CNN blogs about this idea ?

"Posted by Philip Elmer-DeWitt
December 22, 2009 8:21 AM

This could be totally disruptive. Or it could be another "hobby" like Apple TV that never quite takes off.

In a front-page story published Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that CBS (CBS) and Disney (DIS) are "considering participating" in Apple's (AAPL) plan to offer television subscriptions over the Internet."
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My prediction ? Cable TV companies are also the largest Broadband providers. They will BLOCK it all !

Please let it be true. If cable companies were to simply offer a la carte selection of stations instead of requiring customers to purchase a bundle, I would be very happy.

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freeradical
Please let it be true. If cable companies were to simply offer a la carte selection of stations instead of requiring customers to purchase a bundle, I would be very happy.

Same here. I'm tired of not caring about 90% of the channels. I realize home shopping channels are big business, but I personally think it's ridiculous to pay to be marketed to.

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I see a tie in with the Tablet and iPhone in conjunction with the AppleTV.

We may finally get the AppleTV DVR we have always wished for.

The only problem I see cropping up is the with iTunes subscription TV is the specialty sports channels.

I think we will also be able to stream TV to the iPhone, and maybe view from our own AppleTV.

The DisplayPort input to the iMac may become more interesting.

I'm about to nuke cable TV since they took out a ton of channels that I previously had been getting for my paltry $15/month. In order to get the three non-local channels back that I watch I'd have to pay about $100/month. No thanks. I'm currently perusing the various other options (Hulu, Netflix streaming, Plex, Playon, etc) for getting content onto the TV. I welcome any additional options that come our way. The cable TV business model is badly broken and the satellite companies aren't a whole lot better.

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I've been cut off from some of the "good" channels that I had been receiving and I'm rather pissed at that. But my city has an "exclusive" deal with one provider, so I'm stuck doing that. Also, be aware that many providers bundle service in a way that make having television about the same monthly price as having only i-net. Mine was $65 for only i-net vs. $69 for having tv and i-net or something like that. In fact, the numbers may have been reversed on that scheme.

I'd be curious how much they charge per channel; my guess is that it will not be any less expensive in the overall scheme, but more selective.

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davester
I'm about to nuke cable TV since they took out a ton of channels that I previously had been getting for my paltry $15/month. In order to get the three non-local channels back that I watch I'd have to pay about $100/month. No thanks. I'm currently perusing the various other options (Hulu, Netflix streaming, Plex, Playon, etc) for getting content onto the TV. I welcome any additional options that come our way. The cable TV business model is badly broken and the satellite companies aren't a whole lot better.

Exactly. The junk they push and at such a high price... I'm more surprised people pay for it.

I went years without cable TV. When I got it back, I noticed things changed a lot. For example, Discovery went from a channel that constantly had new programming, to one that only has a few shows and the repeats them all of the time. They split off much of it into the history channel, learning channel, home & garden... and it's not like there's really any additional programming, they just have way more reruns than ever before.

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M A V I C
... and it's not like there's really any additional programming, they just have way more reruns than ever before.

and you pay a lot more.

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Ken Sp.
I think we will also be able to stream TV to the iPhone, and maybe view from our own AppleTV.

Not until all the cell companies lift the 5 GB data cap, or are you talking about WiFi?

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Ken Sp.
I see a tie in with the Tablet and iPhone in conjunction with the AppleTV.

We may finally get the AppleTV DVR we have always wished for.

The only problem I see cropping up is the with iTunes subscription TV is the specialty sports channels.

I think we will also be able to stream TV to the iPhone, and maybe view from our own AppleTV.

The DisplayPort input to the iMac may become more interesting.

thus the LALA purchase

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The sociologist, and historian, Adam Ferguson described the phenomenon of spontaneous order in society as the "result of human action, but not the execution of any human design".

Sooner or later, sports events will be pay-on-demand. That's both a plus and a negative if you think about it.

Also, the data cap thing will indeed be a major hindrance for this business plan. Unfortunately, it might mean a return to per-call type charges (remember those old AT&T bills?) with your bandwidth at some point.

Something's gotta give. Something will, and sooner than we think.

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(BTW, it's spelled < y'all >.)

Will Comcast and others allow us to just buy their internet service and get TV and Phone elsewhere, using their cable, without any hiccups and interference?

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M A V I C
. They split off much of it into the history channel, learning channel, home & garden... and it's not like there's really any additional programming, they just have way more reruns than ever before..

exactly....if they can split it off and dilute the content, they have similar production costs and crap-load more advertising space and revenue.

i will never get cable/satellite. ok...*maybe* if they allow a-la-carte....but until then, no freaking way..

kiva

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Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2009 12:54PM by Kiva.

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Kiva

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M A V I C
. They split off much of it into the history channel, learning channel, home & garden... and it's not like there's really any additional programming, they just have way more reruns than ever before..

exactly....if they can split it off and dilute the content, they have similar production costs and crap-load more advertising space and revenue.

i will never get cable/satellite. ok...*maybe* if they allow a-la-carte....but until then, no freaking way..

kiva

I only have the basic cable because comcast charges an extra $10/mo for internet if you don't have TV. So I pay a net extra of $2-3/mo for basic - though they're slowly stripping stations away.

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$30 bucks a month to be tethered to another box... that is not an attractive idea.

Paying for more television is repugnant to me.

I ditched cable tv.

I enjoy having just OTA tv and free streaming stuff from Hulu and similar services.

