Like most people here, I would love to cancel my cable TV and TiVo subscriptions and just get all my content on demand. However, aside from streaming every movie and TV show, Netflix/iTunes/whatever also needs to nail these two features:
1) Live events. Sports, breaking news, presidential inaugurations, etc.
2) Same day for new TV episodes. I don't want to find out what happened in The Office at the water cooler the next day.
The other hurdle is that the cable companies practically have a monopoly on broadband in many areas. I can already see how the call to Comcast will go.
"You're on the special TV+internet plan, which is $99/month."
"OK, I just want internet now, so cancel the TV portion."
"No problem, that brings your monthly bill to $98/month."
....
"You're on the special TV+internet plan, which is $99/month."
"OK, I just want internet now, so cancel the TV portion."
"No problem, that brings your monthly bill to $98/month."
This is actually accurate. My cable Internet plan is $68 per month with Comcast. To get basic cable television would cost one dollar more (and yet I still don't want it, since I don't own a TV; which was stunning to the salesperson). I hate Comcast.
You can cancel cable/satalite and still get local/national news and most sporting events. I use a $35 antenna. All the sporting stuff is in hd now the other content is hit or miss. When i get some extra cash i am going to get a mac mini for the tv shows i like and the downloadable neflix media. I was also able to get a naked dsl line from qwest for A decent price.
If you use bit-torrent & RSS you can get #2.
#1 tends to be covered by "Youtube live broadcasts", ESPN360 ( http://espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/index ) and other special streaming services.
It would literally just be a matter of signing contract to achieve it. It's already here in a way.
1) Live events. Sports, breaking news, presidential inaugurations, etc.
2) Same day for new TV episodes. I don't want to find out what happened in The Office at the water cooler the next day.
The other hurdle is that the cable companies practically have a monopoly on broadband in many areas. I can already see how the call to Comcast will go.
Wonderful.