“What cable channels make the cut and are included in Apple’s expected Web TV service could take on more significance after the recent sell-off in media and entertainment stocks,” Reinhardt Krause reports for Investor’s Business Daily. “Apple, it’s widely reported, has been in talks with programmers to offer a slimmed-down bundle of TV networks. While Apple is said to be keen on including live broadcast networks NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox, its plans for cable TV channels remain unknown.”
“UBS analyst Doug Mitchelson, in a research report Tuesday on Discovery, calls Apple’s Web TV launch a wild card for cable channels,” Krause reports. “‘Key for (Discovery) shares will be continuing ratings strength, investors gaining comfort with the pace of decline for the U.S. pay-TV bundle, whether Discovery will be included in any Apple TV OTT (over the top, or Web TV) offering (at reasonable economics), and the health of the TV ad market this fall,’ he said in the report.”
“The biggest media firms that own broadcast TV networks as well as popular cable channels, such as Disney’s ESPN sports channel, might be best-positioned to hammer out a deal with Apple. However, Apple’s talks with Comcast, owner of NBCU, reportedly hit a rough patch earlier this year,” Krause reports. “Apple is said to be mulling a Web TV service with about 25 channels, priced around $35 a month. The service had long been anticipated, but many observers don’t see it becoming a reality this year.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s Internet TV service will have to have ESPN. It will also likely require the “Big Four” networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC) – although it could launch with three out of four and eventually hammer out a deal with whichever one is being the most reticent.
What else would you consider to be must-haves?
Beyond the Big Four, if you go by ratings (total viewers), the top 20 cable networks are:
1. ESPN
2. USA
3. TNT
4. Disney
5. TBS
6. History
7. Fox News
8. FX
9. Discovery
10. AMC
11. HGTV
12. Adult Swim
13. Nick at Nite
14. A&E
15. ABC Family
16. Lifetime
17. Syfy
18. Food
19. TLC
20. BravoSource: Nielsen estimates, full year 2014
Cable News ratings, March 30-June 28, 2015
Total Viewers – Day:
Fox News – 974,000
CNN – 431,000
MSNBC – 318,000
Primetime Total Viewers:
Fox News – 1,603,000
CNN – 560,000
MSNBC – 512,000
GOD BLESS FOX NEWS for telling the truth, the whole truth, so help them GOD! All my family and friends keep it on 24/7, just so we can help the ratings! We actually broke our remote, so we can’t change the channel!
I’ll never understand why we even have other news stations. Who would ever want another opinion besides THE BLESSED FOLKS AT FOX?
(God Bless you too, Fist! You sexy, sexy Man!) 😘
God Bless the liberal media channels for making it painfully obvious we especially can’t trust them either. Thou doth protest too much, and too silly.
There is no god, but unfortunately there is fox “news” and the mongoloids who watch it.
Wow….a gay racist..
Who knew THAT was even possible?
Well, Fwhatever, that leaves a couple of hundred million people who do *not* watch Fox News. Besides, Fox News is designed specifically to capture a particular U.S. demographic. People who fall outside that demographic are split among the remaining news options. And the many people obtain their news from sources other than TV.
It is also worth noting that truth is not defined by how many people happen to believe in a certain viewpoint. The vast majority of people used to believe that the Earth was flat and that the Sun revolved around the Earth. They were wrong. The day that you realize that some of your viewpoints might be in error is the day that I see some hope for the future of this country.
So many unfortunate, misinformed souls. The good thing is that their viewer base is steadily dying off as younger people wise up to how false and poisonous their rhetoric and shady “journalism” tactics really are.
Comedy Central is my go to news channel.💥 Not kidding. Not sarcastic.😃
NCAA and professional football, basketball, and baseball are the monsters of sports in US – worth several billions of dollars. If Apple gives me access to these I would be content.
That top 20 list is almost perfection except I’d replace Bravo with NatGeo. Does Starz offer direct subscriptions yet? Showtime began shortly after HBO but Starz is my favorite of the premium suites.
It doesn’t matter what anyone wants. Eddie Cue just can’t get it done. Hey Tim, fire Eddie. Do your job.
Give us Fox and the first 9 from the list. Screw the rest and particularly anything Comcast/NBC. And with just rabbit ears anyone can receive broadcast channels in HD so just add a switch to the box. Problem solved, get it done.
