Apple TV Development Hindered By Content & Licensing Issues [Apple Has Some Big Plans For Their Apple TV Lineup, Sufficiently Big To Slow The Works Significantly]

Posted on TFTS by Steve Anderson on Tuesday, 25. October 2011 under: Audio,Visual, HD Equipment, Internet Highlights

A lot of news has circulated lately about the Apple television concept, and it really seems to be picking up steam. But what’s been slowing the development down? Well, one particularly interesting report says that it’s an issue of content. And this report manages to recast the whole issue into sharp relief and show how Apple just might be able to get two grand for a 40 inch television.

The current report from analyst (and you know we love analyst reports out here) Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee says that the big problem is not one of engineering, or of motivation within the company. The big problem is one of content. See, Apple’s primary delivery vector for media consumption is iTunes. And iTunes is primarily a download service as opposed to a streaming one. Sure, you can get in on streaming, but the download side is a whole lot bigger, especially since Apple recently cut TV shows from the rental options menus.

No, what Apple has in mind, reportedly, is that they’d like to make Apple TV into more than a set-top box…they want to make it into an actual channel. Basically, Apple wants to offer up a television that comes with its own customizable programming, allowing people to follow their favorite shows or entire cable channels for a monthly fee.

This involves an absolutely nightmarish amount of licensing, but if successful might well end up representing the dream of any number of home theater buffs (myself included!) the a la carte television package. Considering the sheer amount of ready cash that Apple is sitting on (as far back as July, Apple technically had more ready cash on hand than the United States government), they may well be able to buy their way around some licensing problems.

So what do you guys think here? Would you drop two grand on a television that let you watch exactly what you wanted to watch when you wanted to watch it, no ifs, ands, buts, or licensing problems about it? Would such a television destroy piracy as we knew it? Or is that still too much to ask for one television that isn’t much, much bigger? Head on down to the comments section and tell us what you think!

Niall Fox. County Cork, Ireland
I think if it can be done it would be fantastic. It would take away the power from the like’s of sky TV in Europe and fox TV in the USA. It would bring the power and the choice back to the consumer were it should all ways be. This could be a real game changer in terms of how we watch Sports, Movies and so on.

http://nexus404.com/Blog Steve Andersen
Indeed it could be, Niall, though it will depend on just how the final execution goes. If it’s as ambitious as we generally expect of Apple, this may put a lot of cable companies out of business.