10-31-2011, 01:35 PM
I wonder how that would work out, exactly... I mean, you can't kill the cable industry with Apple TV considering the cable industry is what's providing the broadband access most people would be using to watch Apple TV.
It might force the cable industry to start doing their own per-channel packages to compete, though. Either that or they'd get out of the TV business and just be internet providers, assuming that's something they can afford to do. (I've read before that the main reason cable companies don't want to offer per-channel packages is because they need a certain minimum per household to cover the hard costs of the business. Comcast's net income for 2010 was negative 3 billion... Per channel subscriptions that allow all viewers to reduce their cable costs by half or more might get real interesting.)
At any rate, it's a bit off topic, since I don't think per-channel streaming is going to compete with Netflix any more than having every channel competes with Netflix.
If anything, Netflix could do what Apple TV is trying to do, but the fight probably isn't with cable operators so much as it's with content suppliers. ABC probably just doesn't want to offer streaming of their shows online, unless it's through ABC.com (where they can then try to sell you DVDs, or at least get direct advertising dollars).
From an investment standpoint, anything related to television is big risk, in my opinion. Something is probably going to win big while everything else flops. I think within the next 10 years we could see some really major upheavals regarding how we get our entertainment content.
It might force the cable industry to start doing their own per-channel packages to compete, though. Either that or they'd get out of the TV business and just be internet providers, assuming that's something they can afford to do. (I've read before that the main reason cable companies don't want to offer per-channel packages is because they need a certain minimum per household to cover the hard costs of the business. Comcast's net income for 2010 was negative 3 billion... Per channel subscriptions that allow all viewers to reduce their cable costs by half or more might get real interesting.)
At any rate, it's a bit off topic, since I don't think per-channel streaming is going to compete with Netflix any more than having every channel competes with Netflix.
If anything, Netflix could do what Apple TV is trying to do, but the fight probably isn't with cable operators so much as it's with content suppliers. ABC probably just doesn't want to offer streaming of their shows online, unless it's through ABC.com (where they can then try to sell you DVDs, or at least get direct advertising dollars).
From an investment standpoint, anything related to television is big risk, in my opinion. Something is probably going to win big while everything else flops. I think within the next 10 years we could see some really major upheavals regarding how we get our entertainment content.