Post-cable era looks to be very fragmented and expensive.
Of course. This is al-a-carte coming to fruition. Only us fools believed we could get al-a-carte at a huge discount off of cable pricing. All other players want to make
more money, not less. The opportunity to grow revenues is a direct driver of significant change.
So of course, as al-a-carte becomes more and more of a reality, the total cost to get all of what "we" want is likely to exceed what we used to pay to get all of what we want plus "180 channels I never watch." It is the only way moves toward al-a-carte could go.
Unless these new services are very cheap...when the digital market fragments and people don't want to spend enormous amounts of money to subscribe to redundant services just to get access to a show...I'm going to predict high piracy rates of those shows.
As usual, the "then I'll just steal it" argument shows itself. I don't want to pay about $1000 for the next iPhone. Instead, I want it priced dirt cheap. If it's not, I'll just steal it. Who's with me?
And I don't want my next car at the price they want. So I'll just steal that too. Who's with me?
And I don't want to pay their prices for food, so...
Yes and that is a problem that needs to be addressed. I still maintain there needs to be a universal central system (think Amazon channels kind of) where all channels/services are priced at say $3 per channel or bundle them and save:
$5 for 3 channels
$10 for 10 channels
$20 for 25 channels
Sounds great. I want to name my own, very favorable price for iPhone 8, the next Macs and iPads too. And for the next car. And food. And shelter. And all possessions.
The great and wonderful Apple has direct control over their pricing and they don't even let us choose our own price. Good luck on getting other corporations to slash their revenue throats because we want to name our own acceptable price.
I know, I know... "then I'll just steal it."
I would rather just buy the good movies instead of paying for a service.
What's stopping you? iTunes has had that model for years and years. Your solution has been in place for a very long time.
Its sad. We are back where we started.
No it's worse. Along with the fragmentation problem, we also are sacrificing quality. Most streams are generally lower quality picture and much lower quality sound (often just stereo or mono instead of even having the option for 5.1 or better surround sound).
AND, this "the future" replacement entirely depends on the very same pipe completely controlled by the cable company from which revenues are lost as people "cut" (but not really) that cord. What are they to do to make up for those losses? Pinch the download caps down and ramp up the price for broadband. Eventually, they still get all of theirs anyway AND, on top of that, we pay more for less video breadth & depth at lower quality.
Al-a-carte. The future.
Lesson: Be careful what you wish for.
I don't want al-a-carte channels, I want al-a-carte media, i.e. I want to be able to buy one movie or one series, or even one episode of a series.
You already have that for years now: iTunes.
What consumers want is the iTunes model. The movie and TV industry is so out of touch with what people want that they think they are making things better, but actually making things worse.
Actually, the movie & TV industry is key to supporting the iTunes store. Apple would have NO video in that store if the movie & TV industry wasn't supporting the very model you say that people want. They've supported it for many years now.
Soon there will be a subscription service for all the various subscription streaming services. Cable 2.0 rises from the ashes of Cable 1.0. Same story, different distribution.
Exactly. It appears that we are finally beginning to realize that maybe the "antiquated" model was not so bad. Al-a-carte only looked great in our deluded imaginations in which we perceived we could get just what we wanted for a fraction of what we have historically paid. Great but why would any of the other players want that? Therein lies the delusion.
Now that al-a-carte is increasingly coming to pass, we're seeing the reality of what content owners want for their content. No surprise. Apparently Apple wants about a $1000 for the next iPhone that will barely do more than the iPhone we already have.
Thus we begin to sling words like "fragmentation" and the desire for a unified interface instead of having to hop app-to-app and/or box-to-box. I suspect some of us still cling to some delusion that we can get everything for near nothing but that will never happen (and I don't sling a word like "never" lightly).
Welcome to "the future" that so many of us thought we wanted. Now we're increasingly getting it... except for the deep discounts that never had a chance. And what are we doing with it? Complain of course... even describing new wants for something else that looks like what we used to have. Go figure.
