“Apple may be on the verge of gaining two key television network agreements, according to The Wall Street Journal. Specifically, CBS and Walt Disney (which runs ABC) are said to be considering a proposal by Apple to offer a subscription-based TV service over the Internet,” Siegler reports. “Presumably, this would work through iTunes like all of Apple-based content, but also presumably it would work over Apple’s Apple TV device (though maybe a new version of it) to bring this content into the living room, where people are used to consuming it.”
Siegler reports, “Simply put: This could be huge.”
Full article here.
Interesting discussion, but I depend on my cable company for access to the internet. I hope there is a better solution for internet access down the road, but for now, I have to keep my cable to be able to get online. Any hope for those of us out there in my situation?
I currently use a cable modem and Airport for WIFI. I also have an iPhone but live about 20 miles from the nearest 3G area with no expansion towards me in the last year or so.
Only problem is bandwidth ain’t free. For the price of the subscription plus bandwidth, you’d need to match cable’s channel diversity. Then there’s your internet usage to consider.
MW: fact
apple could always put a cable card slot in the back of the apple tv? i still like Directv better, but cable card would give you an option to even use FiOS with it.
Most of the money we pay for cable goes to cover what they paid the previous owners, plus debt service, plus executive compensation, plus return on investment. The cost of building and maintaining the system, not so much.
I can’t think of a more deserving recipient of a good knee-capping than the cable industry.
convenient pay-per-play (per episode or per series) = win for all
subscription = both Apple and consumer lose, entrenched cable operators win
Note that cable operators are also internet service providers, so they can’t lose.
WiMax is the delivery answer. It’s WiFi with a 30 mile range instead of 300 feet. It’s roughly 5 times the speed of cable. It’s built out in many cities now (e.g. “Clear” in portland, OR). Clearwire (CLWR) just raised an additional $1.5 B for expansion. It would be trivial to design a WiMax capability into an Apple TV. Apple has been quietly buying up server farm resources. Are you beginning to see where SJ is headed?
Verizon FIOS is fast. That’s all it has going for it. The DVR stinks. The program lineup is, well, OK. The music channels stink. The whole-house integration is abysmal. I really like the high-speed internet. Beyond that, it’s really expensive, and offers poor quality devices (set top boxes and DVRs). I didn’t like the rain fade that was a relatively frequent occurrence with DirecTV, but I miss my DirecTivo. I miss it a lot.
Anything that lets me get away from the cable companies will be greatly appreciated.
…”even FiOS is really cable. the picture isnt any better. the internet isnt really faster.”
That is entirely incorrect. While technically it is “cable” (in that its connection from the Verizon interface in my closet to my Verizon router is a coaxial cable), the optical fiber brings the signal straight to my apartment door. I am currently getting consistent speeds of 25Mbps down / 15Mbps up (any time of day, with speedtest.net), and my HD image on my HDTV is very difficult to tell apart from Blu-ray (but not on all channels). There are over 150 HD channels, plus all other TV channels.
Having said that, I would love to be able to only pay for the internet part of that FiOS package (even if it means paying $60), I’d love to get rid of my TV part of the bill. Just too much for too little…
What would be nice would be to get some decent shows…mein gott there is soooo much drivel on TV nowadays. HD sh*t is just sh*t that is clearly more identifiable as sh*t: more distinct sh*t. The good shows certainly are few and far between. I like the idea of show based subscription where I pay for the shows I want to watch, not channels full of rubbish. I would quite happily cut the cable for that type of offering. After all we just fast forward the ads anyway…
Life is easy & cheap without cable (or Fios or satellite) as it is. Even Blu-ray is superfluous (cost was too high for me when it first came out). Here’s how I do it:
1] Over-the-air digital TV has a better picture than any of the aforementioned alternatives if you get good reception (if not, different story). Definitely an ‘old school’ house antenna that rotates is a big improvement – the higher the better. Purchase & installation are a couple hundred bucks if you don’t do it yourself, and after that it’s all free TV. Even channel selection is good, as most ‘digitized’ stations carry more than one channel now (ex. in Philly area PBS channel 12 is now 12.1, 12.2 & 12.3). So the 8-10 OTA analog channels we all used to get are now 16-20. The content is good too.
2] A MacMini is a great little DVR with EyeTV from Elgato, so everything I watch OTA is fully recordable for watching at my convenience, with no monthly TiVo or DirectTV type subscription. Frankly, this is what AppleTV should be doing right out of the box (where’s the digital tuner Apple!? why no DVR?!), but hey, if Apple doesn’t want (more of) my money, ceste la vie.
3] MacMini also, obviously, has access to iTunes so any TV shows that don’t come OTA I can buy there. For example, Battlestar Galactica was huge for me. That and the few other shows I actually watch regularly were easily purchased & downloaded, and – lo and behold – MASSIVELY CHEAPER than any wired or satellite subscription. People don’t realize how much cash they waste on hundreds of channels they never watch. Or even a single channel that they only watch one show from (except for BG & re-runs of classic shows, most of SciFi channel sucks). It’s ridiculous.
