Uncabled.
Back sometime around mid-July, Beth and I made the incredibly difficult decision to drop cable. That left our mild TV appetite to fend for what it could, using only its untested wits and patience and a $30 HDTV antenna to scavenge our favorite episodic entertainment out of the now all digital signal filled airwaves. I won’t pretend the transition was seamless. In reality it took about 6 months from saying the words “let’s drop cable” out loud to actually doing it. And we’ve certainly spent our fair share of retribution on iTunes after a missed meal here and there. But to be honest, the pros ($$$avings) have far outweighed the cons (being the uncool guy at the water cooler, hilarity missed). It just wasn’t worth paying all that money just have the option to watch whatever, whenever.
Fast forward to today and I find that rumors are swirling that Apple is reportedly pitching subscription based TV using iTunes as a distribution platform and who knows what as the destination. The number floating around is $30/month probably for the ability to download or stream content that would expire after a certain amount of time (conjecture). When Beth and I dropped cable – 1 TV, 1 HD DVR set top box – we immediately saved $100/month (we kept our internet service, of course). From what I could tell, the deals TWC is floating around now would add about $50-$60/month back to our bill under a 2 year service agreement. For roughly half that price, we could subscribe to Apple’s iTunes-based service, watching what we want when we want but with presumably more limited choices. To that point, content is the key to all of this. Tying the service to Apple TV or other hardware is easily justified by the long-term savings or multi-function uses of Apple’s other devices. But launching the service without a wide range of content content severely limits the publicity and momentum that Apple can build at launch and may ultimately doom the service.
Back in the days when I had the time and the will to watch whatever, whenever I hated the idea of a la carte pricing or a service that will probably be as limited, at least initially, as Apple’s proposed service. But as I ween myself off of TV more and more, I like the options that are popping up that will help me save some dough while still allowing me to indulge in a few guilty pleasures every now and then.