Netflix has set the bar pretty high with their service and high quality original content - at a very tolerable all-in price.
Like many AI readers, I'm a gadget junkie at heart and I'm struggling to get excited about this event, much less just about anything that adds yet another subscription to my monthly budget. It's death by a thousand cuts. Yeah, it makes sense for Apple's bottom line, but I'm just not feeling it.
Expectations are very low. Let's see what Apple can do to flip the script.
Hey, maybe Apple will announce a new larger screen iPod Touch ... something, anything, a tiny bit of antidote to help offset the effects of yet another subscription affliction.
I think all the hardware releases last week meant it was clear they won't release any hardware at the event, sure a new iPod, iPhone are theoretically possible, but I agree completely it is all likely just subscription services, hopefully one of the services will be free.
Rest of cable subscribers are in rural area where no high speed internet available.
Really?! Are there rural areas with cable yet no high-speed internet? I wouldn't think so.
Now, if you said rural without a cable provider, having no high-speed internet would make sense.
Although the cable industry has gone through lots of consolidation in the past two decades, there focus has been in more populated areas. As such, there are still smaller cable companies in certain areas. These smaller companies tend not to lay fiber for high-speed internet. Even the big providers have an economic incentive to prioritize investments in denser areas over rural areas.
the lack of reliable high speed internet is a significant issue for rural development; it's not unlike electricity and telephone in the early part of the 20th century. As mentioned above, there's not a lot of financial incentive for cable companies to run lines out to areas that are sparsely populated.
I am curious, though - with the increasing cost of coper, is it cheaper to run copper or fiber?
... though the lion's share of revenue still goes to the cable companies.
That won't last.
Sure it will. You have to use them to get to the streaming videos, and they now charge more for Internet access than they used to for TV. They are having their cake and eating it too. The 'cord cutters' have been duped.
Probably passed cable subscriptions a while ago. I negotiated a new Internet-only rate with Comcast directly with a CSR online, last autumn. Never have used their kludgy cable box for TV...but, had to activate it to get the last speed upgrade in our small community. Then, unplugged it.
The local office called me back a few days later and said they were cancelling the Web-only rate for a "new" internet + TV pkg, same price...lucky me. This way they can claim tens of thousands customer as TV clients even though we're internet-only in practice. I had to laugh. They've been doing the same thing with my account for 12 years although I was a DirecTV customer till I returned their box a few years ago - to rely 100% on AppleTV.
Oh...and local TV? It sucks. The half of our extended family that watches local murders on local news from the big city downstate - has their own wee OTA antenna plugged into their set.
Interesting article for sure. I think for most families the answer will be "both" (cable and streaming) and that has more to do with the variety of media "appetites" found in the typical American household. If I were to keep everyone happy at my house we would have Comcast, Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Hulu. (wait we do?? aaaargh!) Each one has some kind of cool content you can't get on the other one. What Xfinity has done is very smart, they make it easy to access all of the above from your cable box or mobile device. I think Apple and Disney+ are just adding more content silos and knowing apple's tactics they will not be open to being a content converger like Comcast. For now, I'm just glad my kids are older and I won't need to shell out for anymore "Disney Vault" nonsense. lol
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I am curious, though - with the increasing cost of coper, is it cheaper to run copper or fiber?
The local office called me back a few days later and said they were cancelling the Web-only rate for a "new" internet + TV pkg, same price...lucky me. This way they can claim tens of thousands customer as TV clients even though we're internet-only in practice. I had to laugh. They've been doing the same thing with my account for 12 years although I was a DirecTV customer till I returned their box a few years ago - to rely 100% on AppleTV.
Oh...and local TV? It sucks. The half of our extended family that watches local murders on local news from the big city downstate - has their own wee OTA antenna plugged into their set.