Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple's TV Plans Fell Apart Over Content Owners' Resistance to Skinny Bundles

Lesser Evets said:
People are bailing the cable/satellite game because content is useless on almost all channels. Pick-n-choose entertainment like Netflix has begun to rule. The dinosaur media, corrupt with useless content supported by package schemes, is going to have to rot off a few limbs before it limps into the bandwagon of the future.
Click to expand...

If it were that simple. The dinosaur media you mention is always where Netflix and pick-n-choose options like Hulu get their content. If you kill the dinosaur, you lay waste the what we have.

I personally think the "dinosaurs" also known as the people who actually create the content.... could make money in a new format, but the issue is they want "all their channels that bundle with cable" because even those channels bring in advertising revenue which is still what pays for the creation of content.

$7.99 for Netflix or Hulu isn't covering creation of a whole network of content. Netflix originals are great, but would netflix be worth $7.99 for just those few shows? Many of which, Netflx buys from the people you are showing disdain for.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mantan
I haven't read all of this thread, so apologies if the point has been made already. The TV/cable industry seems a little like the music industry before iTunes - you have to pay for a lot of stuff you don't want (an album with mostly crap songs) to get the one thing you like (the single). It didn't work out too well for the music industry until they embraced iTunes.
 
VulchR said:
I haven't read all of this thread, so apologies if the point has been made already. The TV/cable industry seems a little like the music industry before iTunes - you have to pay for a lot of stuff you don't want (an album with mostly crap songs) to get the one thing you like (the single). It didn't work out too well for the music industry until they embraced iTunes.
Click to expand...
Similar but not the same. TV is flush with advertising cash. Music wasn't. Illegal downloads were killing CD sales. Not too many people torrenting TV shows. They are watching on Hulu and Netflix but the content and media companies make money there, too.

The point is that there not as desperate this time and there is no Steve Jobs to save the day.
 
Oh well, I've cut the cord anyways - they can try to shove down fat bundles but my skinny wallet won't take it anymore.

Dmunjal said:
Not too many people torrenting TV shows. They are watching on Hulu and Netflix but the content and media companies make money there, too.
Click to expand...

There are huge numbers of people torrenting shows - Game of Thrones hit several piracy records. Ironically it is easier/faster to torrent GOT than to watch it on HBO NOW.
 
OllyW said:
Don't you think "We want to pay you a lot less than you are already getting and then take our 30% cut" is going to persuade them to give Apple the upper hand? :D
Click to expand...
Does Apple take 30% with Apple TV? I thought I read somewhere the deals might be different. And since this would be an Apple service what 30% are we talking about? Is Apple keeping 30% of Apple Music subscriptions?
 
kenmarable said:
The current system is definitely going to collapse, but I'm not sure Apple's plan for a small bundle will work. The fundamental problem is that everyone only watches like 10% of the channels they have access to (or whatever the number is) but it's not the same 10%.

The vast majority of the channels I pay for, I will never watch. And the vast majority you pay for, you will never watch. Unfortunately, what we do watch might not overlap at all. So people may only need 20ish channels or something, but it's not the same 20ish. Trying to force a specific thin bundle for everyone is not good for consumers unless what they pick happens to be your favorites.

So, yeah, the big cable companies need to adapt or die, but they do have a point when they say all of their channels are in some way must-haves.
Click to expand...

Very well said.
 
lewisd25 said:
Even better: integrate the antenna directly into Apple TV, and include a nice EPG interface.
Click to expand...
This. I have a Mediasonic Homeworx OTA DVR ($35 @ Amazon) works great. I'd love to see an Apple TV that had this capability. It might cause those companies to squirm a bit. It would be a major reason for me to switch away from the Roku to the Apple TV.
 
Makes me sick. I am sick of paying ATT outrageous sums of money, so I can watch a few channels with quality offerings on crappy hardware, with a terrible interface, that usually requires restarting each and every time I want to use it.

And given the above I am all the more sick they have the audacity to inflict upon me mind numbing advertisements during a presentation I have paid through the nose for!

Of course, ATT are far from sick of me paying them outrageous sums of money for a third rate experience.

And therein lies the rub.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back