When my 2 years is up, I have no further obligation. So whatever the next best option is at that time, I can take it. No games, no threatening to cancel. It's just the end of that term. If the next best option is this al-a-carte dream where Apple is the new DISH/Comcast, I can jump on it then. If it's DISH, again I can go with them. The point is not the hassle potential at the end of promotional periods. The point is that in whatever an Apple might roll out vs. this Youtube rollout vs. this Hulu rollout, does some $40/month skinny bundle of maybe 30-40 channels picked by some corporation actually compete with:
- 150+ channels +
- HD DVR +
- no broadband caps/tier worries +
- live sports & local channels at +
- full(er) HD quality vs. risk of over-compression +
- Dish Anywhere-type apps that makes all that "just work" with our iDevices + when we are away from home
- an on-screen guide that shows everything available now instead of having to just know what I want to watch (new show discovery is pretty hard in that mindset) and hopping app to app to app trying to find it
...at only $10 or so dollars more? There must be a threshold where somebody weighs some "skinny bundle" concept that is really just Cable Jr vs. full Cable and decides that the extra $10 or $15 dollars IS worth the other 180 channels "I never watch" + DVR + (list above).
And nobody actually pays for channels they don't watch. If you want to allocate what you pay each month, it's paying for whatever you actually do watch. Most of what some would call "junk" channels are bundled in not to squeeze another nickel or dime out of us subscribers but to make more money from the commercials that are sold to run on those channels. Some- even many- PAY the distributor to be included in a bundle. That does NOT come out of my or your pocket but it flows OPM revenue through the model, some of which chips in on the stuff you and I do want to watch. Kill THAT golden goose and you kill a whole bunch of money that might contribute to the budget of whatever you do like.
At the same time, if we also get our much-desired "huge discount," we suck another source of revenue out of the flow. How we generally smart people can believe that stripping out the bulk of the revenues in both ways but then all of what we do want will keep right on coming... at the same quality... and all of what we will want to become favorites in the future will still get piloted... and Apple can get their 30% too... and Cable who is also broadband provider will just let an Apple have it even though Apple cant deliver 1 second of video unless Cable's broadband pipe lets them... is beyond me.