I'm tired of having to identify what a channel really is. Is it streaming shows? Is it a collection of highlights? Is it simply an interactive ad filled with commercials? Does it need a cable subscription, third party account, or to be registered by visiting some url and entering a code? I don't even try these stores anymore because all they do is add addional steps and confusion to what should be the very simple and passive activity of watching tv.
The whole experience is in dire need of a rethinking. I watch shows. I don't watch episodes, and I don't watch seasons, and on the opposite end I don't watch channels or networks either. I watch shows.
Let me make a list of the shows I watch, and let me watch those shows in queue order (that is, I'll tell you I've seen the first three seasons of American Horror Story and the first two episodes of the fourth; put me into the third episode when I ask for that show, and when that episode ends make it one click to go on to the fourth, etc).
What is on ABC? Damned if I know. Damned if I care, either. We don't need "networks" any more. Drop the whole concept.
If I'm watching Show X and you think I might like Show Y because of that, let me know. Maybe you're right (it would be nice if you would allow multiple "recommendation engines" to play in your sandbox and so if one was giving me better recommendations than the others I could pay more attention to that one). That's the only purpose a "network" has, even though the "you might like ..." shows a network offers are rarely ideal recommendations.
If I have to get different shows from different services, make that easy. Of course Apple would love it if everything came from the iTunes store, and Hulu would love it if I only ever watched their licensed shows, and Netflix would love it if I'd only watch theirs. But the box isn't about pleasing a subscription service; it is about making happy customers who will buy more boxes from them instead of their competition (Amazon, Google, Roku, etc).
The AppleTV should tell me all the ways I can get the series I'm watching and let me choose which to use. Once I choose - watch this on Hulu with ads - remember that choice but let me reconsider - no, those ads are annoying; let's start buying the eps from iTunes.
This is really necessary for the AppleTV. It needs to make a major leap forward, this year. Already the Amazon Fire TV Stick is seeing serious heavy use in our house. If the AppleTV died today, we wouldn't buy a replacement for it. And yet, none of the existing alternatives offer a good, consumer-centric approach to watching television. There is much fertile ground to work with here, Apple; time to shift the playing field and reinvent the space.
