Apple’s latest plan for world domination is the creation of iTV. This stands for interactive television – not to be confused with the UK’s ITV (Independent Television). iTV would exist on physical TV and through Apple TV, and would become the largest video distribution network in the world. This means that in Apple’s ideal future scenario, all pay-per-view content will be available to stream or download straight from an iTunes account.
However, in order to make this vision a reality, Apple needs the co-operation and compliance of TV broadcasters, who are nervous about Apple doing to the film industry what it did to the music industry ten years ago. Apple has particularly high margins, which riled publishers and record labels in the past, though of course, they eventually surrendered and agreed to sell their music on iTunes. iTunes is an unrivalled vehicle to 350million potential customers, without which, their artists would struggle to make a dent in the charts.
Now, it’s the turn of video content to be placed firmly in the spotlight as the public demand for more freedom and choice of pay-per-view viewing grows rapidly. If TV broadcasters had their way, they would keep total control of distribution for themselves and drive their viewers only to their own dedicated sites. However, luckily for the public, the internet doesn’t work that way. Users want easily accessible viewing content, with one ‘go to’ destination, and uncomplicated payment, much like – erm – iTunes.
With the success of Netflix on board Apple TV, it’s rumoured that Apple is now approaching various broadcasters to have their content at the finger tips of the iTunes customer – but broadcasters are currently resisting, due to Apple’s low offers for content.
So, is there anyone who can offer up some competition to Apple in this space? Probably its biggest rival at the moment is Ultra Violet, a digital library of movies and TV shows which enables users to stream, download, and play discs across majority of devices. The big difference is that Apple already has a user base, and Ultraviolet is starting from scratch. Content providers are the key factor in deciding who will succeed, but of course, it makes more business sense to give the content to the provider with the largest user base, which can provide immediate revenue.
- An artist impression of Apple iTV
So, it would appear Apple has the upper hand. Looking back at Apple’s last ten years, it has done a rather amazing job of disrupting quite a few industries. Apple owns the Siri technology which will give the ability to iTunes users to command viewing by voice, and it has released EasyPay, technology which enables users to pay for in-store goods via their iTunes account from an internet enabled electronic device. Currently EasyPay is only available in US Apple stores – but one can imagine that it won’t be long before they attempt to roll this out.
In terms of future-proofing the TV world, Apple is looking like the best candidate for partnership. The next challenge? Content providers will need to be savvy about how they make money out of these new channels and distribution points.
