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Comments on news posted 2014-08-01 08:57:02: I've talked repeatedly how broadcast and cable operators alike work tirelessly to protect the traditional cable TV cash cow and thwart the development of robust Internet video options, whether it's the use of usage caps or restrictive content licensi.. ..


R7000
@69.142.79.x

2 recommendations

R7000

Anon

Apple is a control freak - I'd be careful dealing with them too

Apple is a control freak - I'd be careful dealing with them too. Apple has been an innovator in the past. But when it comes to delivering a product to customers, they want total control over all aspects of the customer experience. And also at the same time they want the biggest share of the revenue as well. Just ask the music companies. Apple squeezed all the profits out of that deal for themselves, leaving scraps for the actual providers of the music.

So, the content providers and the cable companies are prudent for being wary of Apple deals. It is like making love with a boa constrictor - Apple will give them a warm embrace that will squeeze the life out of them.
grantje
Premium Member
join:2003-05-07
Kokomo, IN

1 recommendation

grantje

Premium Member

Re: Apple is a control freak - I'd be careful dealing with them too

And the cable companies (almost all of them) are equally the control freaks. They want to make sure that you only use their devices with their service, and want to control the whole experience. Similar with content providers - they want you to buy all their channels, even if you only watch one of them. I want "Carterfone" for television - let me go to retail and buy any device that's otherwise FCC accepted for sale, and I should be able to plug it in and use it.

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: Apple is a control freak - I'd be careful dealing with them too

Yea, thats called an antenna and TV.
ITGeeks
join:2014-04-20
Cleveland, OH

ITGeeks to grantje

Member

to grantje
It's their content- They should get to control how it is delivered. Apple didn't create it.

And since when did the FCC start certifying TVs?

cableties
Premium Member
join:2005-01-27

cableties to R7000

Premium Member

to R7000
And ISPs and Telcos aren't?
Troll somewhere else. Try the Apple forums as they will certainly disagree with your on all those bogus points.
Music industry gets biggest share, not Apple.
Microsoft, and Sony, all paid for "exclusivity" to title releases and beta (Destiny beta out early for PS3/4 .. paid by Sony).

FYI- Apple is merely securing bandwidth for digital distribution of OS release (Yosemite), along with streaming and channels it is increasingly adding to Apple TV and iTunes radio.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Re: Apple is a control freak - I'd be careful dealing with them too

If you pay attention to the music industry you will quickly learn that many hate Apple with a burning passion. Apple controls how much labels can charge for song downloads. Apple controls whether an artist can sell tracks as album-only or as single downloads. Apple's marketshare is so large that they can nearly single-handedly decide how well a song sells by how much promotion they give it. Apple forced labels to make their music available to iTunes Radio be removed from the store. The list goes on.

The labels have continuously said Apple has too much control over the music industry because of their market dominance. And the labels have tried multiple times to remedy that and they have made it quite clear they will not let Apple dominate the streaming market like they have the download market.

R7000
@69.142.79.x

R7000

Anon

Re: Apple is a control freak - I'd be careful dealing with them too

said by silbaco:

If you pay attention to the music industry you will quickly learn that many hate Apple with a burning passion. Apple controls how much labels can charge for song downloads. Apple controls whether an artist can sell tracks as album-only or as single downloads. Apple's marketshare is so large that they can nearly single-handedly decide how well a song sells by how much promotion they give it. Apple forced labels to make their music available to iTunes Radio be removed from the store. The list goes on.

The labels have continuously said Apple has too much control over the music industry because of their market dominance. And the labels have tried multiple times to remedy that and they have made it quite clear they will not let Apple dominate the streaming market like they have the download market.

+1
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

2 recommendations

Kearnstd to silbaco

Premium Member

to silbaco
said by silbaco:

If you pay attention to the music industry you will quickly learn that many hate Apple with a burning passion. Apple controls how much labels can charge for song downloads. Apple controls whether an artist can sell tracks as album-only or as single downloads. Apple's marketshare is so large that they can nearly single-handedly decide how well a song sells by how much promotion they give it. Apple forced labels to make their music available to iTunes Radio be removed from the store. The list goes on.

The labels have continuously said Apple has too much control over the music industry because of their market dominance. And the labels have tried multiple times to remedy that and they have made it quite clear they will not let Apple dominate the streaming market like they have the download market.

