Rumor: Apple's TV subscription plans stall on "tablet eve"

For now, the only way of getting the next generation TV is to pirate it. Not that that's right - but it's the ONLY way of watching TV the way technology now allows.

* There is no weekly TV guide - just a date and time a show becomes available.
* We want to watch TV episodes in order, without strange repeats or missing some episodes.
* We don't want to own the episodes, just watch them once.

We (well I) want the studios to make the SAME money they make now via ads when we watch it on the networks (not less, or more money) - either by ads or let us pay 50c to not watch ads. But the studios are scared of losing money (so charging more), and they have contracts already for distribution with the networks (so limited in some movements), and they just don't understand the model.

We need someone to break this. Show the studios it's safe to play, even "a good thing".

(Speaking of strange thinking - it amazes me that the most popular music now costs more. I agree that it SHOULD make more money than unwanted songs - but that happens when you sell ten times as many right?)

The other thing these media companies need to wrap their heads around is that they are not even remotely the only game in town and their product is almost uniformly mediocre or just crap across the board. And a poor value to boot.

Reality shows? YouTube does it better. Comedy? Internet FTW. News? Please. Movies? Netflix. Sports is the only thing. And even then most of that is dull.

My entertainment hours belong to my laptop, iPhone, Xbox 360, Netflix, DS. Cable or network TV just doesn't even rank in the top ten anymore. I'd rather read foodie blogs or watch some guy get hit in the nuts with a whiffle bat than watch CSI: Miami Special Ops Nights or whatever. They need to bid for our entertainment dollar and hour, and right now their offer straight up sucks.

As for the TV thing, I never download TV shows from iTunes. Overpriced. Too many other cheaper and better ways to view the content. I guess I would be a target for this $30/month thing since I have no cable TV. I use 2-DVD Netflix and an Xbox 360 and get more content than I can consume. And $30/month for what amounts to cable TV content on demand would be perfect. I will never, ever, ever be going back to consuming content with satellite or cable, and I don't buy DVDs, so the only way the media companies ever get my money is either through a Netflix or this iTunes monthly subscription.

Heck, I'd even pay $3 for a downloadable episode that included closed captioning. Seriously, content providers-- the capability exists there right within iTunes, and it's in the same format you're sent for TV transmission.

>> which jibes with a story on Financial Times this morning.

Hey! You got "jibe" right. Most people mistakenly use "jive."

Not to push AT&T, but it would be SMARTER to have content pushed say from you U-Verse DVR to your mobile device.....I just got U-Verse over DirectTV and it is really great. It would be really cool if you could, say you were away on business or whatever, be able to schedule your DVR to fetch something and you be able to play it when your mobile....

As long as the advertising is stripped out I'm fine. Otherwise it's double dipping on the Networks part

it's all good except for sports.

I'm waiting to see how apple will address live sports coverage with this move. I bet they have something up their sleeve, but whether we hear about it tommorrow is another story.

The recent FCC decision regarding regional sports networks certainly helps, too.

Am I the only one who thinks we'll see an Apple TV refresh tomorrow? Based on the PA Semi work, and rumors that the tablet will have PA Semi brains with a Samsung CPU, such a device is perfect to be placed in the Apple TV, too. Especially because it would handle HD and it would run iPhone apps....

just saying that it's likely because it rounds the entire iTunes is your information portal thing Apple is building...

not to mention that the tablet is the embodied concept of the knowledge navigator -- it almost doesn't matter what the hardware is... it's the concept -- Apple is making a device that handles all the information you get and "deals with it" on your behalf

Information includes news, email, contacts, TV shows, podcasts, all of it...

tomorrow we'll see a brand new UI from Apple that introduces a new way to process all of that information ... the gadget itself is secondary -- what matters is how close to the knowledge navigator/personal assistant corporate identity Apple created for itself in 1985 are we going to see tomorrow?

I'm betting it'll be a pretty big leap forward towards the idea of a machine that "gets you" and presents your information world in a totally new and very helpful way.

Whether it is a tablet or an iphone, or an apple tv device doesn't really matter -- it's what this thing does for my information streams and how it helps me that I can't wait to see!

What people only bought the 1 or 2 goods tracks on an album oh dear you mean that people realised after 30-40 years being ripped off by the record companies into buying two tracks on an album but no longer.
The record industry 'never got it' and by the time they did it was too late lol

As for the networks they do seem to be moving a bit quicker however what have they to lose? not much as people still watch TV and they still have advertisers. However iTunes has allowed then to create a big cash cow, which they'll milk for many decades to come no doubt. Hulu going to paid per view bit like the candyman hook 'em for free and then make 'em pay! However I think they want their own all you can view site as they don't want to give away power to Apple. What they don't seem to realise that iTunes can help increase their revenue streams in a big big way.

As for me I can't justify that as I only watch about 10 hours of TV per week!!

420p? Is that a subtle drug reference?