TechCrunch: The Full-On Assault on Cable Is Underway by MG Siegler, Aug. 29, 2010.
About an hour ago, I emailed my friend Anne in Florida that “Cable will always screw us. They’ll fight to the death to maintain control of content from Internet interlopers, but the Internet will eventually win, and at that point, it probably will probably be controlled by cable.”
A few minutes ago, MG Siegler’s TechCrunch piece captured my attention on news.google. He predicted, also, that cable (closed, costly, mostly content you don’t want) would eventually fall. A no-brainer for both of us; of course choice will prevail.
Siegler surprised me. In my focus on Apple’s Wednesday announcement, I missed Google’s cable assault on Tuesday. Siegler didn’t. He said:
“Just take a look at the big picture. Everyday there is a new story about how one of the aforementioned tech giants [Google, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Amazon] is on the verge of something new meant to control our time spent watching content — and much of it from the living room. Today’s story is about Google’s big pay-per-view movie plan for YouTube, a new service they’re hoping to debut later this year with full Hollywood studio support. If they land it, it could be huge. But that’s just today’s example.
“On Wednesday, at an event in San Francisco, Apple is widely expected to debut their next iteration of the Apple TV — which will likely now be called the “iTV”. Alongside it, they’re expected to unveil a new layer of iTunes that will allow people to rent television shows for $0.99 a pop. Again, that too could be huge.
“But it doesn’t really matter if one of these individual things doesn’t hit it big (and certainly the current Apple TV hasn’t). It’s the fact that all of these giant companies are clearly focused on this one thing: invading the living room and changing the way we consume video entertainment.
“And they absolutely should be focused on that space. It’s a multi-billion dollar goldmine of potential that is sitting around begging to be disrupted. Consumers want this — even if many don’t realize it yet….
“Cable is vulnerable because for far too long they’ve screwed us all with ridiculous prices for a crapload of content that we simply don’t want. Despite the ever-present promise of a-la-carte pricing, it has never come to fruition. And so our cable bills remain close to (or over) $100 a month. We’re paying for so much stuff we simply don’t want. But we have no choice.
“Further, the vast majority of consumers would agree that the cable companies have just about the worst customer service imaginable.…And on top of the garbage customer support, there’s the actual user experience of cable. It’s awful. Each company seems to be competing with the others for who can pick the worst cable box with the shittiest software….”
Here’s why Anne and I were talking about Apple TV. The day before the Jobs’ announcement, Anne bought a hi-def TV. However when she learned what cable would charge her to get movies, she decided to return it and continue using her 24″-computer monitor as her “TV screen.”
But, it turns out that while the new, improved wi-fi Apple TV ($99) can stream movies from her computer, it needs a hi-def TV to show the picture. (We think.) She’s checking at the Apple Store tomorrow, and if this is the case, then I’ll bet she keeps the TV, buys an Apple TV, and begins to rent movies from iTunes and Netflix. And then, rent more from Google’s YouTube within the next few months.
So hardware companies will have a double sale from Anne and her $4 rentals will join millions of other $4 rentals to create fortunes.
In the meantime, I wonder what to do with the Roku device ($99) I bought from Netflix a year or so ago, so that I could stream their “Instant Viewing” movies to my TV screen. It uses my computer and wi-fi to capture the movies from netflix.com…however, the movies I can get are mostly old and lousy selections. They are free, in the sense that I can get them as part of my one-movie Netflix monthly payment. As good as Netflix mail service is, I’d be willing to pay to get quick access to good movies
in the 80’s as tech hit the fan in our lives i worked computer retail. the cycle of customer catch and release with new products and features moved in big time. it still is big time. it was clear though, that customer preference, rationality and marketing eventually dovetailed into some unions never imagined. i have hope that we can count on that happening to cable, etc.