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Time Warner Willing to Cede Control of User Interface in Potential Deals for Apple TV Products

Apple will never have a cable tv-type system. The current companies make billions (literally) from all the commercials and monopolies...why would they give that up?...or even 25% of it up?

It has nothing to do with tv shows and all to do with advertising and fees to the cable companies.

Apple could, on the other hand, have a very good Movie rental system that competes with Netflix...or maybe dabble in old tv series' rentals. That's completely different.

I have an ATV and like the UI and the ability to find movies...but I dislike the pricing and the rules about how/when I can watch/restart my movie/show. Give me more control/better options to watch/re-watch and make it a lot cheaper and Apple will get my money. The kids shows are extremely expensive...we all know kids watch the shows 9 trillion times. I can buy a couple of dvd sets for $15 each and watch them forever or I can pay Apple $1-2 per view per episode. Way too expensive via ATV right now for kids stuff.
 
They were always good at screwing the customer, not so much on providing the best experience.
 
This is competition with Scientific Atlanta and Samsung, set-top box makers, not content providers like Fios and Optimum.
 
Brilliant move to get customers on capped plans

Can you imagine how easily TW will get people to capped usage plans if they make it a requirement of the Apple device?
 
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The only way Apple will ever "crack" the TV industry is if they buy major content provider(s)... which of course, they have the money to do.
 
Here's the thing: cable sucks. I don't want to get a "package deal" that includes channels I don't want. This is an industry Apple needs to reform, and it's going to take more than simply making a set-top box.

Instead of working with cable providers, Apple should go straight to the content creators. Offer an AppleTV with live, streaming television channels you can purchase a la cartè. Each channel costs 99¢ per month, or something similar.

They could have iTunes Store integration ("Want to see this program commercial free? Download now.") The ability to watch TV when I want and how I want would break the strangling hold cable providers have on Amercians.

While an Apple set-top box would be cool, it would be awesome to see Apple give consumers a totally new format to watching television.
 
justperry said:
As expected, won't give up their control over customers.
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Nope, it sounds like they are happy to have apps put on the box so long as the content still requires a cable subscription, a la HBOGO

Personally I hope Apple competes by going around the cable companies and get nets to make better quality, quicker released and cheaper content available via the store. And fill in the quality etc gaps. There are shows where seasons 1-3 are SD only, where seasons 1-2 of like 5 are missing and so on. Fix all that and iTunes is on the way.

I did notice something interesting. I was looking at the new releases and saw that the CW had posted one of their new shows pre-release on a season pass for only $9.99. Assuming a typical initial pick up of 13 episodes with a possible extension that's really cheap. I can only hope that they are planning to consider those numbers with the ratings as an experiment. Something that s overdue. But what really surprises me about this is that Warners co owns that net with Paramount. Warners is the biggest hold back on content. They are TimeWarner Cable which didn't allow access to the HBOGO etc apps on their own service for ages. They are HBO which holds back all shows until a month after the DVDs (and ironically 4 of the 5 top torrented tv shows each season are from HBO). They hold back broadcast shows the same. For example the CBS show Person of Interest is produced by Warners and still can't be bought on iTunes etc. so seeing them putting up a show and on discount as this could prove to be is stunning
 
And why would they want to give up their customer relationships? This is one of their most valuable assets. Who's to say in five years time that Apple realises it has millions of customers on their hands and then launches its own TV service.

Apple may be acting innocently now and looking for the best user experience, but it's a scary eco-system being built for future generations to take advantage of.
 
ziggyonice said:
Here's the thing: cable sucks. I don't want to get a "package deal" that includes channels I don't want. This is an industry Apple needs to reform, and it's going to take more than simply making a set-top box.

Instead of working with cable providers, Apple should go straight to the content creators. Offer an AppleTV with live, streaming television channels you can purchase a la cartè. Each channel costs 99¢ per month, or something similar.

They could have iTunes Store integration ("Want to see this program commercial free? Download now.") The ability to watch TV when I want and how I want would break the strangling hold cable providers have on Amercians.

While an Apple set-top box would be cool, it would be awesome to see Apple give consumers a totally new format to watching television.
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That's all true but the content providers are beholden to the cable providers, one of their main sources of revenue. They're wary to risk that money for a speculative deal with anyone, even Apple. Someone has to stick their neck out first.
 
fni said:
anyone else feel this will play out similar to the iphone? At first carriers were reluctant to give into apple's terms, but as soon as one did (and they saw the success that came along with it) they all wanted in.
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exactly!
 
sbrhwkp3 said:
Smart move. Verizon wasn't willing to cede control of their cell phone UIs, and we all know how that story went. :apple:
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You'd think they would have learned. I have TWC now and was thinking of switching over to Verizon FIOS when my contract with TWC is up but now I'm having second thoughts if this comes to be true.
 
