Great for us (especially for getting local content), but Apple would be shooting themselves in the foot.
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CBS CEO Again Says Network Will 'Probably' Reach Streaming TV Deal With Apple
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I live in a college town of 115,000 (I mean not big at all but decent sized) with their own TV networks and can't even pick up CBS OTA. I've lived on both the north and south sides of town. Even bought one of those fancy Leaf antennas. I only want CBS for football. I'm not eligible for Sunday Ticket streaming service. But I don't see why I should pay to access free, OTA content via IP and still have to sit through so many commercials. I've got too much stuff to do to sit through all of that. But maybe that's why so many young people are cord cutters? We're out living our lives instead of being couch potatoes? On demand content is key.
If Apple's package includes many cable networks, or perhaps a "build your own package" option that includes OTA TV, then I might consider it in the $30-40/mo price range. But as a cord cutter I like being able to watch content when it's most convenient. Many people I know my age and younger (even a few a little older than me) feel the same way. These guys are really going to start hurting once the newer generations start dictating their profits. We won't put up with this old system. There's enough quality, free content online to keep me entertained for years. The rest I pay to stream or purchase on iTunes if I really love it. These executives are so set in their ways that it's incredibly difficult for them to understand such a simple mindset when it comes to entertainment. I want to choose the channels I subscribe to, I want to make my own package, I want to watch content when I have time, and I don't want to sit through a bunch of commercials.
As a side note, I hadn't watched OTA TV in so long that I was really amazed the other day when I watched it. My toddler had fallen and hurt her head (briefly passed out) so I took her to the ER (she was fine). In the observation room we stayed in for a couple hours afterwards and they had Nickelodeon on the TV (was the morning so I think it was Nick Jr. or whatever it's called today). There were so many commercials I couldn't believe it! It seemed like most of the programming was squeezed between corporate sponsorships. Kids are bombarded with so much crap that makes them super materialistic. Anyway, sorry for my rant. OTA sucks.
If Apple's package includes many cable networks, or perhaps a "build your own package" option that includes OTA TV, then I might consider it in the $30-40/mo price range. But as a cord cutter I like being able to watch content when it's most convenient. Many people I know my age and younger (even a few a little older than me) feel the same way. These guys are really going to start hurting once the newer generations start dictating their profits. We won't put up with this old system. There's enough quality, free content online to keep me entertained for years. The rest I pay to stream or purchase on iTunes if I really love it. These executives are so set in their ways that it's incredibly difficult for them to understand such a simple mindset when it comes to entertainment. I want to choose the channels I subscribe to, I want to make my own package, I want to watch content when I have time, and I don't want to sit through a bunch of commercials.
As a side note, I hadn't watched OTA TV in so long that I was really amazed the other day when I watched it. My toddler had fallen and hurt her head (briefly passed out) so I took her to the ER (she was fine). In the observation room we stayed in for a couple hours afterwards and they had Nickelodeon on the TV (was the morning so I think it was Nick Jr. or whatever it's called today). There were so many commercials I couldn't believe it! It seemed like most of the programming was squeezed between corporate sponsorships. Kids are bombarded with so much crap that makes them super materialistic. Anyway, sorry for my rant. OTA sucks.
OTA is unbearable even with a dvr. i love watching my shows with no interruptions now, i can never go back to dvrs or ota. i rather not watch a show at all.
Some of the comments here on MR sure make me shake my head over what some people expect.
Anyway... I'm really looking forward to the new ATV. With a full blown SDK and App Store, it could prove to be one of Apples biggest hits in a while. I'll be first in line to order when they let us.
Anyway... I'm really looking forward to the new ATV. With a full blown SDK and App Store, it could prove to be one of Apples biggest hits in a while. I'll be first in line to order when they let us.
CBS All access also includes their library of classic shows some people still like to watch. Just an FYI
I own a lifetime TIVO box and an indoor antenna. I get all local content in HD completely free in addition to DVR capabilities. Yeah you pay $300 hundred bucks up front for the box, and another $50 for an antenna, but now I own the equipment and the antenna and I'm not paying Comcast over $100/month for similar service.
Since we don’t have a down-vote option in these forums I’ll just do it manually. You get 10 down-votes for the nonsense you posted above.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Maybe unbearable where you are.
OTA is typically the very best quality of the most popular network(s) programming, available when first run (rather than waiting for discs or Hulu/Netflix delays). It plays at better quality than cable or SATT and is available for the amazing price of $0. How? Because it's subsidized by other people's money who pay for ALL of it in hopes that we might be watching the channel on which they are running their commercials right when they happen to be running them. Most of the commercials are never seen because we can only watch one channel at a time and we can watch for only a chunk of the time in each day, and yet they pay for it all... bringing us the most popular TV programming in the world, when it first runs... for FREE!