Add Esquire Network and Smithsonian Channel, too. I find myself watching those two networks fairly often.
I want my Fox News
You can keep it, and you know what you can do with it.
Must Have should include PBS maybe as subscription instead of fund raising !
I wish I could vote you 5 stars a hundred times.
They’re the Top 20 because they serve the lowest common denominator.
LCD is not the Apple Way.
It shouldn’t be a matter of signing each individual network. Wouldn’t deals with Comcast, Disney, Fox, and Viacom take care of at least most of that list?
I would love any service that does NOT include sports, “reality programming,” or Fox, none of which interest me in the slightest. No Kardashians, please.
I would pay NOT to have ESPN or any sports channel cluttering up my channel list. I once received a letter from my cable company congratulating me that I now can receive TWO golf channels. Thanks for nothing, I thought.
I hope that these services will be independent of cable or satellite services as some of them require that you have an active TV subscription to get them. Many are trying to replace their overpriced cable or satellite service.
Only one or two national networks, plus Iger’s Disney and ESPN, and the cord cutting would begin so fast that the others would lose enough audience to be forced to get on board. So they must be controlled by cable or colluding to freeze Apple out because if Apple was even half way there we wouldn’t still be waiting.
Hi MDN, I’m curious about your source for Top 20 cable networks (charticle) rankings.
Reason being, where I live the local cable company is the oldest in the world founded in 1948.
Basic cable offers about 100 channels. From there you can upgrade to more channels for an additional monthly cost and several tier packages are available.
And I’m not talking about premium tier channel packages like HBO, et al.
I will use my favorite cable channel Turner Classic Movies as an example. My local cable provider charges an EXTRA premium tier package price with other channels included.
On a lovely summer day I can drive five miles over the Blue Mountain into the next valley to visit a friend.
A different local cable provider INCLUDES TCM in the basic package for less monthly cost, I might add.
So, it seems possible the rankings compare apples to oranges and are unscientific at the end of the day.
Certainly, this ratings issue pales in comparison to the continued stranglehold juggernaut of the content providers.
Godspeed Apple cracks it one day as we have seen with other major market disruptions in Apple’s storied past …
The media conglomerates are miscalculating if they believe the recent onslaught of viewers leaving their programming will eventually come back. People are discovering that they can get quality entertainment from inexpensive and easy to use services like Netflix, Red Bull TV, Bloomberg, Crackle, HBO, etc. The genie has left the bottle and it’s going to be very difficult to put it back in. Many are trying to diversify into Europe and other countries, but it’s too little and too late. These guys need to quickly embrace the change or fold like a house of cards.
I would like to stream shows with no commercials for a low price. Currently I buy shows from iTunes but only ever watch them once. I have an ever growing library. Instead of paying $3 a show and having it forever I would prefer to stream it once for a dollar. I don’t want to get bundled into channels I don’t want though either. Not interested in sports or cartoons.
Local channel should be priority as that is what would make Apple TV stand out at first and why most people don’t switch!
After that then here are my top channels:
1. History
2. AMC
3. Discovery
4. Spike
5. FX
6. A&E
7. HGTV
8. TNT
9. TBS
10. VH1
11. CNN
12. Fox News
13. Nick at Nite
14. Syfy
15. VH1
16. CMT
17. TRU
18. Food
19. TLC
20. Comedy
21. Reelz
22. USA
23. E!
The problem I have with the ratings list is that while it’s probably true, it doesn’t necessarily indicate the popularity of a given channel because TV companies provide programming in tiers. So you while TNT and USA are generally provided in the most basic tiers, you have to pay extra for other channels like TCM. I have to pay for a basic cable package, plus an extended basic package, plus a movie package. Hopefully Apple and others can eliminate that kind of garbage. I don’t want the extended basic channels, but I have no choice other than to do without.
If they include these 20 networks plus local with some type of DVR, they can have my money!
I still say that you people are setting yourself up to be abused by internet providers in the future, just like the telecoms. Remember when AT&T & Verizonwireless had true Unlimited Plan. Now 10 Gig Plans & pay per Gig extra. Video eats up Data! Just LOOK OUT! They are going to make a BOATLOAD OF MONEY off us.