November 10, 2009 12:47 PM PST
CNET TV Apple Byte: iTunes TV?
Joe is a seasoned Mac veteran with years of experience on the platform. He reports on Macs, iPods, iPhones and anything else Apple sells. Before joining CNET, he even worked in Apple's retail stores. He's also a creative professional who knows how to use a Mac to get the job done.
Lord, our parents and grandparents paid nothing to watch TV and a few cents for a stamp.
Now I spend hundreds a month to do all this - can't swing another $30.
Well, the wife won't let me.
But what about the main question? Would I subscribe to TV over my AppleTV (presumably for the $30/month figure that's been mentioned)? Assuming I can get full shows (and not just snippets), you bet I would. That price is reasonable for TV shows -when- I want to watch them without worrying about setting a stupid VCR or dedicating a computer for this purpose. Heck; they could even keep the commercials intact, for all I care.
Seriously? You expect to somehow get broadband thrown in for $30?
Where do you live? I was paying $90 to DirectTV for HD TV with DVR and no premium as well as $60 to Cox for cable. If I could get the ENTIRE iTunes library ON DEMAND commercial FREE for $30/month? Seriously you can question that?
Think about it! Your TV shows are paid for by TV ad's. You then pay the cable company or DirectTV another $60+ just to have them deliver it to you. YOU CURRENTLY PAY TWICE FOR YOUR TV!!!!!!
Dude? Seriously?
I'm already there but at a cost. I ditched my DirectTV to see what it would be like to purchase all of my content and own my own re-runs. I was dropping $90/month for HD/DVR and no premium channels. Plus I was paying for the content by watching commercials (even thou I was doing that at fast motion). I expect my total iTunes bill this year will amount to between $1000-$1300 which should be close to the $1080 I was expecting to pay to DirectTV but I have hundreds of show that I can use in re-run and I expect next year to be easier.
If Apple gives me a $30 option for rental I'll just purchase my favorite seasons in HD and watch the rest as I have time. As long as they can get all the shows this would be nearly perfect!
Right now Apple and Netflix are competing with cable and dish systems in providing streaming content; fortunately for everyone concerned this is not yet a primary source of income. But streaming media to the computer and the TV is certainly the direction things are moving. Which means DSL's days are numbered.
Entertainment isn't vital to our lives, economic situation is still gloomy, consumer confidence is still in the cellar. Yet "TV providers" are sucking up customer's money and draining them dry. No wonder people are learning to do without TV. News: obviously, you can get all of that you want as part of your internet access subscription.
Don't forget: the US is way down the list on the ability to provide broadband to "everyone." Other countries like Japan and the UK have great (not only far superior health care) TV delivery systems which don't cost a quarter of the family budget.
Bottom line: I would consider buying into an iTunes TV plan at $30 / month. After all, right now Apple gets more than that for a single season of popular TV series.
Yes and the old days were better: some great programs, a lot of crap, for FREE! And you can still get PBS TV even if you're only paying for local channels on cable.
Finally: am I the only one who saw the Great Digital Changeover (mandatory) law as a ripoff in the making?? It was and is an excuse to charge $1000 for a damned television set. Just so everyone understands: the actual television set isn't worth 1/40th that. With the usual markups: a list price of $250 would still provide "good profits" to manufacturers. But that's "privatization" for ya.