Love or hate Apple, but this would be a great move for consumers.
I would buy into this.
http://gizmodo.com/5395251/apple-wants-i....0-bucks-a-monthIf I could get all my TV shows for $30 in HD, I would do it in a heartbeat. I pay some ungodly amount for Comast Triple Play per month, that $30 is WAY cheaper than what I pay now.
That would be the closest to a la carte TV I've heard lately that has any chance of happening.
I would buy it in a heartbeat. The only thing I really need cable for is racing, and I doubt they would do that, unfortunately.
If they can get it to my TV with the same quality, I would jump on anything that lets me watch what I want when I want it. Sports is another matter. I have cable just to watch hockey in HD (you can actually see that there IS is little black disk on the ice at the same time as the players). Buy we have a web site here (RDS.ca) allowing that. But too expensive... One sport, one team would be sort of OK (price-wise), but for anyone following more than one sport or wanting to see more games, it would quickly become too much.
Buy, hey! 10 years ago, this discussion would have been in the rhelm of 'what we might want at some point in the future'. Now its down to the big boys actually sitting in the same rules and trying to reconciliate their diverging agendas. The future is tomorrow!
Of course, my internet speed is too low for HD over this. Fortunately, I still only have an SD TV!
Maybe I missed something....how is only have SD fortunate?
As far as the original topic goes....it seems I can do this now with Hulu. Other than sports, which is all I really need cable for now.
I might be tempted. Though I'm a very happy AppleTV owner anyway.
Right now, it costs $3 per HD TV episode. That's too much. My household would burn though $20-$30+ per WEEK just buying normal network programming that we watch. A $30/month all-you-can-eat plan would almost work, though I'd really have to make sure that all of the needed programming is available. Last time I checked, there were several shows that weren't on iTunes (though they would be available... elsewhere....)
One enormous problem, as others have mentioned, is sports. It's one thing to be able to buy an episode of "The Office", but it's quite another to be able to buy that NFL, NASCAR, or MLB event. If AppleTV can't offer live sports (and they currently do not), then there are a lot of people that can't completely dump their pay TV. Granted, a lot of professional sports can be had from the major networks via free OTA HD, but that's a bit of a pain if you live far away from towers or don't have any good antenna options.
If iTunes could somehow offer individual, a la cart sporting events *LIVE* then they'd have a home run (pardon the pun). Imagine being able to subscribe to all of your favorite teams' games? Commercial free?! That'd be pretty freaking cool.
But I don't see that happening anytime soon. Or ever.
Roku is offering MLB for $15 for the season.
http://www.roku.com/mlb-partner
Ya see, I don't even care about racing live. I watch it all on my TiVo anyway, usually days after the actual event. But no one seems to serve my demographic. They all seem to think that if sports/racing isn't live, no one wants to watch it! Or they just want to watch highlights or some crap. Why can't I go to F1 or Speed's website and download (even pay for!) a race with commentary?
Because "crazy people" is too small a demographic around which to build a marketing strategy?
I agree, sports is the stickler.
However, if this happened, I could live w/ live broadcast sports. W/ an iTunes $30 package and an OTA antenna connected to my TVs, I'm good to go. Granted, you have to watch it live but I could also use my ElGato USB tuner to record as necessary. It would also be nice if the iTunes package allowed you to put those shows on an iPod/iPhone/PC/Mac for offline viewing.
Someone mentioned Hulu which is a good option, albeit limited on the networks. BUT, unless you use Boxee on something like an AppleTV, you couldn't watch Hulu on an actual TV. That's the advantage of an AppleTV or Roku type of box.
I watch Hulu on my TV. I just hook the laptop to it and use the TV as the display.