One of the main reasons I stopped subscribing to cable television was the inability to pay for the channels that I only wanted to watch. I’ve always disliked the fact that the major cable companies (Comcast, Adelphia, Time-Warner) have had a grip on the content that I wanted to watch.
Now some people think that Apple will be announcing this iPod video device coming up September 7th at the Apple event in San Francisco. I certainly hope this will be the case, because if it is, I think we could finally see somebody giving the cable companies some competition.
My sincere hope would be that current television shows and movies would be available through the Apple video store either on a pay-per download or subscription basis. For a reasonable fee I could log into my Apple account and browse video clips of any currently running show, documentary or movie and have it available for purchase.
I think networks are also really going to love this here’s why. I could be misinformed on this, but I believe one of the reasons HD has taken so long to take off is because the major networks have been afraid to lose their revenues from their syndicated shows currently running on smaller networks. See, the older syndicated shows weren’t filmed in this format and therefore will be obsolete when everything goes HD. Voila! The Apple on-demand video store! All the old shows you used to watch and love, now available on your video iPod.
If Apple is going to start offering up video content downloads through the iTunes store, I would imagine it would happen this way. First music videos and live music performances would be available and then movies and sometime in the near future, and then network shows would be available.
I could be way off base on all of this, but it’s certainly fun to think about the possibilities that could arrive with the advent of a video iPod.
Also, don’t forget about the predictions of the Apple Home Media Center and how it could potentially play into all of this.