While some have said that cable needs to most pay attention to how Netflix continually is upgrading its various offerings, at least one analyst says the company cable should really be watching is Apple.
Writes our friend David Lieberman at Deadline.com, Citigroup Investment Research’s Jason Bazinet says "Apple might design a TV set that would work with programming from a pay TV rival such as DirecTV. ‘That plays to Apple’s strength, which is not your strength, which is the operating system,’ Bazinet said, calling cable’s user experience ‘a Rube Goldberg contraption.’ "
Bazinet, according to the story, emphasized that "The big threat to cable ‘isn’t really Netflix. It’s something we haven’t seen yet.’ "
The article adds, "Morgan Stanley’s Benjamin Swinburne says that although the Street is less concerned than it was a few months ago about Netflix becoming a major competitor, ‘that doesn’t mean what Netflix has done couldn’t be done by someone with a much bigger check book.’ "
Lieberman said the Wall St. analysts made their comments on Tuesday during a panel discussion at the annual NCTA Cable Show at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center.
Benjamin Swinburne said that? I guess he could apply wisdom that to ANY company, even Apple: just get a bigger checkbook. Really. I guess installed customer base means nothing to a late entrant, eh? Just have a bigger checkbook. See how well that worked for Microsoft. And Yahoo. And AOL.
Our $60/month cable bill was replaced by on old Dell + Internet + $10 Netflix + Antenna (for HD local sports). We simply use the ‘net for entertainment more than watching TV, so made sense for us. Already saved about $1,800… no way were going back!
I do miss some of the programming on Discover, HGTV, Animal Planet (kids loved it), etc. Someone is going to start putting quality original programming via ‘net distribution, and it will be game over for Cable TV. The playing field is wide open right now, could be anyone that has the money and vision to pull it off. Netflix? Amazon? Apple? Microsoft (once reactionary Ballmer is gone)? Someone we never heard of?
Anyone but Comcast. Their pay per view interface is tortuous to use and functions as if it were designed by a 3rd grader. Oh, I’m sorry, that is an insult to 3rd graders. Have the time the box must be restarted. They are leaving themselves extremely vulnerable to competition.