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Apple Rushes in New Age of Television Viewing

Posted on: Sunday, 16 October 2005, 15:00 CDT

By Crayton Harrison, The Dallas Morning News

Oct. 16--Forget the video iPod.

Apple Computer's real coup last week was to turn iTunes, its music downloading juggernaut, into a futuristic TV network.

By putting episodes of ABC and Disney Channel shows up for sale online, Apple may have just taken the biggest step yet in the technology industry's quest to demolish Hollywood as we know it.

When The Dallas Morning News convened a technology roundtable last week, the participants spoke dreamily of a day in which consumers could order up a TV show or movie for viewing whenever they pleased, wherever they pleased.

Now think about what Apple is doing. It's offering a handful of TV shows, short films and music videos for sale, buyable and viewable 24 hours a day.

Imagine if every show were available this way, and then consider whether you would need a cable subscription, a TiVo or a DVD player in such a world.

Pay attention, because TV and the movies may never be the same.

Apple is hardly the only company that's changing the game. Here's what's happening right now:

Microsoft's Media Center operating system will soon be able to transmit TV shows, music and photo slideshows to any XBox gaming console in the house.

SBC Communications is installing super-fast fiber networks capable of sending video to the home in addition to data and telephone service. Using a set-top box, subscribers would also be able to send their TV shows throughout the home.

Closer to home, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and his business partner, Todd Wagner, are using their collection of media companies to experiment with releasing Hollywood movies in theaters, on DVD and on television at the same time.

Apple's move last week ups in the ante in the game to rule the digital home. Mr. Cuban himself praised the company's ingenuity in a post last week on his blog, www.blogmaverick.com.

"The future of network television got immediately brighter" thanks to the creation of a new business model, he said. Disney chief executive "Bob Iger had the brilliance to say yes to giving consumers his content, where, how and when they want to consume it."

The iTunes video downloading service has huge implications for cable and satellite networks. Groups that lobby for consumer choice and family-friendly entertainment have long pushed for "a la carte" subscriptions, in which viewers could pick which channels they want to receive, weeding out offensive or extraneous content.

Now families can order up episodes of two Disney Channel shows without subscribing to cable at all. If that selection were to expand and the video quality were to improve, it's not unreasonable to imagine that some television viewers would simply shut off their cable or satellite service and program their own broadcasting schedules online.

If that happens, the diversity of programming could expand infinitely. One of the Technology Board members, former Commerce Department assistant secretary Larry Irving, said that he and his wife rarely watch the major broadcast networks because they prefer cable channels such as ESPN and HGTV.

"You're going to see the same things in other marketplaces when people are smart enough to provide it at a price on a platform people want to get," he said. He was especially excited about the prospect of more programs geared toward minorities.

There's also no need to record and store TV shows if they're constantly available for download. When consumers can download any show anytime they please for $2 a pop, only the most avid TV watchers will care about setting their recorders. "Appointment viewing" is out; "no-appointment-necessary viewing" is in.

Neither the video quality nor the selection is good enough for prime time on the iTunes service right now. The TV picture doesn't even measure up to standard analog television, much less the high-definition TV the nation is slowly adopting.

And right now, iTunes is offering a grand total of five TV shows, all from one entertainment company, along with music videos and short films from Pixar Animation Studios.

Several industry experts say they're convinced that Apple's new video service is just a trial run for something much bigger. One longtime computer industry analyst, Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates, said that by getting Disney and Pixar involved, Apple was showing other big media companies that it was OK to experiment. Their copyrights can be protected and they can make money with video downloads.

"You bring in a couple of friends to show the other guys it won't hurt them," he said. "It's just a beachhead. You establish the concept and begin to improve the quality over time."

There's no guarantee of success with any business strategy. But when we look back on last week many years from now, we may remember it as the beginning of a brand new era in entertainment: TV version 2.0.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Dallas Morning News

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Source: The Dallas Morning News

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