Posted on 01/02/2013 5:02:23 AM PST by chopperman
Intel is reportedly on the cusp of delivering something that consumers around the world have been wanting for a long, long time.
Kelly Clay at Forbes reports Intel is going to blow up the cable industry with its own set-top box and an unbundled cable service.
Clay says Intel is planning to deliver cable content to any device with an Internet connection. And instead of having to pay $80 a month for two hundred channels you don't want, you'll be able to subscribe to specific channels of your choosing.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Sweeet. So long obama-loving Comcast.
I agree, I get more than 100 channels and watch about 10 of them total.
The Paradigm Shift we have been waiting for!
The Paradigm Shift we have been waiting for!
Of possible interest to the “HDTV ping list” members.
This is all I’d ever want for TV. All the science channels, don’t care for movie channels or news networks, and as long as I could watch hockey, I’m good to go.
I hope Intel snatches up a huge swath of the TV market immediately.
One hurdle a cable company could erect could be that if you want broadband from a Comcast, Brighthouse, etc, you’ll have to subscribe to a cable package.
Not so fast.....excerpt from the article:
We’ve been skeptical of Intel’s ability to make a dent in the TV market. If it somehow manages to deliver this unbundled channel option, we’re more optimistic Intel could have success.
Before anyone gets too excited, Janko Roettgers at GigaOm is skeptical it happens. Roettgers knows the TV business very well.
The reason its unlikely to happen is that content companies don’t really want to see cable blown up. It’s been very good to them.
Last summer, Peter Kafka at All Things D poured cold water on the idea of Intel unbundling. Not only is going to be hard to make it happen, it’s unclear if it would even save money for cable subscribers:
Those bundles are core to today’s TV ecosystem. And the TV guys insist that consumers really don’t want “a la carte” programming, because if they do, the channels/shows they like today will end up costing much, much more.
Disney, for instance, charges TV distributors about $5 for every subscriber that gets ESPN. And, by some estimates, only about 25 percent of cable customers actually watch ESPN on a regular basis. So if you unbundled ESPN, the per-subscriber cost might shoot up to $20 or more, to account for the 75 percent drop in its customer base
Legislation to ban a la cart programming and thereby squash Intel’s efforts will be introduced on the Senate floor in 3...2...1...
For the technically ignorant among us, how do you get your T.V.s to get internet connected? We have 4 T.V.s and I would not want to watch the World Series on my 19" monitor.
‘bout damned time somebody did this. We’ve been held captive by the cable gougers for far too long.
(I speak as a member of the general American public. I have no TV and don’t watch it.)
Next up, let’s move towards sanity in the cellular phone industry. If the Europeans can get quality service at 25% of what we pay, so can we.
Remember what all the nay sayer cell phone carriers and computet companies said about Apple when word was out about the 1st iPhone. Let’s see, HP, Verizon, Palm, Dell, Sprint, ..... I like this idea and I hope it breaks the backbone of the cable companies! I currently do not have any cable tv, I have ATT uverse Internet and I stream movies from Netflix and Hulu and I use a HDTV antenna to get free local signals
If there was anything left on TV worth watching, I’d be ecstatic.
Still, if it’s something to move the cable generation toward ad-free streaming, like Netflix or Amazon Instant Video, I’m all for it. I hope at some point they’ll begin to realize the waste of having to sit through truckloads of useless commercials.
How do they manage that?
That's one good reason. The present structure is welfare for a lot of bad actors, writers, directors, producers, etc. They will not want to have to actually compete.
Another roadblock Intel will likely encounter will be gov't. Specifically, if the left sees this new, unbundled structure as cutting into their voice, they will try to crush it. And they will see it as cutting into their voice. Where has leftist programming ever succeeded in an open market? People just don't want it.
My paradigm shift was in 1997, when I dumped TV altogether. It was one of the few smart things I’ve ever done. It was, frankly, life changing.
Thank you Chuck!
“Next up, let’s move towards sanity in the cellular phone industry. If the Europeans can get quality service at 25% of what we pay, so can we.”
What we put up with for cell phone service in this country SUCKS!!!
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