HDTV and Home Theater Podcast #362 - What if AppleTV Replaced my DVR?

[arad]

If you have been listening to our show for a while you know that Braden would really like an a la carte sway to buy TV. It makes sense, why pay for 300 channels when in reality you only watch about 30 or 40. And really you probably only watch about 10 to 15 90% of the time. So the other day Ara missed an episode of Lost and was forced to watch it via the ABC website. After about 5 minutes of so called streaming HD video he got fed up and downloaded an HD version from iTunes. It cost $2.99 but had no commercials. The quality was quite good and it even had 5.1 audio. Something that makes watching Lost quite enjoyable. That got us wondering. Could heavy TV watchers like ourselves get by with buying TV programming A la Carte style via AppleTV. This would also work if you have an HTPC with iTunes on it.

[url=http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/podcast/2009/03/hdtv_and_home_theater_podcast_362_what_if_appletv_replaced_my_dvr.php]Read Show Notes[/url]

[bmanley]

Al La Carte programming is not the answer. Most people don't seem to understand how programmers (the tv channels) make their money. Money made is based on advertising, which is in turn based on how many subscribers actually receive the channel. When a particular channel approaches a potential advertiser they provide them demographic information on how many subscribers receive their channel, how many people tune in to it during different times and in what geographic region the subscribers reside.

If all programming moved to Al La Carte, programmers would not have the revenue to provide the quality programming we are used to viewing. In turn this would cause the following:

1. Advertising costs would increase so programmers would be compensated for the missed revenue.
2. It would be harder to start a new series or program with out advertising revenue to back it.
3. Viewers would pay more to view a program or channel.
4. Jobs would be lost from programmers, advertisers, actors, writers, cable companies and satellite companies.

Don't get me wrong I support online viewing of programming and the ability to pay to watch a particular program, but only in addition to my current offerings from my cable/satellite provider. I would like to see an integrated approach to my current DVR with AppleTV, YouTube, Netflix and other pay per program offerings to increase the value my current services and equipment I own.

[OneOfOne]

the reason why we cant get a la carte programming is because the delivery systems know that people wouldnt pay for all these niche channels that have no reason to exist. the old c and k band dish allowed for this and it worked. no one cares if people would be out of a job if they shouldnt be in the job to begin with. viewers surely would pay for the channels they want to watch. there would also be fewer channels. all of the remaining channels would likely be in HD. there is still network tv for those who have to watch yet another police 'drama'. I am tired of paying for numerous dork channels or fishing with schmoe just so some shut in can have 'choice'. we should have true choice in the form of a la carte programming and then everyone wins. if you really want to watch the tv shows YOU want, free of commercials and in high quality, then you should just torrent like most smart people do anyway. if content providers cant figure out that there is a large international market for their content, free of commercials, for a reasonable fee [4.99 for hd version? you betcha!] then torrents will continue to grow as THE way to get what you want.

[bmanley]

I agree don't agree. I work for a small cable company, one of my main jobs to to deal with different programmers on carriage of their channels. I would be more than happy to offer al la carte programming to my customers. This restriction is not carried out by our company nor is it by many of the larger cable and/or satellite providers; it is carried out by the programmers themselves.

For example if want to carry popular channel I am often required to carry channels of less popularity on the same level of service. If I do not carry the less popular channel, we either pay more for the popular channel and/or can not carry the popular channel at all.

What also happens is when we approach a programmer to carry a channel they often require to be carried on the most penetrated level of service or will not allow carriage. What now happens is many of these programmers are now all being carried on the same level of service which in turn keep the prices for service levels at the prices they are.

I would say roughly 85-90% of programming costs are from major networks some of which can be the numerous dork channels you refer to. The remaining 10-15% is from smaller, less popular channels and some programming like religous and shopping channels are free to carry.

The programmers require to be carried on higher penetrated levels of service so they may report to their advertisers an inflated number of subscribers able to watch the channel. This gives the advertising price a higher value, al la carte would dwindle these numbers, causing advertising revenues to decrease and/or cause the channels to fail. This lost revenue would need to be made up some way, one way would be to charge more for the programming. In turn the cable and satellite companies prices would go up and for example the "4.99 HD program you purchased has now gone up to 6.99"

I would love to offer choice to my customers and as a subscriber of satellite TV I would love choice too. I pay for a higher level of service for 1 channel I love to watch. Torrents have been my solution of choice for watching a few shows which my DVR doesn't catch and for movies.