Apple Considering Ad-Free Network TV Offering
Published reports indicate Apple is working to organize a subscription service that would offer consumers programming from television networks for a monthly fee similar to what customers are used to paying for cable. Apple reportedly plans to launch the service in 2010 once it strikes licensing deals with content providers.
Apple already sells individual television shows on its iTunes Store, but a full-fledged subscription service would put the iPod maker head-to-head with the likes of Comcast and DIRECTV. A subscription service would give users of Apple's rumored tablet computer something to watch on a screen larger than an iPod but smaller than a laptop.
Apple may be hoping to tap into what Adams Media Research pegs as $1.14 billion in spending on Internet movies and television shows in 2010. Published reports indicate consumers could pay as much as $30 a month for the service, while Apple pays between $1 and $4 a month to the various content holders.
How big of an impact could an Apple TV subscription service make on the cable and Internet television industry? It could be enormous, according to Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.
"This could establish an advertising-free subscription model that represents the next big move of television. When cable emerged many years ago, we certainly saw cable channels that were distinct from the commercial channels," Enderle said. "Apple could offer programming from both traditional television and cable sources advertising-free and on-demand. It could quite literally bypass cable and move us into the next phase of television."
Although Hulu.com has been discussing the possibility...
