Like most people here, I would love to cancel my cable TV and TiVo subscriptions and just get all my content on demand. However, aside from streaming every movie and TV show, Netflix/iTunes/whatever also needs to nail these two features:
1) Live events. Sports, breaking news, presidential inaugurations, etc.
2) Same day for new TV episodes. I don't want to find out what happened in The Office at the water cooler the next day.
The other hurdle is that the cable companies practically have a monopoly on broadband in many areas. I can already see how the call to Comcast will go.
"You're on the special TV+internet plan, which is $99/month."
"OK, I just want internet now, so cancel the TV portion."
"No problem, that brings your monthly bill to $98/month."
....
"You're on the special TV+internet plan, which is $99/month."
"OK, I just want internet now, so cancel the TV portion."
"No problem, that brings your monthly bill to $98/month."
This is actually accurate. My cable Internet plan is $68 per month with Comcast. To get basic cable television would cost one dollar more (and yet I still don't want it, since I don't own a TV; which was stunning to the salesperson). I hate Comcast.
If you use bit-torrent & RSS you can get #2.
#1 tends to be covered by "Youtube live broadcasts", ESPN360 ( http://espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/index ) and other special streaming services.
It would literally just be a matter of signing contract to achieve it. It's already here in a way.
You can cancel cable/satalite and still get local/national news and most sporting events. I use a $35 antenna. All the sporting stuff is in hd now the other content is hit or miss. When i get some extra cash i am going to get a mac mini for the tv shows i like and the downloadable neflix media. I was also able to get a naked dsl line from qwest for A decent price.
I think if the cable industry had a platform for developers to make apps (like on iphone/android etc), the cable software could have been much better. Look at time-warner/comcast/at&t interface - they all suck so much yet there is no one to tell them the first thing about good design or functionality.
I think it is inevitable that this would change in the next few years (with entrants like apple or google in cable business) and you would have all the functionality of netflix on cable. This would be the end of dvds altogether and netflix would die as a business model just like blockbuster is dying today and video tapes died back in time.
If you think the Cable companies can't design a good UI wait until you see their attempts at an SDK. Big telecom couldn't do what Apple does in their wildest dreams.
Netflix instant watch is such a killer feature. If they could arrange concurrent live broadcasts through Instant Watch, I'd even consent to watching commercials.
With a combination of Hulu for TV and Netflix for movies, live broadcasts are the only thing cable has left going for it. Once sports events are broadcasted over the internet as well cable TV will have been thoroughly supplanted.
The irony is that Netflix sees its top near-term competitor as RedBox, not the cable companies. Netflix has effectively eliminated (or at least hamstrung) Blockbuster and all of the other rental stores as predicted, and now they're going head to head with a kiosk company going after the value-conscious segment of the market. I find that fascinating. Slay the giant, and a little micro version of it pops up to nip at your heels.
I just signed up for NetFlix this past weekend, and set it up on the XBox I bought to play Rock Band. It's dead awesome. The instant stuff is mostly what convinced me to sign up (though the availability of some stuff that can't be streamed anywhere currently is also a benefit).
I've been using Hulu and Amazon Unbox (both of which I wish would come to XBox!) and love them both. Netflix doesn't quite match the Amazon experience, as far as video quality goes, but the selection is getting better (I'd canceled NetFlix about 1.5 years ago, because I wasn't watching DVDs anymore, and the streaming selection was dramatically worse than Hulu, but that lack of content begun to change).
That being said there's a whole next generation of TV's with internet access where you don't even need another box. I have a new LG that has both Netflix and Vudu (pay per play on-demand service). It also has the new Yahoo Widget engine and can connect over my home network to watch videos off my media server.
On Thursday at the Intel Developer Forum they are going to be announcing some really cool advances on the TV front.
One thing I'm struck by is how willing Hastings is to kill a a feature or product that isn't quite ready. They wait until the timing is right and then change the game. "No" (or, "not yet") is often the better answer.
[+] [-] mrshoe|16 years ago|reply
1) Live events. Sports, breaking news, presidential inaugurations, etc.
2) Same day for new TV episodes. I don't want to find out what happened in The Office at the water cooler the next day.
The other hurdle is that the cable companies practically have a monopoly on broadband in many areas. I can already see how the call to Comcast will go.
Wonderful.[+] [-] SwellJoe|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elai|16 years ago|reply
It would literally just be a matter of signing contract to achieve it. It's already here in a way.
[+] [-] hippee-lee|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] prat|16 years ago|reply
I think it is inevitable that this would change in the next few years (with entrants like apple or google in cable business) and you would have all the functionality of netflix on cable. This would be the end of dvds altogether and netflix would die as a business model just like blockbuster is dying today and video tapes died back in time.
[+] [-] mikeryan|16 years ago|reply
tru2way is a standardized Java stack for set top boxes.
EBIF is a scaled down interactive TV software for legacy boxes that can't do a full java stack. It's just starting to get deployed.
Actually and Verizon is doing their own Lua based widget platform. But tru2way and EBIF are standardized so those will be run on multiple cable co's.
[+] [-] dasil003|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DannoHung|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smokinn|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nobody_nowhere|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SwellJoe|16 years ago|reply
I've been using Hulu and Amazon Unbox (both of which I wish would come to XBox!) and love them both. Netflix doesn't quite match the Amazon experience, as far as video quality goes, but the selection is getting better (I'd canceled NetFlix about 1.5 years ago, because I wasn't watching DVDs anymore, and the streaming selection was dramatically worse than Hulu, but that lack of content begun to change).
[+] [-] mikeryan|16 years ago|reply
That being said there's a whole next generation of TV's with internet access where you don't even need another box. I have a new LG that has both Netflix and Vudu (pay per play on-demand service). It also has the new Yahoo Widget engine and can connect over my home network to watch videos off my media server.
On Thursday at the Intel Developer Forum they are going to be announcing some really cool advances on the TV front.
[+] [-] wmf|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] samg|16 years ago|reply