“The proposed US$30 billion Comcast-NBC Universal deal has entered the labyrinthine process of winning Congressional approval from the antitrust gurus and the Federal Communications Commission. Small cable operators, which apparently still exist, fear that they will be driven out of business by the sprawling new company that would combine NBC’s programming with Comcast’s vast network of 24 million subscribers,” Andrea Belz writes for E-Commerce Times. “Those of us who remember the Frankenstein that was AOL Time Warner may shudder as we hear these words again: ‘It’s great to own content and distribution!'”
Belz writes, “Meanwhile, cable operators should be more concerned about recent rumors that Apple is seeking to distribute television content via subscriptions to its hyper-successful iTunes Store.”
“Suddenly, it seems that Apple would make a formidable de facto cable television network. The company is poised to unleash the same business model earthquake in television that it did in music,” Belz writes. “After all, Apple transformed the music industry by providing only distribution, not content, eliminating the record labels’ traditional role as publishers. Will Apple reinvent the role of television studios as well? What does this mean for the Comcast-NBC deal?”
Belz writes, “The Comcast-NBC deal is a vestige of the past. Look for the Apple iTunes Store to chew through every industry providing content of any kind.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
We can only hope!
I read this earlier at MacSurfer. Interesting article. What remains to be seen is what Apple will do with the Apple TV. If and when Apples does come up with a solution, Netflex will be transformed like Nokia.
Just my .02 cents.
iTunes really needs to be renamed. It’s been a long time since it’s only done music.
-HazMatt
Comcast NBC is a very very scary thing. There are days when I trust Microsoft’s intentions better than Comcast’s.
“iTunes really needs to be renamed. It’s been a long time since it’s only done music.”
____________
It doesn’t matter, iTunes is a brand, it’s a recognized name, most people don’t even consider the “tunes” part of it.. They just know iTunes as a store to buy and download digital media and apps. There is obviously no confusion as they’ve sold 2 billion apps from the iTunes “app” store..
Much like Tower records stopped selling records years before they went out of business..
Apple can start installing Miro on every desktop by default for about a year, and watch the colours fly-by… one studio at a time please..
The blogging world would submit conjectures for a possible p2p à la Apple without Apple declaring anything should be enough to bring the network pin-heads back to earth…
I’m not sure I see the conflict.
If Apple offers a subscription service, Comcast will be in a position to offer higher and faster bandwidth to internet only customers and NBC can still sell content through iTunes, so it is not necessarily a win-loss in any direction.
If Comcast wants to make money from selling content, then they will be in a position to lose market share to competing ISPs that will offer a bigger, less regulated pipe.
And in the end, we all want a bigger pipe…..
-wait
vision is foresight not aftersight. Apple has vision and visionaries at it’s helm. It’s taken the anal-ists about 2 years to understand that the iPhone is actually a pocket computer… by the time everyone figures out Apple’s next big boom it will already be preparing the next one amidst all the aftershocks that will vibrate.
We have Comcast cable TV and for us it’s a total waste of money. Nothing on we want to watch. The DVR is the only thing which even makes TV possible in our schedule. Still, there’s so few new shows that are worth watching, and usually if we like a show the network pulls it after 7 or so episodes. Bah humbug. Give me a full fledged Apple TV where I pay just for what I watch!
small cable operators would cry out for Saint Steve Job’s blessing, and it shall be granted with the itunes store
“Much like Tower records stopped selling records years before they went out of business..”
Er, funnily enough I actually agree that they should NEVER change the name iTunes, but kinda fell on your face with this ‘example’…
You just proved that Since Tower Records stubbornly kept its ‘out of date’ name, it, uh, went out of business. (You know filesharing put them out of business, right?)
iTunes is a brand and iPod is a brand. Don’t touch them. Apple took away the ‘Music’ part to deal with this ‘niggle’ long ago.
Your reasons are valid. but..
Apple will be taking away the traditional marketing sales of NBC, if you’re not watching live tv, then you won’t see the commercials, which means not as many viewers, which means less money networks can charge for advertisements, which means Apple has slipped their thumb up the big industry’s ass again and taken a couple dollars out their pockets. and you know they don’t like that.
Apple is only looking to distribute, they have no want to advertise on their model. Give a universal hub where to get all your media and they will purchase. all the entertainment industry hates Apple and iTunes because it is such a huge part of how they make money, they just gripe they have to give Apple a small cut for creating what they couldn’t.
‘Give me a full fledged Apple TV where I pay just for what I watch!”
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The one downside I see to this model is that people would be a lot less likely to find new shows if they weren’t available for free on the networks first. Meaning, people would likely only be searching for or paying for shows of which they are already familiar with, new shows could easily become lost in the abyss of the iTunes catalog..
Finally someone gets it… this is a whole other market that Apple will conquer, out doing cable and satellite. Could never understand everyone wanting blue ray & DVR functionality on the Apple TV – those functions will be outdated very soon.
Good point about renaming itunes (like the way they changed to Apple Inc.). How about iConnect?
Apple should buy Netflix. That’d show ’em.
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It’s not unlikely that iTunes and the App store will split into two entities eventually and it wouldn’t surprise me if new divisions and App search/organizational tools were introduced then too
From what I can see Apple really needs to do 1 thing to revolutionize content distribution. They need to flex there muscle and force world wide content rites, no more you can get this content in the US and this in the EU, and this in Canada, all content available everywhere. The internet and entertainment are a global resource and should be licensed and treated as such.
‘Good point about renaming itunes (like the way they changed to Apple Inc.). How about iConnect?”
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Not sure if you read my above post, but changing one of the most recognized brand names in the world would be a foolish move..
Changing Apple “computer” to Apple “Inc.” is nothing like changing iTunes to iConnect.. Apple is still known as Apple whether there is a “computer” or “inc.” afterwards.. If anything, they could call it the iTunes “media” store, but iTunes should definitely remain, and I’m sure it will..
@me
I understand the the angle you are talking about, but money is money. If the ad revenue continues to fall, then broadcasters will be forced to sell programming through subscription, or any means they can. They already sell DVDs, not much difference.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see this happening anytime soon, but the model is out there and so is the market, so eventually that market must be served, if not by NBC, then through other networks, studios, and production companies.
simply lose the “s” in iTunes, then iTune into music, iTune into apps, iTune into poscasts, iTune into TV shows, etc
unless you can explain to me why I should pay for content thru iTunes that I now get for free over the air, I’m not yet a believer.
Apple is going to face the same future problem that Google and Hulu are going to face. Broadband providers are just itching to cap users data usage. This would kill Hulu and Youtube, as well as Apple or anyone else that tried to get in on the Streaming video market.
It’s time for Apple, MS, and Google to start laying their own fiber lines.
They need to add Mac software to iTMS.
And Windows? HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Those lemmings can go jump off a cliff.
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Okay, so Apple faces a few hurdles to make the ideal situation come to fuition. Fortunately though, they also have the capital to blast through them very easily.
Content is licensed more liberally to the competition? Find the competitor with the best content licensing terms, and buy them.
Bandwidth is being throttled? They have the cash to develop their own infrastructure.
AT&T;suckage giving the iPhone a bad name? Drop the exclusivity deal, and allow other networks to carry it.
Google getting grumpy? Create a better search engine!
We all saw how quickly the benefits of switching to Intel became clear. They can create a disruption just as big in whatever enterprise they choose to.
They have the capital, passion, expertise, creativity, skill, and customer loyaly to take over the world!!!!!!!!!!!!
The game is over as soon as TV sets come equipped with a HTML5-capable web browsers (or Google OS, same thing) and iTunes goes to the cloud (losing specialized iTunes client).