This is progress? No thank you. The whole point of AppleTV (at least for me) is to NOT have cable. I'm a cord cutter. What's the use if the cable company is still in play? Forget it. I'd like to see cable television go out of business some day!
And how do you plan on getting your internet?
You realize that's one of a few of the fundamental problems with the whole situation, right?
On an emotional level I suppose you could say, I completely agree with you. Cable TV and the ISPs are rather miserable and in a world where a better alternative existed, then down with their disaster of a system. But as of now, we do not live in that world and nothing is going to change that anytime soon.
The best case scenario in the mid-term is someone like Apple getting handed the keys to control the design and feel of the interface and maybe if we're really exceedingly lucky, there won't be an added charge to use the Apple TV as a cable box.
This outcome isn't going to change anytime soon. Why? The ISPs have their own competing services for delivering content. The studios have bundled contracts for content and they're not going to want to give those up to go a la carte anytime soon. And while there are legitimate options for those wanting to get rid of their cable TV subscription and go a la carte for most content right now, sports fans are still colossally out of luck.
The cable companies have exclusive agreements with the major sports leagues that cause blackouts for the paying season pass holders when trying to watch games in their local market. If I want to get rid of my cable TV and watch Detroit Red Wings hockey in Detroit, I can't just buy the NHL season pass and go on my merry way, because most if not all live broadcasts of local games will be blacked out. Same with the other sports. Fans of out of market teams hold a distinct advantage in these scenarios, but they're the minority. Until this changes and season pass subscriptions for sports can be used anywhere freely without restrictions, cable companies or should I say TV service providers in general are going to have a major hold over a considerable segment of the market.
I don't like it at all, and it irritates me to no end, but it is what it is. Many might think Apple would be shooting too low trying to partner with the cable companies, but at this point in time, it's the only reasonable option if there's any hope of running our entertainment lives solely off of Apple TV with Apple-designed interfaces. I hope that this won't be the case forever, but I'd be shocked if anything major changed even 5-10 years out unless the government were to step in and shake up the system by force, which would surprise me.
There are just too many big players in this mess that are doing all they can to avoid acknowledging where this is all eventually going. Again, I have no doubt we'll get to a point where there's a system that we'll generally like much more than the one that exists now, but it's going to be a long, slow, grueling and utterly and completely frustrating crawl to get there, and it's likely to get worse before it gets better as the studios and ISPs do all they can to fight for the system that's made them rich for this long.
If Apple can figure out a way to make the transition a little more bearable for some of us by partnering with them, I'm all for it. It's a foot in the door, and it'll get more people thinking differently about the way they get their content, paving the way towards a better system.
