Apple’s cable TV pitch
Apple is pitching a $30-a-month iTunes TV service. Will consumer ditch the cable box for broadband TV?
Will Apple put an end to cable television?
(Corbis/Don Feria)
Apple is shopping a $30-a-month subscription TV service around to broadcast and cable TV networks, according to Peter Kafka at The Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital. The service would be offered through iTunes and not tied to Apple devices. Do Comcast and Time Warner have anything to worry about?
Apple’s finally got the right idea: “We’ve heard these rumors before—but that doesn’t mean they’re not true,” says Peter Burrows in BusinessWeek. And Apple’s approach, “if the company can pull it off,” makes more sense than its old TV scheme, which hinged on getting people to buy its set-top-box, AppleTV. We think of TV as a service, so with a subscription service Apple would be giving people "more of what they really want—a lower bill, anywhere access, without having to buy another gizmo."
“Apple to reinvent Apple TV ... for the rest of us”
The big TV networks won’t bite: Does this rumor “sound fishy? It is,” says Andrew Heining in The Christian Science Monitor. This will go nowhere without buy-in from at least “the big-three networks” and HBO—and why would they “risk incurring the wrath of major cable providers”? There’s also the issue of size. “Americans like big,” so it’s hard to see paying to watch TV on a 15-inch laptop screen.
“Apple’s $30 a month TV subscription service? Not buying it.”
Cable TV is going down either way: Oh, “it’s going to happen, the only question is when,” says Jeff Bertolucci in PC World. Thanks to broadband Internet, "the cable TV industry’s monopolistic, anti-consumer practice of offering bloated, overpriced programming packages is coming mercifully to an end”—and “there’s a very good chance” Apple will be the one to “give the cable guy the heave-ho. We’ll find out soon enough.”
“Apple iTunes TV pitch: Another nail in cable’s coffin”
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5 Comments
Posted by Tim from NY, Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 3:50 pm The more competition the merrier!..In the area where I live we have only one cable company..While we have satelite companies you cant always get signals from the dish as is my case because I have so many trees in my area..The biggest problem I have with cable is the lack of being able to just pick and pay for the programming that you want and not having to take a whole expensive package just to have maybe 1 or 2 programs that you really want but they get to do what ever they want because there is no competition to them exept satelite!
Posted by mjira, Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 11:48 pm Theres also the issue of size. Americans like big, so its hard to see paying to watch TV on a 15inch laptop screen. Andrew Heining of the Christian Science Monitor must not know about that little cable you can use to hook up your computer to the HD tv screen and see whatever is on your computer screen BIG. real BIG. the used computer dealer sealed the deal of the laptop and flat screen tv my friend bought this past summer, by throwing in that cable.
Posted by Donna M., Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 12:17 pm DITTO TIM!!!
Posted by Vic Vargaz, Thursday, November 5, 2009, 2:45 pm The cable companies have had their monopolistic hands around our throats and choking the money out of us for way too long. They are legalized ripoff artists who force people to pay for and not watch absolute drivel programming as part of a cable package. Cable service should and soon will be ala carte pay for what you want and nothing else. The sooner these dictating dictators are gone, the better off consumers will be.
Posted by Michael, Thursday, November 12, 2009, 6:15 am Does anyone know if this would be available internationally? And I agree with Tim the more competition the better.
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