So Apple has been apparently trying to make the AppleTV device a substitute for having to get a cable TV subscription. That’s a good idea I suppose. I believe I’ve discussed this before, but let’s review my thoughts on the matter again.

There are only three kinds of television that need to be streamed, or viewed live. Those are news, sports and weather. You can put live game shows like American Idol into the sports category. Everything else, basically, can and should be viewed on demand. Streaming takes up an inordinate amount of bandwidth, and all the filler shit that has to go in between shows and whatnot costs a lot of money and provides value to noone. Finally, nobody cares much about channels anymore, except as a way to find the programming they want to watch.

So here’s what Apple ought to do. Offer a cable type subscription online. Let it stream news, sports and weather channels. That should be a manageable feat over IP. Then, offer network and cable tv shows for either a fixed fee or a per hour watched fee, giving fees over to those parties who provide the programming. That is, assuming they can get the programming.

Apparently, the content companies are afraid to piss off their current distribution channels by offering their content online, either directly themselves or indirectly through a service like AppleTV. So here’s what Apple ought to do: accelerate their life and death decision by threatening to develop identical programming themselves if they won’t get on board. As we all know, most cable television programming sucks anyhow, and it simply can’t be that hard to replicate it. And with Apple’s cash reserves, they should easily be able to replicate any show on any network, and do so without making any real difference to Apple’s bottom line.

The networks totally lack original programming as it is. Look at all the Mad men knockoffs, Playboy Club and Pan Am. Give me a break. If the networks feel free to knock each other’s shows off so readily, then surely Apple can do the same. Except that Apple’s shows will undoubtedly be better. Which would you rather watch, another overhyped documentary on the History Channel, or an Apple produced history documentary that is even toned and gives you the opportunity to learn something? Just saying…

Tags: appleTV, Television

This entry was posted on Friday, September 2nd, 2011 at 10:38 am and is filed under technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.