And what do we tend to think of that bargain? Many of us want to get rid of that subsidy model while also expecting to pay next-to-nothing in some kind of subscription from which Apple will probably take their 30% right off the top... yet we expect it all to "just work" anyway... all that programming will just keep on coming... at the same high quality... the motivations for entrepreneurs to keep making the new shows that will be our favorites a few years from now will persist too... and the Cable companies who are also the broadband providers will just keep the broadband rate the same and let an Apple take their TV subscription revenues when they have pretty much no reason (and little-to-no competition forcing them) to do so.
I wish (too). But in the meantime, I continue to enjoy the free OTA, best quality HD delivery and hope nothing will disrupt a model that costs me nothing to get it. I much prefer the free model "as is" than one in which free is monetized so that new players can justify taking a cut.
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it's unbearable because of the commercials not the quality. i rather watch in SD than with commercials. personal preference. i rather wait a month for a show and not have to skip commercials than deal with commercials the minute the show comes out. another personal preference.
and hbo and showtime on demand say hi! i get my shows as soon as they air in the east coast and i live in the west coast where i would have to wait if i was watching on cable.
and i don't expect to pay next to nothing. i just won't pay for cable packages that bundle channels i don't want. some i feel ill for supporting. like TBN. why should i pay for TBN so i can get watch nickelodeon? or sports? i hate sports. the bulk of most cable packages are sports.
the cbs deal is not meant to be a changer for OTA watchers. it's for people that are on cable or dish. the point is that cable companies refuse to provide a la carte cable packages and that will be the death of them. apple tv is becoming that model that i wanted. pay only for what i want to watch
Agreed, but CBS is plying out their own service and they don't want to undercut themselves. They call it CBS ALL ACCESS and you can fork out ONLY $5.99/month. Personally, I don't need to watch any ONE channel that bad.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I appreciate that and hate the commercials too in terms of how they interrupt the viewing experience, etc. But I have done the math. To wash the subsidy revenue in full, every household in America would need to pay about $54/month. That's for zero channels. It would just keep flowing the same amount of (currently subsidy) revenue (made from those commercials) to the creators of all that programming.
Based on that math, I haven't been able to reconcile how we can get the wish of low-cost subscription, commercial-free, Apple getting their 30% cut, Cable (and broadband provider) letting Apple take that business without making it up in broadband rates on which an Apple solution completely depends, and keep it all coming without significant cuts to quality and/or breadth & depth of the programming itself.
Apple has already delivered a commercial-free, al-a-carte option for years now. It worked with
TVs all the way back to the very first generation. We just don't want to pay the prices for getting our content that way. Instead, many of us- maybe not you- seem to want Netflix pricing times 2 or 3 to give us all we want, commercial-free with Apple getting theirs too and it just magically all works out.Again, I'll wish right with everyone. I wish. I wish. I wish (rubbing the magic lamp at left if that might help). But the math is messy. And no one has shown us different math that will make the general wish work for the masses in a "real world" way.
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Apple launches Apple Music Help twitter account ∞
Written by Jim Dalrymple
It doesn’t seem like a good sign when you have to launch a support account for your new music service, especially when you’re known around the world for ease of use.
Why put a tuner in the streaming device when you have a perfectly good one in your TV.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
To unify all programming (reception) in one box.
To have an on-screen guide that mixes streaming channels/programming with over-the-air programming so you can quickly review everything you can watch right now in ONE place.
To make anything you want to watch able to be pushed to an amp/receiver and/or TV with a single cable, so that the "for dummies" crowd doesn't need to switch "sources" from
TV to antenna or HDMI 2, 3, etc to be able to watch everything available to them.To make the programming many of us tend to watch more than any other cable channel not eat into our monthly data cap limits from our broadband provider (though this particular one could be realized by hooking directly to the TV).
As is, right now, my television arrives via DISH (satt). It's one box merges OTA with (satt)-streamed channels so I can see everything I can watch in one glance, on one screen, in one guide. Pick anything available to me and it flows through one cable to the receiver without having to push input switching buttons on a remote. All the television I watch- local OTA or cable- do not eat 1 byte of broadband data from Comcast. I like simplicity. New & better should try to maintain or improve upon such simplicity.
Those would be mine. I'm sure there's more.
From Apple's perspective, while it would certainly be harder to try to motivate us to pay for something we know is reaching the box for free, it would also give them tremendous leverage in negotiating with local channels should any of the locals hold out for too much money. Basically, if channel 4 wants too much for streaming through Apple's service,
TV would offer channel 4 anyway at NO COST to Apple in a perfectly legal way.
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As Dr. Sheldon Cooper once said, "We live in a golden-age of television." Although, aside from a few shows, CBS is crap.
I am with you. In general, I have an aversion to subscriptions especially when it is mostly wasted. I do OTA in my home to see sports and news. Everything else I use the ATV to stream whatever I want to watch, a la cart. I do have Netflix, but at 8 bucks a months there really is not too much waste there. I think I watch enough movies, documentaries, or shows to justify that one.