4] As for ‘movie night’, my upconverting DVD player makes my present (and very large) DVD collection free from forced obselesence, which is a VERY GOOD THING. Most anything else I can get from iTunes. BluRay is an expensive indulgence IMO – certainly not necessary from any realistic standpoint. I really don’t get the mentality of anyone who buys a BR player that isn’t a PS3. And again, this was a huge missed opportunity on Apple’s part. AppleTV should have had a DVD player on it. With a barebones DVD-RW/+RW unit and an RGB-out (much less expensive than HDMI) it could easily upconvert to 720p, which is about the practical limit for what can be done to a standard def DVD & still have it look good. Cheap to make (thus profitable) for them, massively useful for us. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
So I’ve cobbled together a very workable, consumer friendly (from a cost perspective) solution that saves me literally multiple hundreds of dollars every year vs. cable/Fios/satellite tv/Tivo/…. If Apple made the AppleTV into the all-in-one solution that it could be, even if they charged a couple hundred bucks more for it, Apple would make a mint. As it is, I never bought one. It’s all show & no go, compared to the Mini/Elgato solution.
And trust me, Apple WOULD make money on an AppleTV that was fully fleshed out w/ an upconverting DVD player, digital tuner, and DVR capability. In my experience, everyone I’ve showed this set up to said they would love do do the same thing, but are intimidated by all the set-up I had to go through to make it usable, and don’t like all the gadgets (too many, or at least it seems that way to them). All Apple has to do is take the hassle factor out of it and consolidate the multiple devices into one. Isn’t that their specialty??
I’m not sure why Apple is content with this “hobby” idea for AppleTV, but they could have had this baby taking the world by storm, iPod/iPhone style, right from the start. Everything I’m doing is years old tech! The world is ready Apple. Maybe it’s time for Jobs to Think Different, eh?
The “pipes” business do not understand themselves. Cable, satellite TV, satellite internet, mobile phones are all just pipes. If they would focus on that, instead of trying to figure ways to make us OK with them trying to siphon our wallets, they could be great, but they just don’t get it. Apple must buy Sprint and end the madness. One rational player in the business will put all the scam artists out of business, and make a ton of money while they do it.
OBTW, @CallMeIshmael – good approach. For those without a massive DVD collection, add low end NetFlix.
@ CallMeIshmael,
I didn’t really see the need for Blu-ray either, as long as I watched DVDs on a 31″ tube TV.
But, once I bought a 47″ LCD and saw how good local HD network programming looked, it was hard to accept an inferior picture. And as good a job of upscaling DVDs as my BD player does, I still wanted better.
Like ‘lurker’ suggests, Netflix is the way to go. For a mere $2 more a month I was able to upgrade from DVD to BD. Plus you get free streaming of tons of movies, some in HD. It makes for an economical setup.
Cable is a lot like the weather.
Everyone bitches but does nothing about it.
The whole paradigm for video delivery is changing. Apple see it. The cable companies only response is to do the same thing they always do – raise rates. Idiots, that’s no way to win customers.
NCIcman, good point. but cable companies are just doing what all companies do — charging the most they can for what they offer. The problem, as i see it, is that most of what they offer is rotten, and there’s no regulation forcing an a-la-carte option for consumers. as long as it is legal to sell customers garbage they don’t want, and customers continue to buy it, then cable companies will continue to screw us.
@Jeff: “If cables sees there revenue shrinking because of this they will throttle iTunes download traffic. I am seeing it already with Rogers…the time it takes to download a movie has gone from 2-4 hours to 20 – 30 hours.”
What? I’m on Rogers and I can watch HD movies rented from iTunes without interruption within 2 MINUTES or so of clicking the “OK” button. I suspect you’re doing P2P downloads–if Rogers detects this activity they will severely throttle your bandwidth.
Time to stop pirating, Jeff…
Unless Apple has something else up its’ sleeve such as satellite transmission, or they are going to buy WiMax and Sprint, they are facing a daunting task. The cable folks will pitch a fit if folks use the broadband cable connections to watch TV from an alternative source. Cap limits are already being discussed. This may be a difficult venture without a way to distribute the offerings.
Cable has seen this coming for many moons now. Don’t expect them to sit by and watch it happen. The tiered Internet data plans have been in place for a while now and heavy data users (video streamers) will be getting charged more than simple web surfers. But still, cable’s bread and butter has always been it’s paid TV services up until now. If they lose that they will be in some serious hurt. Cable has already hemorrhaged a lot fo subscribers going to the net and tot he competition. Cable used to have local TV stations in cities and towns and sold them back to them. They instituted tiered Internet data plans. They tried to block heavy video streamers and lost. Cable has laid off many employees. Comcastic has purchased NBC Universal this month. But will that be enough to carry them to the next game plan? What will that be?
We dumped Comcast cable TV. Give us the opportunity (with an alternative provider) and we’ll dump Comcast Internet too. This company is evil and incompetent. For the moment, though, my bigger concern is Comcast’s proposed purchase of NBC Universal. Federal regulators should not approve this acquisition. It is ant-consumer. Cable, phone and wireless companies all should be communications pipes only.