Apple execs have discussed the 'future of TV' with major media companies - Page 3

I was thinking about MLB TV. Here in the UK with the current AppleTV you can buy a MLB TV subscription and watch any game (including the Red Sox) over the internet through your AppleTV rather than having to watch it on the computer.

The point I was trying to make is that any Apple Television could for many people act as a replacement to Cable/Sat. I like baseball but the only way I can receive it through Cable/Sat in the UK is to subscribe to ESPN. But then I have to watch whatever game they are broadcasting. This way I get to watch whatever game I want.

In that sense the Apple TV could replace your cable/sat subscription if like me you only want a few extra channels over and above the free to air channels. I don't really want or need cable/sat as I don't watch much TV but I would like access to certain sports and would be willing to pay to subscribe to them as "apps" on my Apple TV.

Apple is not going to do anything a la carte- I don't know why people think they would. Way to many dealings with way too many networks and you don't get local sports! That's the huge thing (unless they deal with fox, Abc, NBC, CBS, TNT, fox sports).

What everyone keeps overlooking is just partnering with one or more cable services to offer ISP cable programming. There was a great article on this (that I conveniently can't find)- but mentions a Half dozen companies (Comcast, time Warner, etc) that have been doing test areas and markets for the past year or more- where you pay the cable company and they still deliver the content- which is apples biggest hurdle.
I'd love to cancel cable as much as the next guy, but I like sports too much. What this would give apple is the ability to control the UI, remotes/Siri, DVR, and maybe (more like hopefully) a Blu ray player.
All controlled with an easy to use apple interface. That's the easiest and best way to do it IMO. Could you imagine the price Fios, Uverse, or whoever would pay to get exclusivity with an iTV or connected Apple TV w/ internal hard drive to deliver and record content? And that'd be revolutionary in the process.

You are on the right track, but you just got started. Not only are local sports an issue, but local news, weather, and advertising also are issues. Partnering with a cable provider is simply not a viable solution to any problem that we have with current television. It certainly is not a viable business plan for Apple. The thing that you need to understand is that cable operates on local franchises. Each of those franchises are negotiated with the local government for that municipality. Some jurisdictions have multiple franchises. Others have only one. Some have none. In Podunk, the Smith Family has Comcast. Across the street in East Podunk, the Jones Family has Time-Warner. What is more, cable companies swap franchises. Time-Warner gave away some major franchises around my hometown to Comcast in a swap. Others spin-off large franchise territories such as Time-Warner's spin-off of its Florida franchises to create Bright House.

You seem to think that the Cingular/AT&T model that worked so well with the iPhone will also work with cable providers. There is some minor swapping of territories with cell phone providers but not enough to significantly inconvenience customers. At my current residence, I am now on my third cable provider. If Apple were to cast its lot with a single provider, then it can count on having a significant fraction of its customers left high and dry through no fault of their own.

Step one: buy a Panasonic plasma and set it to THX mode.
Step two: don't plug anything into it and stare at the empty screen in content.
Step three: there is no step three!

The notion that you'd have to plug nothing into an Apple-branded television because they would provide all of the content you could ever want is absurd. The idea that an Apple-branded television would have superior picture and sound is equally absurd; Apple would be limited to the same display technology as everyone else and they aren't known for great display calibration (compare two iPhones of the same model and you'll likely see one looking very blue and the other very yellow). Furthermore, Apple would likely want to make the tv as thin as physically possible, which means the speakers would be downright awful.

The idea of your phone being the only remote is also a bad one; what happens when you leave the room and your spouse or children want to change the channel or adjust the volume?

Again... Too... Much.... Logic....

But the customer is still paying $80 a month for service! Isn't that ownership of the customer? If I stop paying my cable bill... I'm no longer a customer.

Oh, and I wasn't saying you should be able to purchase your own box. I was thinking it could be like the situation it is now, where you rent your cable box.

Instead of renting a cable box made by Scientific Atlanta... you rent a cable box made by Apple.

I dunno... every cable customer has a cable box... wouldn't Apple like to be in that box?

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp#blackout in side of the usa you need cable or satellite to get local + nation games (not on fox) and then then you don't get all of the fox games in your area. but on satellite and cable you do get the cubs and sox games on wgn america.

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Not every cable customer has a cable box. Many of those that do are getting rid of them or would like to. At any rate, cable boxes are a declining market. I have no idea what Apple's desires and plans are for cable boxes. You seem to believe that Apple has a hankering to take on the juggernauts of Scientific Atlanta and Motorola. Why?

While I would love to have seen the TV of which Steve dreamed-- I still recall the joy of the NeXT machine, I do agree there that an actual Apple Branded TV in that vipers' pit of high-speed competition makes little sense. Trying to keep my SONY system up-to-date a year or so after going HD LCD has been a nightmare and integrating Panasonic, Samsung, and Toshiba components.... I dove what the little Apple TV did for me, one HDMI & one Optical Audio cable plugged into the TV and not bothering with the "Home Theatre" and I was up and running in 5 minutes.

We shall see.