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Tim Cook Says Apple Plans to Participate in the 'Breakdown of the Cable Bundle' With AirPlay 2, Original Content and More

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Apple CEO Tim Cook today commented on the opportunities Apple sees in the video market, though he declined to provide details on the company's specific plans.

Cook said that Apple sees "huge changes" taking place in customer behavior, which the company expects to "accelerate as the year goes by." Specifically, Cook said that Apple is expecting an acceleration of the breakdown of the cable bundle. "I think it'll likely take place at a much faster pace this year," he said.

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Apple plans to "participate in that" in a number of ways, including the Apple TV, which offers support for apps so customers can watch television content on a per-app basis, and AirPlay 2, which will soon support third-party television sets. Cook said Apple is "excited" about the expansion of AirPlay 2 compatibility to third-party television companies because it will make the experience with people using Apple products in the living room "even better."

Cook said that third-party video subscriptions available on the App Store provide another opportunity for Apple that could "accelerate in the future" as customers are likely to buy multiple services, and finally, Cook pointed towards Apple's own work on original content.
Finally, original content, where we will participate. We've signed a multi-year partnership with Oprah. Today I'm not really ready to extend that conversation beyond that point. We've hired some people we have a super amount of confidence in, and they're working really hard. We'll have more to say on that later.
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Rumors have suggested Apple is working on a full streaming television service to distribute both its original content and content from third-party providers such as HBO and STARZ. At least some of the content Apple is creating could be available for free, and Apple is said to be planning to integrate the service and the new TV shows into its TV app.

Apple has more than two dozen original television shows in the works, many of which are in the casting stages, with filming likely set to begin soon. Apple has also purchased movies and inked deals with well-known industry talent including Jason Katims and Justin Lin.

Apple is aiming to have its streaming television service ready for a mid-April launch, and has been telling its launch partners to prepare for that date. An actual release could come right around that target date.

Article Link: Tim Cook Says Apple Plans to Participate in the 'Breakdown of the Cable Bundle' With AirPlay 2, Original Content and More
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/01/29/apple-tim-cook-cable-bundle-breakdown-participate/
It all comes down to cost/benefit.
I have been looking into cut the cord but DirecTV keeps slashing my satellite bill to keep me as customer. I pay $35 a month with 250+ channels, some regional sports and DVR. Hard to let it go.
 
i always thought "paying for only what you want" is better than a bundle where you get a load of channels included weather you watch them or not.

The idea that you "might" be interested is a middle ground. I'm gonna have to think about THAT one.
 
gugy said:
It all comes down to cost/benefit.
I have been looking into cut the cord but DirecTV keeps slashing my satellite bill to keep me as customer. I pay $35 a month with 250+ channels, some regional sports and DVR. Hard to let it go.
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I get DirecTV Now for the same price, $35/mo. However, unless you have rock solid internet service, it still can be a little glitchy with occasional buffering. Or...maybe it's my AT&T internet that's the problem :rolleyes: I cut the cable cord completely for 2 years and didn't miss it, really, but decided that $35/month for streaming news and sports on the bigger screen was worth it.
 
I will never subscribe to this service at all. Because I’m confident I’ll pay the jackpot and fall a sleep watching their noble shows.
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Packers1958 said:
If anyone thinks the cable industry will take this lying down is just kidding themselves. Get ready to see them jack up the prices for internet only services and more of them going to data caps for those that only have internet only service.
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The cable companies will pull an so called Apple on Apple :D
 
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J.Dillinger said:
I'll never buy in so long as that craptastic apple tv remote exists. Offer an app through LG's webOS please.
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The Apple TV supports 3rd party remotes, you don't have to use the one it comes with (but I like it). They also seemed to announce that all smart TVs will support the Apple TV app or something similar recently, so you should have no worries.


This TV service sounds rather intriguing, but depending on if its bundled with other services (are they doing the Amazon approach?) I assume they will out price themselves with the streaming only service being like $20 a month, but if they did a $50 a month thing with enough channels, it might be worth it.
 
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It's hard to cut the cable where I live in Southern California, because we only have DSL internet service with AT&T, so we are given only 150GB per month and have to pay $50 for every additional 25GB of data used, giving me a monthly bill of $250 a month. So for now, I'm going to stick to DirectTV until AT&T get UVerse in my area, so I can ban AppleTV!.
 
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Perhaps in the USA prices are a lot different but nobody is cutting anything around here.
Everything is designed so that it only makes sense to get 4 services, internet, TV, mobile and they also thrown a fixed telephone that nobody cares.
Currently I'm paying 70 euros for FTTH, 200 channels I don't even know which they are, 1080p DVR and 2 5GB LTE SIM cards. And that is a pretty bad contract because it is old.
 
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Packers1958 said:
If anyone thinks the cable industry will take this lying down is just kidding themselves. Get ready to see them jack up the prices for internet only services
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People have been saying this stuff for a long time now, and it hasn't really happened yet.

I am not saying it won't happen, but it still has not.

Packers1958 said:
more of them going to data caps for those that only have internet only service.
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Actually data caps have been going the other direction in the US, there are less data caps across the US than there was just a few years ago.

With more competition like 5G @ home service, I bet that ISP prices will be getting more competitive and data caps for home internet will be going away.
[doublepost=1548808551][/doublepost]I hope TC doesn't expect people to AirPlay Apple's new service to their TVs.
 
While I have an Apple TV 4K, I really hope Apple puts iTunes or at least AirPlay 2 on Roku for my other TVs. Great that they are opening the gates with Samsung and Airplay on other manufacturers but they need a big player like Roku to add them if they want their streaming service to succeed.
 
timber said:
Perhaps in the USA prices are a lot different but nobody is cutting anything around here.
Everything is designed so that it only makes sense to get 4 services, internet, TV, mobile and they also thrown a fixed telephone that nobody cares.
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It is similar option in the US.

The difference is that there are only a few major cable/ISPs that have oligopolies in the US, and with the large size of the country, it is very hard for anyone to build new infrastructure to compete with existing cable/ISPs. Cable/ISPs can charge what they want, and there is little their customers can do about it.

That is why cord-cutting is so big here, since for the longest time, US users were at the mercy of cable companies. Now that there are options, people are taking advantage of them.

With new 5G mobile tech that will be coming over the next few years, expect for the number of cord cutters to rise.
 
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The case for a TV service is simple. Apple has to provide some competition to Netflix to keep it in line. As a de facto monopoly, Netflix has been able to push Apple around, ignoring AppleTV’s UI standards, saying No to being in the TV app, and now getting around paying the 30% commission from Netflix users on Apple devices.

Video is already the biggest segment of uses on iPhones, iPads, Macs and of course AppleTV. Apple cannot have a giant dictating how they run their devices. Having a large majority of Apple users as Netflix consumers, it has the heft to do that. Apple has to provide some friendly competition to keep it in line.
 
ipedro said:
The case for a TV service is simple. Apple has to provide some competition to Netflix to keep it in line. As a de facto monopoly, Netflix has been able to push Apple around, ignoring AppleTV’s UI standards, saying No to being in the TV app, and now getting around paying the 30% commission from Netflix users on Apple devices.

Video is already the biggest segment of uses on iPhones, iPads, Macs and of course AppleTV. Apple cannot have a giant dictating how they run their devices. Having a large majority of Apple users as Netflix consumers, it has the heft to do that. Apple has to provide some friendly competition to keep it in line.
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Really, how dare they? This kind of thing is why monopolies cant be allowed to abuse their market power.
 
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