday, December 30, 2011 - 7:01 pm · Reply
      
      Ditto
  - BAC
    
    Friday, December 30, 2011 - 4:10 pm · Reply
    
    +1 I to require 1080p. I also want pandora, last fm, etc to go with my iTunes video and audio content and Netflix. A dash of HULU (Not HULU Plus!) would be nice to.
MidWest Mac

Thursday, December 29, 2011 - 5:48 pm · Reply

So basically what Apple is going to set out to do is make your television even more mindless than it already is. The reason Jobs was so good was that he first recognized human nature and then chose not to fight it but to cater to it.

Apple’s television will make your life easier. How they go about that (Siri? Content integration?) is anybody’s guess.

Miss you, Steve.
skylark

Thursday, December 29, 2011 - 8:49 pm · Reply

At this point I don’t think Apple wants to replace the “cables” they just want a chance to play alongside, as an option.

Apple hopes that an “à la carte” App based distribution system will win the day.

A lot of new televisions have a built in browser (most are rubbish) but they allow you to hook straight into the web with out a computer and go straight to you television channel of choice and watch their shows.

Anyone who has appraised a set up like BBC iPlayer knows how well this system can work.

At this point most systems like iPlayer are flash based (not iOS versions) but as HTML5 matures and becomes more robust I see it taking control.

Live broadcasting will still exist, but App TV will allow you to stack your shows to be viewed when you want to view them and you will be able to resort, add and subtract at anytime you desire. Same for recording … but why record if you only have to draw down the App for that Ep or for that season.

App television will create the foundation for a new breed of producers, production houses, advertisers and entrepreneurs.

App TV will democratise television … There I said it again.

BRING IT ON.
UseApple

Thursday, December 29, 2011 - 8:52 pm · Reply

am I missing something here. Yarrow reports something that is already known and is Steve’s view. Where is the news content in this? Wasted post completely, let this please be the last characters typed on this one…..please
DavidEGo

Friday, December 30, 2011 - 11:13 am · Reply

Regard the video:
At one time, didn’t Steve mention that the pc would be the hub of the digital living room? Sounds like convergence to me.
- coolfactor
  
  Friday, December 30, 2011 - 12:49 pm · Reply
  
  Steve was a genius in many ways, but he never saw everything all at once. His perspective and vision for what was right continued to change and evolve, in a large part to the people around him bringing him ideas. So in 1998, he may have had trouble seeing the convergence of TVs and computers, but that began to change over the next 15 years… starting by putting the TV on the computer, not the computer in the TV… hence the Mac as the hub. That was a baby step towards what is coming in 2012.