When I went out for lunch today something caught my eye as I drove by my local cable company: a Brinks truck backed up to the front door (I’m not kidding). They were about to cart off another load of money, some of it probably mine from a monthly three-digit cable bill. I’ve never been closer to saying goodbye to cable. This is day four of having AppleTV at my house, and it’s not yet time – but almost – to cut the cable subscription. Between the streaming choices, Netflix and over-the-air signals, I’m getting about 75% of what I need from a source other than cable. All of these streaming services have a slice of what I want. I just need someone to put it all together so I can buy the right ingredients like ESPN, CNN, etc. without having to log in as a cable subscriber. It’s coming, but no one yet has the complete solution. Give it 12-18 months. Then stand back and watch the exodus.
The ABC News app on AppleTV is interesting in part because of the content loaded by some local stations. I watched two stories from the Hearst station in Honolulu over the weekend and it was fascinating. Granted I’m a newsaholic, but shouldn’t every local station want their content available on demand? Why wouldn’t you develop an app and partner with streaming services? Does anyone honestly think that Apple, Slingbox, or Netflix won’t be in the distribution business in the future? Pushing local content means more than a local station’s own signals, website and mobile apps. It’s time to branch out if you’re a broadcaster.
