Conspiracy theorists unite! The news that El Gato had terminated its licensing deal with Miglia for the latter to use the EyeTV software, couple with the fact that Miglia’s hardware disappeared from the online Apple Store around the same time has led many to conclude that something is afoot (tangentially, Miglia released a new TV tuner product today, the TVMax+, which appears to use Miglia’s own software in place of El Gato’s).
One Apple Blog writer anecdotally reports a meeting between Miglia reps and Apple execs at Macworld. Wait, Apple actually meeting with peripheral makers? Suspicious, right? TAB’s Eddie Hargreaves then takes a bit of a logical leap to suggest that perhaps the mysterious “service and diagnostic” USB port on the Apple TV could be used to hook up one of Miglia’s TV tuners and bring DVR capabilities to the Apple TV. Carl Howe at Blackfriars uses that as a jumping off point to suggest that Apple might buy Miglia.
Likelihood of both of these? Low, says I. As much as consumers seem to want DVR capability on the Apple TV, I don’t believe that Apple wants to give it to them. Apple doesn’t want to teach you the fish—it wants to catch you a fish everyday, and have you pay them for the privilege. Television shows are still the vast majority of the video content on the iTunes Store and Apple doesn’t want to cannibalize iTunes sales. There’s a possibility that this might change, but definitely not until the feature film content of the iTunes Store has been significantly beefed up. Then maybe Apple will be generous enough to let you record content from your TV. But until then, Apple and DVRs remain oil and water.
It is amazing to me that people can call something they pay for twice, free! Most people I know pay at least $50/month just to get someone to deliver TV and then pay again through viewing commercials for the content that is delivered.
I am definitely an avid watcher of TV and in my household we have done the math. It turns out that we watch some 15-25 new series shows every year and that equates out to 375-625 ish shows every year (assuming a 25 episode season which is not always the case)
If you pay full price we are talking about $750-$1250/year max on iTunes. But in reality many of these are season pass between $34 and $40/season. Lets take the high season price and use that.
So thats $600-$900.
My personal TV bill is already over $600/year and i have to put up with commercials and iTunes is better quality than Standard Def TV.
And before you ask, yes I watch re-runs. And I would have to purchase some old seasons to back fill my library. But think how cool watching true on demand TV is.
Another issue is storage. The above shows would take up 200 to 300 GB or at todays costs for hard drives about $60.
HD TV is another issue. Until Apple starts delivering 720p content, HD programing will have a quality edge (but at yet a higher cost).
iTunes music store needs more content, more season passes, and 720p content. But it is not that expensive if you really think about it.