In The News

Apple TV Upgrade: Upside Limited Without Content

September 07, 2015

Apple has been working for some time on a cable killer, and is looking to combine broadcast and select cable networks for a cheaper, better-looking bundle. But that isn’t the extent of the company’s content ambitions: As Variety reported exclusively, the company has even made overtures to execs in Hollywood about producing its own original programming, with the goal of building out a production unit that could one day churn out TV shows or even movies.

But no Apple originals are in the foreseeable future, and negotiations with networks to license channels have been slow-moving, forcing the company to postpone the launch of the service until some time in 2016.

Without that content infusion, Apple TV is just another box — and an expensive one: Numerous leaks point to a base model launch price of $149.

That’s significantly more than the competition, which already has been eating Apple’s lunch with cheap boxes and streaming sticks. Roku, whose entry-level devices retail for just $50, sold 34% of all streaming devices in the U.S. in 2014. Apple TV’s market share was just 13%, according to data from Parks Associates, which also has sales of Google’s Chromecast streaming stick and Amazon’s Fire TV devices surpassing those of Apple’s hockey puck.

Consumers are voting with their wallets, argued Parks Associates research director Barbara Kraus: “If I just want to stream, I can do that with a $35 stick.”

From the article "Apple TV Upgrade: Upside Limited Without Content" by Janko Roettgers.

Previously In The News

Anime fans' hard streaming choices

The unusual deal is seen by industry experts as a sign that anime distributors won’t be able to survive alone against Amazon and Netflix. CrunchyRoll, based in San Francisco, is the most popular de...

Everything You Need to Know About the First Super Mario iPhone Game

"A new Mario game is likely to be popular not only among the kid/teen crowd but also among the older Millennial generation who grew up with the famous game," Jennifer Kent, director of market research...

You can tell Comcast what to do on its Xfinity TV voice remote

Voice’s resurgence seems counter-intuitive. The technology first boomed in the 1990s with voice prompters in customer call centers – not always a satisfying experience as the prompters many times rout...

Roku Posts More Stellar Results In Q2 As Stock Price Continues To Surge

its earnings release, Roku cited data from Kantar Milward Brown anointing it the No. 1 TV streaming platform in the U.S. by hours streamed. According to a survey by Strategy Analytics, the Roku operat...

‹
1
2
...
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
...
719
720
›