“Last year, Apple shelved its plan to sell you TV,” Peter Kafka reports for Recode. “Now Apple has a new plan: Tell you what’s on TV and help you watch it.”
“Apple has started talking to TV programmers and other video companies about creating a digital TV guide that would work on both Apple TV boxes and other Apple devices, like iPhones,” Kafka reports. “The idea is to let users see what kind of programming is available in video apps made by the likes of HBO, Netflix and ESPN, without having to open up each app individually, and to play shows and movies with a single click.”
“That is: Apple’s guide would tell you what’s on TV,” Kafka reports. “Except now TV is apps.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Content discovery is one of the most vexing problems with “TV” today.
It took a while.
“I finally cracked it” – Steve Jobs
Don’t hold your breath if Eddy Cue is in charge of it.
I will hold my breath. This is a very good sign, and no negotiation with content providers is involved.
I have DirecTV with 1000’s of channels, along with Apple, Netflix, and Amazon. Finding contend and presenting it on my screen or screens is a daunting task.
I welcome Apple getting in this (non infinite) loop.
I’ve got Comcast/Xinfinity and ‘1000’s of channels’ .
The Comcast on screen guide is excellent. ‘Titan TV’
guide is on all my Apple stuff and so far I’ve found
none better. For Netflix, Hulu etc. I use Apple TV
and it’s apps or my LG OLED ‘apps’ on the TV screen.
Ugg…
I hope it only displays what is available on services you already subscribe to. I HATE seeing “Please pay us to watch this program” messages.
Perhaps an additional search option to show content on services you do not have, but initially only those you do.
Example: I do not have “HBO Go”. I do not want ANY content from it in any kind of guide, without me manually selecting to include it.
Avoiding ‘Please pay us…’ can be as easy as a checkbox per media source. Apple can automate the process according to their checklist of your subscriptions.
Search, meanwhile, can be an avenue for finding out what else is around. I’d think the media corporations would be scrambling to offer detailed and up-to-date search results. THAT is their new marketing surface.
“Content discovery is one of the most vexing problem with “TV” today.”
Thats an understatement!
At least everyone is making equal pay now milking Steve Jobs era innovations!
Outside of the US, the major problem with Apple TV is not so much content discovery, but a lack of content.
Without compelling content to stream, there’s not much point in having Apple TV.
Tim shouldn’t get any credit for a phantom car that doesn’t yet exist as a viable product, for all we know it could be a disaster. Apple is a computer company at its core, but it hasn’t produced many new computers lately. It’s a glaring problem.
From the source article:
But TV industry executives I’ve talked to view Apple’s plans as a mixed bag. They like the idea of making their individual shows easier to find, but they worry that moving consumers’ focus from their individual apps to a universal guide will reduce their power to promote their other shows.
Some of them also suggest that Apple’s plan would irk pay TV distributors like Comcast and Charter, which are used to controlling TV navigation through their own guides.
Figures: Screw the customer. We’re doing things our way, maximizing our marketing surface and minimizing competition.
Meanwhile, we computer and content users force and bend the Internet of media to our will, one way or another. Apple is more than welcome to help.
Why not just buy TIVO and make it an apple product and spice it up? Mine works fine