Apple TV may one day offer a la carte TV
December 22nd, 2009, 11:19 am · 15 Comments · posted by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress
Noted: Apple Inc.’s magical touch changed the music industry forever – so why not TV? The company behind the iPhone and iTunes is working on a plan to let consumers subscribe to only the TV channels they want, reports the Wall Street Journal in “Apple TV-Service Proposal Gets Some Nibbles.”
The newspaper, citing “people familiar with the matter,” said CBS Corp. and Walt Disney Co. are considering Apple’s plan to offer TV subscriptions over the Internet for a monthly fee. Apple would pay the major networks like CBS and ABC about $2 to $4 a month per subscriber. Basic cable networks might get $1 to $2 per month. A “best of television” package could cost $30 a month. Apple reportedly hopes to introduce the service in 2010.
“If Apple signs up enough networks to launch a viable service — still a very big if — it could ultimately alter the economics of the television business. The service could undermine the big bundles of channels that cable, satellite and telecommunications companies, including Comcast Corp. and DirecTV Inc., have traditionally sold in packages to subscribers.”
It’s an interesting, but not unexpected move by a company that doesn’t offer TV service. Right now, Time Warner Cable customers are facing the possible loss of Fox TV shows as negotiations between the cable company and network hit a wall and the two began publicly bickering about money. Fox’s parent company, News Corp., wants the cable company to pay a fee to offer Fox to subscribers — reportedly up to $1 a month per customer. Cable companies didn’t previously pay a fee to offer customers the major TV networks, which are of course offered free over the air to consumers with a good TV antenna.
Pali Research analyst Richard Greenberg believes neither side will budge and come January 1, Time Warner customers in Orange County and Los Angeles will be among the throngs who won’t be able to tune into “American Idol,” “24″ and other popular Fox TV shows.
“While there is no way to forecast when FOX/TWC will come to an agreement, the only thing that is clear is that the current “battle royale” is going to get a lot uglier as the week progresses. We continue to believe there is a high likelihood that programming will get dropped/pulled as both sides are trying to make a point…,” Greenberg wrote in a blog update Monday.
Apple already sells TV shows and movies through its iTunes store. This would offer customers a subscription to a TV network.
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Hopefully they can get this done. This is a great win for the consumer! No more paying for Religious and Foreign Language channels!!!!
I am for anything that would stick it to Cable Networks.
Leave it to Apple to find innovation in a product that is 30 years old! I think cable is one of the biggest scams in the market and if Apple offers this service, more and more companies will be forced to lower their prices. Thanks Apple!
The day I can tell Cox to go suck it will be a good day.
Ditto for Time Warner Cable (TWC)
Totally Worthless Company (ha!)
This would be awesome. I love my apple tv(s) as it is. If I can trash my cable box for apple, I will do!!
another great invention from apple, now i get to select what i want to watch, who needs those 500 useless channels.
I agree… looking forward to the day I can dump Cable. Problem is, they will just jack up already inflated internet access prices. I only have one option for broadband service.
Oh man, i can’t wait for this day!!! Save us Apple!!!!! Death to Cable/Satelite!!!
Sounds great!!!!!!
how did i know that “clearing up air channels ” getting rid of analog would result in cable companys doing what theyd like to do with tv. and leaving people without a choice.
thank you apple. steve jobs for president 2012 hes doing more than wack ass obama is.
All those of you who are eagerly awaiting dumping cable, where exactly are you going to get the broadband internet needed to feed this new technology? If you want HD, it’s going to have to be fast. That rules out DSL. In fact, the only companies delivering the kind of bandwidth you’d need for a couple of streams of HD content (what any consumer would expect) are already selling TV programming, and they aren’t going stand idly by while half their market gets eaten up.
The cable industry is not the music industry, and Apple TV is not the revolutionary product that the iPod was.
Good insight Bobomo.
I would assume a day’s worth of TV could drip into the Apple TV for later viewing? There is no reason why it would have to be live streaming except certain type of content (news). Hard drive space is increasingly getting cheaper.
Many people are already pretty much doing this on their own (not legally)… download just the shows they want to watch via torrents.
Well that is similar to Apple TV’s current model. It’s basically an extension of iTunes store, where you can purchase or rent content for viewing on your TV. Lots of people are doing this though. Microsoft Xbox 360 has a built-in video store. Amazon VOD store does the same thing and can be integrate into your TV with a Roku (among other devices).
This article is referring to an “always-on” channel model that lots of broadcasters, advertisers, and some consumers still want. The idea that you just turn on the TV and watch whatever happens to be on, complete with advertisements and little to no interactivity. (In this way, I suppose, the TV industry IS like the music industry: anchored by their old distribution model, and completely unwilling to change.) Regardless, It would require some very solid “instant-on” bandwidth to accomplish.
I know arguing for government intervention on a OC Register blog is a fool’s errand, however I think this is an exception because the market is clearly going in the opposite direction. If we want true “net neutrality” we need to create a “dumb pipe”. Pure broadband as a utility, like water or gas. The company that sells you the bandwidth can’t sell you anything else, and it can’t raise its rates arbitrarily or unreasonably. Then you, as a consumer, make your own deals with content providers. If they want to keep their old models, well Time Warner is free to make deals with content companies to bundle channels and create hardware and sell that to you. But if you just want a few channels, you can just buy them individually.
Touche Bobomo!
Bandwidth should be a utility like water and electricity. unemployment rate is over 10% with underemployment skyrocketing. Everyone folks with jobs are looking at reduced wages or earnings.
With all this silliness going on in the world, we sure could use a laugh… or at least a distraction. but entertainment cost more than ever. Why? Teh cable operators force feed us crappy channels. They tout options… but if I really had the option would I be purchasing the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, C-SPAN, Lifetime, Oxygen and so on and so forth.
Even more offensive, Big Cable, especially Comcast, is gobbling up content and then jacking up the rates. Why? In order to force their few competitors to either pay the rate hike or have them drop the channel — making so comcast is left with even less competition.
It is time for a consumer led movement to bring competition and transparency back to the industry. Hundreds of folks have already signed up in San Francisco. No reason why other cities should be stuck with the same old status quo.
TVALacarte.org
join the movement.