It’s tough out there for traditional broadcasting outlets like cablecos, IPTV providers and satellite dish networks, as they struggle in a declining ad market to increase revenue with on-demand high-definition content. But it’s about to get tougher: Apple Inc. this week has expanded its TV and movie offerings at the iTunes Store to include HD purchases and rentals. And thus, it’s officially become a threat to those legacy players.
It used to be that Apple’s HD content was available to Apple TV users only, and only on a rental basis, but this expansion allows video to also be purchased, and also downloaded and played on desktops and laptops. And why is this a threat? Quite simply, in a digital age where home gateways bring computing capabilities to televisions and you have a populace becoming increasingly comfortable watching video on a PC or Mac, where time-shifted and on-demand models are mainstream, and where Internet streaming is everywhere online, the television is no longer the default entertainment device. And that is taking video out of the hands of broadcast networks.
On-Demand a Gateway for New Entrants
It’s clear the audience is comfortable with the on-demand model. Consider Steven Soderbergh’s “Che,” which has shown up in limited release in theatres, but has already reached 150,000 viewers through the Independent Film Channel’s video-on-demand service.
The problem is, on-demand is so appealing that content owners are considering “going rogue” on their traditional broadcast partners.
