The New Apple TV Has Landed To A Mixed Response From TV Networks
New Apple TV small and cheap
After a successful takeover of the entire music world, Apple now have the internet tv market in its sights. Promising 99-cent shows followed by $4.99 movies, Apple launched the new mini black box on Wednesday. Around a quarter the size of the current Apple TV and promising to give viewers what they want, top Hollywood content without the fuss.
Other than being a lot smaller, the new Apple TV ditches the hard drive in favor of supplying streaming to paying viewers for a 48-hour period. The price is a major reduction from the previous $2.99 per show as is the hardware.
The old Apple TV was accurately described by Steve Jobs as “never being a hit”. The new Apple TV shows content in HD and has built-in Wi-Fi. The price is $99, down from $229 for the original box.
The device has an HDMI connector to hook it into a high-definition television. It has no storage; all offerings coming from iTunes will be delivered via the Internet.
, but it seems not all tv networks are keen on the idea.
Only ABC and FOX will allow Apple to sell the cheap TV shows from the iTunes store, although it would be expected that others will follow. However, most Hollywood studios and the big networks CBS and NBC have so far decided to not allow their content to be used.
It seems some tv companies beleive that the cheap streaming rentals could undermine the economics that underwrite the cost of creating expensive television shows. “We believe it would be shortsighted for the studios to devalue their product and enhance Apple’s power over the electronic distribution of their content,” Alan Gould, an analyst with Evercore Partners, wrote in a note to investors.
Apple Chief Steve Jobs acknowledged that many providers were not aboard. “Not all of them wanted to take this step with us,” Jobs said. “We think the other studios will see the light.”
For movies the outlook is better with more than 7,000 Hollywood movies (over 3,400 in HD) available for streaming and most new releases will be made available the same day they are released on DVD.
A big plus for Apple is the inclusion of Netflix on their box and the device is controllable remotely via the free Remote app running on the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Other neat feature include being able to wirelessly send media content from movies to music and pictures from PC, iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, thanks to the new AirPlay functionality that’s coming to iDevices via the iOS 4.2 upgrade in November.
This functionality brings the movies anywhere concept into reality, allowing viewers to watch a rented title on the Apple TV set-top box then transfer to iphone or ipad when on the move.
Apple TV will be shipping in around four weeks. Read more about the product by visiting Apple.
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I think the new Apple TV is a step in the right direction for people who want to watch online streams on their TVs, but it still does not offer the right content or the right plans yet to allow most people to ditch cable or whatever and just use internet content for most of their TV watching.
But i think this time next year things may be different.
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