I've already got enough distracting entertainment from that.

Then there's my console-games and DVDs...

I can't keep up with what I've got.

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Doc

Paying for more television is repugnant to me.

I ditched cable tv.

Did your ISP raise your internet rates when you did that?

Comcast will since they bundle services.

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freeradical

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Doc

Paying for more television is repugnant to me.

I ditched cable tv.

Did your ISP raise your internet rates when you did that?

Comcast will since they bundle services.

Yes, but in my area they no longer offer a discount on Internet service with the regular basic cable service -- bundles start with expanded basic -- so it would have been more than twice the price to keep cable tv with Internet service over Internet service alone. With the rapidly shrinking number of unscrambled cable channels, the value received from such a subscription was rapidly diminishing.

Basically, they arranged it so that it was not just economical to ditch the tv subscription, but also that anyone who wasn't addicted to pay-tv and who bothered to investigate would be compelled to cancel the service.

Nice business model.

I'm so old, I can remember when cable tv was fun, exciting, and a good deal.

I currently have expanded basic with my internet access. The only real reason I still have cable tv is that my Pop, (who is really old!) lives with me and is a Nascar fanatic. A lot of the races are on cable, or otherwise I'd drop it in a heartbeat.

There really isn't anything compelling enough to watch to justify the expense. Out of all the channels I get, there are only a few I occasionally watch.

A-la-cart...Bring it on!!

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The first cable bill that I saw, and granted it wasn't mine, was $7 and included HBO.

When did Apple announce this?

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I am not Ryan Seacrest, and I do not approve this message.

I especially like when you get those flyers that tell you how lucky you are that your rates are going up b/c now you will be getting 4 new home shopping channels, 2 more golf channels and the all new reality tv channel.

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bazookaman
I especially like when you get those flyers that tell you how lucky you are that your rates are going up b/c now you will be getting 4 new home shopping channels, 2 more golf channels and the all new reality tv channel.

You forgot the part where it says that those new channels are only available to digital-premium subscribers, so your rates are going up in order to provide people who are happily paying $200/month for cable tv with more channels that they'll never watch while your basic cable channels are disappearing.

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Doc

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bazookaman
I especially like when you get those flyers that tell you how lucky you are that your rates are going up b/c now you will be getting 4 new home shopping channels, 2 more golf channels and the all new reality tv channel.

You forgot the part where it says that those new channels are only available to digital-premium subscribers, so your rates are going up in order to provide people who are happily paying $200/month for cable tv with more channels that they'll never watch while your basic cable channels are disappearing.

And it's only that price for the first six months, then it goes up to a rate they wont tell you until after you sign up.

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I have never had pay tv (aka cable or dish).
I do not one red cent of mine going to channels whose contents a garbage, immoral, overly violent, etc.

This worked out well for Apple: [www.eworld.com]

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Speedy
This worked out well for Apple: [www.eworld.com]

Ah, my first ISP.

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I just dumped my digital cable tv service from Cox. The service rep seemed flabbergasted that I would even consider doing such a thing. I then told her Cox's product was not a good value, and that I'd be getting my shows from Netflix and and Apple TV. I could almost smell the smoke coming from her ears.

I would also be very interested in a-la-cart channels.

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It (Cable TV) was kind of like cocaine, I guess; they got us hooked cheap and, when they knew we could no longer *not* have it (per se), they just started raising the rates, steadily.

Getting ready to dump Comcast Digital Cable (and all Comcast Cable) from my house and go back to DirecTV. I'll be keeping Comcast for internet; that service has been pretty good and there's really no other option for me.

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(BTW, it's spelled < y'all >.)

I like not having to pay Comcast anymore. And with the leeching from the neighbor's internets, life is cool. Actually I just signed up for AT&T's DSL service. $35 dollars a month. Most of my shows can be watched on the station's websites. Others like "Mad Men" can be downloaded via torrents. I always wish they wouldn't remove the commercials. I'm willing to watch 'em.

Not until all the cell companies lift the 5 GB data cap

That will happen. But it will come with tiered pricing for capacity as well as speed.


My first cable bill was $7 a month, with HBO. Fun to play with at first, and I had really bad OTA reception. HBO was only on a few hours a day. I dropped cable when it went up to $20 a month, and never subscribed after that.


I would also be very interested in a-la-cart channels.

Same here, but pricing would be a huge consideration. Discounts are given for bundles, and I'd hate to have a provider try and ream me for four or five channels.

Fortunately (for the time being?) digital OTA has improved my broadcast viewing tremendously.


I always wish they wouldn't remove the commercials.

If I could remove them later, that would be fine with me. In uploaders' efforts to save capacity and time, they also delete the end credits. I really like those and wish they'd leave them in as well.

It's somewhat moot though, since TV stations often clip them or speed them up for time for commercials.

<sigh> I wish there were still regulation on cable companies and commercials.

And don't get me started about volume levels...

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RAMd®d
And don't get me started about volume levels...

Yep. It's getting REALLY bad. Commercials are sometimes nearly 2x the volume of the show. Plus there's so many commercials anymore... it used to be there were four minutes of commercials per half hour. Then six, then eight and now 10 in many cases. I think they've passed a point where there's too many commercials, and customers are dissatisfied, find ways to not watch them or just ignore them. That devalues the worth of the commercials and thus the revenue.

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The original article linked to from the CNN blog is dated November 2. This is either a strange under-the-radar news scoop or another navel-gazing exercise.