I still think Apple should build an alternative to cable rather then simply a better set-top box. If they put a free-to-air TV tuner inside that would get the main channels in each country. The networks can't stop them doing that. Then all they need to do is strike deals with the other TV channels and content holders (just like they did with MLB, NFL, NHL, etc) to add channels as app's. So you just buy whatever apps/channels you want. They already have movie rentals. So you get movies, sports and a few good individual channels like Discovery or HBO. Isn't that what most people get cable for anyway.
 
I cut the cord 2 years ago... then went to amazon, bought an HDTV antenna and a kindle.

I also have a Roku for the occasional rental and Netflix.

Believe it or not, I don't miss any of the paid channels, ESPECIALLY HBO and Showtime.

I would be very interested in what Apple has to offer though.
 
FNi said:
Anyone else feel this will play out similar to the iPhone? At first carriers were reluctant to give into Apple's terms, but as soon as one did (and they saw the success that came along with it) they all wanted in.
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Perhaps, but I'm more interested in what those terms are.

The ones that would make me happy hands down for tv would be

1. All shows including back seasons will be upgraded to include 720 and 1080 quality. All shows will have CC captions at a minimum, if not alt language subtitles and even visual impaired voice tracks. All missing seasons will also be added for all shows.

2. Prices will be dropped to the SD only level on all titles. All shows beyond the first season will have season pricing that reflects a minimum 20% discount over buying the episodes one at a time and all shows will have 'complete my season'

3. Shows will be available no later than one week after the initial OTA in the local market and no later than two months later in all markets globally. Shows will not be pulled due to syndie deals unless those deals also require the freezing of all optical disc sales and rentals. Redownloads via 'iTunes in the Cloud' will be excluded from this and will remain available at all times.

4. Shows will be encouraged to include 'extras' as they do on the home video releases. However features must be consistent across versions of the same main content or available for independent purchase (see the recent Doctor Who box set releases for the wrong way to do this). Main content available for purchase via an app for features content much be coded to appear as a purchase for use on devices that cannot access the app (ie you get the Grimm app and buy the episodes IAP they must appear as a regular purchase for your computer as well.

5. Apple will provide weekly reports of downloads and season pass purchases to every network and studio and encourages inclusion of those views and funds in determining a shows continuance.
 
mono1980 said:
The only way Apple will ever "crack" the TV industry is if they buy major content provider(s)... which of course, they have the money to do.
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They've already done that. Steve Jobs was a major shareholder in Disney which owns ABC Television, ESPN and The Disney Channel and the Disney boss sits on Apple's board of directors. I doubt the competition authorities would let Apple buy up all the networks or content providers.
 
Intarweb said:
This is competition with Scientific Atlanta and Samsung, set-top box makers, not content providers like Fios and Optimum.
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Right, and add Motorola to that list. TWC really has less to fear from Apple at this point than do these three set top box makers. They put out uniformly terrible products. The real conflict of interests between Apple and TWC are over Apple's content delivery, but if they can strike a deal to share that revenue somehow, a deal could be done. Apple cannot afford to be a "partner" with TWC or any other provider, however. They need to come up with a template arrangement with TWC that is transferrable to other providers, pretty much as they've done with the record labels.
 
ziggyonice said:
Instead of working with cable providers, Apple should go straight to the content creators.
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There are a number of issues with that.

First is that some of the content creators are owned by the same companies as the cable companies, not to mention networks. Someone like Time Warner isn't about to screw themselves by giving up control of HBO etc. Not unless laws change to force it.

Second, the ratings system has the nets brainwashed into believing it is fool proof and online etc doesn't matter. And I'm someone that has felt that issue first hand. The nets and studios have to be convinced to count things other than the ratings or they will continue to 'protect' the ratings at all costs. Which is assisine since only 25k meters are out there anyway.

And so on. Apple is trying to go straight to the source but it's as big a mess as blu-ray etc. until Apple gets some kind of leverage or someone at a network drows a pair, we are stuck

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iTeleport said:
And why would they want to give up their customer relationships? This is one of their most valuable assets. Who's to say in five years time that Apple realises it has millions of customers on their hands and then launches its own TV service.

.
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Apple already has their own tv service. But it is cockblocked by idiots at the studios and nets and existing contracts that allow content to be denied.
 
Sounds like Apple is pondering a Tivo-like setup more than anything else. I am OK with this as a first step. My biggest complaint about my cable company is that the hardware and software on the STB are terrible. If I had a good guide interface, dvr interface, and a box that didn't constantly make whooshing sounds as the HDD spins I'd be thrilled.
 
Man, I thought TWC was well renowned for their brilliant yet simple user interfaces. I can't believe release control over to Apple :rolleyes:
 
Wrong Company

Time Warner and Time Warner Cable are completely separate companies. They separated 2 or 3 years ago, and are traded separately on the NYSE.
 
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