And the sad thing is it did not have to end up this way, But the music industry spent so long with its head in the sand shitting lawyers at file sharing that iTunes and iPod came up and bit them in the ass. They had constantly refused to play ball or agree on anything unified in the digital distro space which allowed Apple to come in and take the lion's share at a time in the MP3 player industry when whoever could pair a good device to a good service would win almost everything.
ITGeeks
join:2014-04-20
Cleveland, OH

ITGeeks

Member

Re: Apple is a control freak - I'd be careful dealing with them too

Actually the RIAA can bite Apple back in the ass. They can decide to remove content from Apple and create their own system. Or go to another vendor- Amazon, or now even WM's digital download store. But WM does the same as Apple. I'm surprised Walmart hasn't issued a merger with them yet.
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd

Premium Member

Re: Apple is a control freak - I'd be careful dealing with them too

Apple and Amazon both have more power than the RIAA. yes the RIAA can make lables pull from iTunes but no label will as long as Apple has the market share it does in the devices that link to iTunes. Cut those users off and they will just go to piracy.
ITGeeks
join:2014-04-20
Cleveland, OH

ITGeeks

Member

Re: Apple is a control freak - I'd be careful dealing with them too

Apple and Amazon have nothing. You don't think the digital MP3 service WM is cooking up and always working on isn't going to damage both Amazon and iTunes???? They will under cut those two companies and do it just fine as they do with everyone else in terms of products. They purchase everything including physical cds for pennies on the dollar.

Count Zero
Premium Member
join:2007-01-18
Milton, FL

Count Zero to silbaco

Premium Member

to silbaco
Yes it's so horrible for consumers that Apple forced labels to agree to a fair price for their music (since previous stores that had charged more had failed to gain any traction and people either bought CDs or pirated...) and it's horrible that Apple made labels agree to not sell entire albums for full price when only a handful of songs were worth buying... and the music labels ideas are so horrible that even though they have tried several times to support competitors to Apple that were more favorable to the music labels they failed to catch on...

Your argument is amazingly self-defeating.

Anon Dude
@68.105.248.x

Anon Dude to silbaco

Anon

to silbaco
You are straight up wrong. Those are all restrictions imposed by the record companies in exchange for access to their catalogs (including DRM).
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Re: Apple is a control freak - I'd be careful dealing with them too

No, those are all things Apple has done to the record labels.

As far as DRM, most of the iTunes library available for purchase no longer has it. It is worth noting that Apple wasn't against using DRM until after they had already established their dominance. Fairplay DRM allowed them to lock all competitors off the iPod (as it intentionally wasn't Playforsure compatible) and the Fairplay DRM (the iTunes Store) only worked on iPod mobile devices, not other digital music player products.

Count Zero
Premium Member
join:2007-01-18
Milton, FL

Count Zero

Premium Member

Re: Apple is a control freak - I'd be careful dealing with them too

Apple has used methods aside from DRM on music to keep other software from controlling the iPod. Apple doesn't have DRM on any music in the iTunes store now. Apple never locked the iPod down to DRM-encrypted music - therefore your argument that Apple used DRM protected music to make the iTunes dominant is flawed.
ITGeeks
join:2014-04-20
Cleveland, OH

ITGeeks to cableties

Member

to cableties
Of course Apple Fanbois will disagree. They're the ones that support the over priced company that, yes, does in fact control EVERYTHING.

If they didn't control everything, VZW customers would not have to use iTunes for apps.

Count Zero
Premium Member
join:2007-01-18
Milton, FL

Count Zero

Premium Member

Re: Apple is a control freak - I'd be careful dealing with them too

Yes and then we could have all kinds of spyware and malware on our phones too

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

CableCard

CableCard is the solution if it's around much longer.

If Apple adopts CableCard technology, then CableCard will really take off. Then I'm sure Comcast will have a shortage of CableCards.
Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO

Skippy25

Member

Re: CableCard

Correct me if I am wrong on this as I truly do not know, but doesnt that still requires you to use the cable company for service? Apple, as the others, are trying to be an alternative and provide better customer choice.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Re: CableCard

Or maybe Apple could have a DirecTV receiver that runs on the Apple TV platform.

I think the only thing that is going to break up the chokehold on pay TV and content is DOJ Antitrust intervention (which is unlikely). The broadcasters just had Aereo castrated by the Supreme Court and IF Aereo can't disrupt the CATV chokehold with what they thought was a legal loophole than nobody can.

I think if Apple wants a TV platform that involves TV networks, they're going to have to use the CableCard or partner with DirecTV/Dish.
ITGeeks
join:2014-04-20
Cleveland, OH

ITGeeks

Member

Re: CableCard

There is nothing the DOJ can do with Anti-trust. There are IPTV providers that expand over a "foot-print" they are just small. One of the largest is based in Central Ohio. They are one of the largest IPTV providers, they pay for everything and then sell across the state under different brands/ISPs.

