5 Reasons Why You'll Never Get Full TV From a Tech Company (Op-Ed)

[Guest]

Tech companies are not likely to become TV providers.

5 Reasons Why You'll Never Get Full TV From a Tech Company (Op-Ed) : Read more

 

[vmem]

while I agree with all of your points, I feel that the article drifts a bit from the scene set up in the opening paragraph.

I don't know about the other readers out-there, but for me personally, I am interested in seeing Apple, Google, Intel, and Microsoft take a shot in the Pay-TV market and compete against existing companies. and when I say that, I mean exactly those big companies with their giant "war-chests", not some small mom and pop shop. Yes, entering the market carries a tremendous amount of risk, but it is also an opportunity for some steady income because the probability of someone continuing a $10-20 per month sub is pretty high (just look at netflix or hulu subscribers). It is these bit IT companies that have the capital to throw a few billion dollars down to enter the market, and it is them that I'm interested in seeing 'disrupting' the market

 

[LePhuronn]

and therein lies 5 reasons why TV will continue to be pirated.

 

[twelch82]

You can already see the future in the likes of what's on Google Play. There are several shows that I want to watch, and don't want to have to bother with the hassle of being there right when the show airs, or have to watch commercials.

So I buy the season for $25, and I can watch each episode when I feel like it as it becomes available, immediately after it airs. That might sound expensive, but consider how much you're paying for cable every month. How many shows do you actually watch?

The only thing that's left is sports. I want to watch sports live. If Sunday Ticket had all the games - including the local ones, and Sunday Night/Monday Night Football - I'd be covered.

 

[icepick314]

torrent, torrent, torrent!

as long as the content owners are making hard for consumers to consume, they will go to illegal route...

I can't still watch Game of Thrones without buying HBO subscription or buy DVD/blu-ray when it's released but you'll miss out that "next day conversation at the water cooler" moments...

Netflix does great job but that's not enough...

one really bad trend I notice was each studio is trying to start their own subscription service...

on my Roku box, I saw classic WB movie channel for a fee...that means if I wanted to watch some of those movies, I have to subscribe to THAT service on top of basic cable, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, and any other services that I may want to watch...

it's wonderful that more and more contents are trying to go online but this multiple services that you have to pay to 5-10 services aren't going to make people happy...

 

[mortsmi7]

Here's what you do. Rotate out the providers you don't watch as much. Netflix in March, Hulu in April, Amazon in May...
Crunchyroll is a permanent though.

This also gives a chance for the content to refresh, while saving a few dollars.

 

[JackFrost860]

and torrenters will go to jail; How long can you keep torrenting before some authority finds you; and they will eventually. It's not worth 100K fines or jail time for TV

 

[shin0bi272]

Not that you dont seem to be correct in your 5 assumptions lets not forget that netflix does have house of cards regardless of how much they paid for it. It may just be the first domino to fall to the internet tv revolution (but I could be wrong too). Hulu has several dozen shows that are available the next day (dont ask me to name them thats just what they said when I asked them why I should get their service... i still havent btw). The main reason I think youre going to be right... at least for the foreseeable future anyway, is that live tv like news and sports are not available yet. Sure I can watch my favorite tv shows a day or a season too late on hulu and movies a couple of years after they hit the theaters on netflix but if I cant watch anything live then the only reason to have netflix or hulu is to obtain the legal viewing rights to those things rather than pirating them. Though there are some news channels (fox news for one) that do live streaming on their site you just have to have an account with a cable provider that they have a deal with. So for the time being internet tv isnt feasible but its getting there.

 

[SteelCity1981]

this is also way we won't see 4k broadcast anytime soon from tv stations or cable companies for that matter they are all content with broadcasting 480p, 720p or 1080i. my dish receiver only goes up to 1080i I mean come on really? 1080p has been out for a long time now and yet none of these stations or cable companies won't even broadcast that and they won't unless the gov pushes for them to do so and good luck with that. I mean it took the u.s. how many years to finally get off analog signal? lol

 

[icemunk]

Sorry, but cable tv is dying. It won't disapear completely, but its market share will continue to dwindle. Which also means, your stock portfolio is going to take a hit if you don't sell soon. Thanks for the Op-Ed paid advertisement for the cable industry though.

 

[back_by_demand]

Thank god for XBMC and isoHunt, I got 99 problems but being cable's bitch aint one

 

[dark_knight33]

@icepick314

Of course you can't watch GoT without an HBO subscription, it's an HBO show. You also can't watch House of cards without a netflix subscription. Your complaint that you'd have to pay for HBO to watch an HBO show, and that's why you "torrent, torrent, torrent!" is ignorant.

Further, I'd rather pay $10/mo to 5 different services that each have content I want, than $50 to a pay TV provider that carries mostly garbage and forces me to subsidize channels that aren't even in English, and I'll never watch. Those multiple providers work harder for that $10, than Comcast or Verizon ever did for my >$50.

In fact, the only two thing that keeps me paying for cable tv is Disney junior (for the kids) & news channels. If I could get live CNN/MSNBC/CNBC on an easy to access steam from XBMC, I'd probably just scrap cable tv all together and tell the kids to suck it up.

 

[back_by_demand]

Dark_knight, I don't know if TVCatchup has usable channels outside the UK, but there is a TVCatchup plugin for XBMC and I get 50 free to air channels streamed, including news and kids