> Also: TV is harder than you think. Think "legacy network with some interesting regulation thrown in" (e.g., handling emergency broadcast signals, batshit insane limits on use of bandwidth) and that's for starters.
Well fuck that. Just do it all over the internet. The ideal system would be one where you don't purchase channel subscriptions, but individual shows. Then you can watch the shows you've purchased as many times as you want, on any devices you own. Of course, you will get "live" broadcasts in the form of being able to play it live when it normally airs for the first time on TV.
This is exactly what Apple's vision is, and I hope they find a way to make it happen, but I'm not very optimistic.
- You have to get content. Those people want to be paid. You are in competition for this.
- The cable companies control your air supply -- the bandwidth to your customers -- and unless you make them happy, your customers are screwed if they watch your stuff. Bandwidth caps on the order of 25GB / month are just crazy small for any amount of TV watching.
Apple could probably afford to buy Comcast (and Warner). That would suddenly be interesting.
That's why I said I'm not optimistic. I have the confidence that Apple can do an excellent job of creating a solid and intuitive UI and service. I have very little confidence that they will be able to make the sort of content deals necessary to make it have practical value.
I don't think the bandwidth caps are a big issue, because 720p video is probably 1 GB/hour. You would have to watch 8 hours/day to hit a 250 GB limit.
Well fuck that. Just do it all over the internet. The ideal system would be one where you don't purchase channel subscriptions, but individual shows. Then you can watch the shows you've purchased as many times as you want, on any devices you own. Of course, you will get "live" broadcasts in the form of being able to play it live when it normally airs for the first time on TV.
This is exactly what Apple's vision is, and I hope they find a way to make it happen, but I'm not very optimistic.