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Our Apple TV is the main way we watch TV, but frankly the channel options are a bit bizarre, and half of the interesting ones require a cable contract. It'd be

by jmelloy 13y ago

Our Apple TV is the main way we watch TV, but frankly the channel options are a bit bizarre, and half of the interesting ones require a cable contract. It'd be nice if they put a stake in the ground for ESPN, Disney, HBO Go, etc and didn't require a cable subscription. Seems like such a backwards model.

Shivetya 13y ago
Yes please, the cheapest plan I can add HBO too is the forty nine dollar plan... as in, screw the consumer. HBO leaves a lot of money on the table.
- sutterbomb 13y ago
  It's really not safe to assume that media companies "leave a lot of money on the table" by not catering to cord cutters. Cord cutters are currently a very small market, and HBO would lose a lot of leverage over the cable companies. At the margin they'd rather have 1 cable subscription over 1 stand-alone subscription - or even two or three for that matter. The bear case is actually the opposite - they aren't leaving any money on the table now, but it will be at the expense of future growth. They'd be better cutting over to stand-alone sooner, at a loss in current revenue, to better position themselves for the future. That may or may not be the right play, but that's really how you should be reading the current market. Giant companies are often not very customer friendly, but they are rarely leaving obvious money on the table. [Edited for clarity]
eob 13y ago
I'm in the same situation and completely agree. My guess is that Apple is trying to build channel momentum any way they can. Unable to pre-negotiate deals and launch with a huge splash, as they prefer, they're doing it from the bottom up, starting with content providers like Crackle that probably get a lot more out of it than Apple does. But as we've seen, Crackle begets Smithsonian and Smithsonian begets PBS and PBS begets ABC. So it seems like it's working. I bet in the next year, we'll see some sort of foldering option for home screen icons.
- 127001brewer 13y ago
  ...PBS begets ABC. Actually, Apple has a relationship with the Walt Disney Company[1], which owns the ABC, ESPN and the Disney channels - and many more. Perhaps these additional TV apps were added after enough content creators agreed to whatever terms. Also, interestingly enough, there is a show on Disney Junior that first premiered on the Disney Junior iPhone/iPad app before it was shown on the regular Disney Junior TV channel. Maybe this is a new model to beta test new content? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company#Disney_Media_Networks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company#Disney_...

by jmelloy 13y ago

Shivetya 13y ago

Yes please, the cheapest plan I can add HBO too is the forty nine dollar plan... as in, screw the consumer. HBO leaves a lot of money on the table.

sutterbomb 13y ago
It's really not safe to assume that media companies "leave a lot of money on the table" by not catering to cord cutters. Cord cutters are currently a very small market, and HBO would lose a lot of leverage over the cable companies. At the margin they'd rather have 1 cable subscription over 1 stand-alone subscription - or even two or three for that matter. The bear case is actually the opposite - they aren't leaving any money on the table now, but it will be at the expense of future growth. They'd be better cutting over to stand-alone sooner, at a loss in current revenue, to better position themselves for the future. That may or may not be the right play, but that's really how you should be reading the current market. Giant companies are often not very customer friendly, but they are rarely leaving obvious money on the table. [Edited for clarity]

eob 13y ago

I'm in the same situation and completely agree. My guess is that Apple is trying to build channel momentum any way they can. Unable to pre-negotiate deals and launch with a huge splash, as they prefer, they're doing it from the bottom up, starting with content providers like Crackle that probably get a lot more out of it than Apple does. But as we've seen, Crackle begets Smithsonian and Smithsonian begets PBS and PBS begets ABC. So it seems like it's working. I bet in the next year, we'll see some sort of foldering option for home screen icons.

127001brewer 13y ago
...PBS begets ABC. Actually, Apple has a relationship with the Walt Disney Company[1], which owns the ABC, ESPN and the Disney channels - and many more. Perhaps these additional TV apps were added after enough content creators agreed to whatever terms. Also, interestingly enough, there is a show on Disney Junior that first premiered on the Disney Junior iPhone/iPad app before it was shown on the regular Disney Junior TV channel. Maybe this is a new model to beta test new content? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company#Disney_Media_Networks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company#Disney_...