And nobody will do business with Apple for STBs. Dish and DirecTV have their own platforms they don't pay for so why use Apple and have to pay? Is Apple going to foot the bill for a free STB for your TVs? NOPE! So guess who pays for that Apple device? YOU!
coxocala
join:2014-06-26
Ocala, FL

coxocala

Member

Re: CableCard

Apple Fanbois will pay $500-$700 for an Apple STB and also a big monthly service fee to Apple just because they love Apple.
ITGeeks
join:2014-04-20
Cleveland, OH

ITGeeks

Member

Re: CableCard

nobody else would though, and DirecTV ad Dish surely won't

SUBS
@68.4.214.x

SUBS to ITGeeks

Anon

to ITGeeks
They would do it for the same reason AT&T did it with the original iPhone...the money is not in the devices, it is sucking subscribers to the actual service which is where the real ARPU is had.

scavio
Premium Member
join:2001-07-14
Melmac

1 recommendation

scavio to Skippy25

Premium Member

to Skippy25
That was Apple's original plan, but the content providers won't deal with Apple. Apple's motives weren't as altruistic as you make them out to be though, they wanted to do it that way because they would get money from hardware sales plus be able to take a cut of content sales. They now have to try to deal with the cable companies so having service through one will be required. I get the feeling that Apple doesn't want to deal with the support and sales issues that would come with going at it alone via the cablecard route and would like to offload that on to the cable companies.

I'm still not sure why any cable company would partner with Apple... it's not like they are losing customers due to their crappy hardware and software and iTunes would likely to take away VOD sales if it was easily accessible on the cable box.

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

n2jtx

Member

Apple TV

I have the latest generation of Apple TV, which is now a year-and-a-half old and most of the apps on it require you to have a cable subscription to use them. As I am a cord cutter with only OTA reception, they are useless to me. A&E, Disney, HBO and ABC to name a few are off-limits and chewing up space. Only PBS, so far, allows access by just creating an account. Of course I get the obligatory weekly email requesting money but it beats being locked out with no recourse at all. For the most part, I use Netflix exclusively on my Apple TV as well as some mirroring from my iPad.

morbo
Complete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000

2 recommendations

morbo

Member

Re: Apple TV

Sounds like Apple TV is a more expensive Roku.

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

n2jtx

Member

Re: Apple TV

Basically and I prefer the Roku interface for Netflix.

priznut
@24.7.74.x

1 recommendation

priznut

Anon

Re: Apple TV

Ditto. I have both an Apple TV and Roku. Generally Apple is very good about their UI. But with their AppleTV I hate it. So I stick with my roku unless I need to stream something form my laptop to tv.
mikesco8
join:2006-02-17
Southwick, MA

1 recommendation

mikesco8

Member

Anti-trust violation

There is no reason that television packages should not be available through an internet connection to compete against traditional cable and satellite. Both the FTC and the FCC should be investigating and bringing charges of an anti-trust violation.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

1 recommendation

silbaco

Premium Member

Re: Anti-trust violation

Just because some consumers want something different than how it is doesn't mean it is an antitrust violation.
ITGeeks
join:2014-04-20
Cleveland, OH

ITGeeks to mikesco8

Member

to mikesco8
Tell Apple to do the Netflix route and create their own content.
millerja01a
join:2005-10-03
Durham, NC

millerja01a

Member

Well...

THOU SHALT NOT SHARE LOGO SPACE WITH APPLE!

'Nuff said.
elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA

elray

Member

Unshockingly, Apple isn't willing to pay the price

Internet delivery of cable content isn't innovation; it doesn't add value; it isn't disruptive.

Apple just wants to shift customers from traditional distribution to their own network, and keep all of the markup for themselves - the content owners have no reason to go along.
Unless Apple is willing to pay substantially more for the licensing rights than the current players, their "dream" will be dead on arrival, just like all the other wannabe "virtual" cable companies.

Apple should consider buying ComWarner, but they won't.
ITGeeks
join:2014-04-20
Cleveland, OH

ITGeeks

Member

Re: Unshockingly, Apple isn't willing to pay the price

As I said above, virtual cable companies- IPTV providers are picking up- it's not hard to partner with backend providers that will work with you on using their rights and allow you to resell it. It works. There are several doing this now.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

I Don't Think It's all Cable...

I think the content folks (i.e. channels) are fighting just as hard as cable to protect their "package" status. Right now they are far less exposed to competition when they are included as part of a "base" or "extended" cable package than when they stand on their own.

Ultimately "channels" should die and we should just purchase the content we want. This is kind of like the idea of Amazon vs. Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target and the rest.... except "channels" don't have ANY advantage. At least brick-n-mortar stores have something over Amazon in that you can visit the store and experience products in person. What advantage does a network/channel have over just buying the content? Channels/networks might be similar to yesterday's radio station giving "air time" to new stuff but with social media, the need for middlemen content pushers has passed.

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