Apple Hasn't Approached NBC Over Content Deal for Upcoming Streaming TV Service

[GlenK]

My ATV box yields such a dark picture I don't even use it. Until they deliver a box that actually has a quality picture I won't be interested in any of this stuff.

Hopefully the new one will fill that bill..

 

[lederermc]

Actually, this make perfectly good sense. Apple can set a fair market value of content based on the agreements with the content providers that do not have delivery vehicles. Comcast/NBC is not the typical content provider.

 

[patseguin]

If the networks are holding off for their own streaming services,mthey they are dumb. It would benefit them greatly to have a deal with Apple. Nobody in their living room is going to open a web browser and go to a website to stream NBC, CBS, etc.

 

[bigchrisfgb]

Here's to hoping I will not be have to pay for somebody else to watch sports as part of the final bundle. Those stations are never on here, except by accident. If I were into sports myself, I wouldn't be spending time posting about having to pay for other people to play at them on TV.

Here in the UK, and I think it's the same in the US, the sports actually subsidise other content. Here in the UK the major sataliete company Sky have different tiers of content, only the sports is profitable and everything else is provided by funds from Sports. It's likely that people paying for sports in the US are actually paying towards your content costs.

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I really hope Apple is working with BBC, Sky, etc to launched a UK version of this TV service.

Haha, that's funny. Of course they won't be. By the way they will unlikely work with Sky, Sky largely just shows content with deals with content providers. Very few programmes are Sky original ones, the major sticking point will be sports and we have already seen that it costs £10 for a weekend pass of Sky sports without a Sky contract.

 

[uwdude]

Even if the cable companies raise prices to make up for the loss of tv (which I believe they have basically already done- I'm already paying as much for Internet only as a lot of people pay for their triple play package), at least we will end up with something much better than having to deal with those awful cable boxes and the ancient software on them. Plus we'll have more choices, such as being able to get HBO separately, etc. So it may be worth it in the end, even if we are not saving any money.

 

[Swift]

This is an absurd claim on the face of it.

Comcast wouldn't be lying, now would they? Could Comcast ever do something like that?

You can't quit! No, please, I'll give you sparkles! A free season of Kardashians!

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Even if the cable companies raise prices to make up for the loss of tv (which I believe they have basically already done- I'm already paying as much for Internet only as a lot of people pay for their triple play package), at least we will end up with something much better than having to deal with those awful cable boxes and the ancient software on them. Plus we'll have more choices, such as being able to get HBO separately, etc. So it may be worth it in the end, even if we are not saving any money.

I'm paying 39.95 for 60 Mbps. Charter.

 

[shabanga]

I think Comcast will be forced to offer NBC to Apple.

http://truthonthemarket.com/2011/01/20/fcc-approves-comcast-nbc-merger-with-conditions/

"The Commission requires that Comcast and/or Comcast-NBCU:
Provides to all MVPDs, at fair market value and non-discriminatory prices, terms, and conditions, any affiliated content that Comcast makes available online to its own subscribers or to other MVPD subscribers.
Offers its video programming to legitimate OVDs on the same terms and conditions that would be available to an MVPD.
Makes comparable programming available on economically comparable prices, terms, and conditions to an OVD that has entered into an arrangement to distribute programming from one or more of Comcast-NBCU’s peers."

This. I have a feeling that the reason Apple hasn't yet approached NBC (this time) is because they are getting their ducks in a row and will try to force NBC to give them a deal similar to those it has already established with other providers, because that will provide a good basis for "fair market value".

 

[lkrupp]

Psst... This is a site that discusses rumors.......

If this site discusses rumors then why do people assume the rumors are true and established facts and pontificate about them as such... when they’re only rumors.

 

[glutenenvy]

Here in the UK, and I think it's the same in the US, the sports actually subsidise other content.

What I can tell you is that Comcast/XFinity when they run out of actual content for the SciFi channel, they start filling it with reality and sports programs like scripted wrestling, neither of which entertains the Sci part of SciFi. This lends credence to your sports subsidy but I still do not want to be forced to take the sports channels if I want to get certain channels I do like.

We'll never really know until the whole system is unbundled.

 

[Pearl-g]

when the unbundling happens, a lot of these public access channels will probably go away.