Apple said to want customized live programming

The Apple TV set is being held back by content and licensing deals, claims Sterne Agee's Shaw Wu. The analyst cites "checks with industry and supply chain sources," who also allegedly learned that Steve Jobs was "very excited" about the opportunity presented by a TV, which the company could differentiate from the competition through user experience. Wu notes though that while iTunes currently has plenty of content, it's intended mainly for downloading, and Apple has dropped TV shows from rental options.

Industry sources claim that Apple would like to offer a TV with customized programming, in which people could follow whatever channels or shows they want for a monthly fee. Wu remarks that this is "much more complicated" in terms of licensing, and that because it is highly dependent on content providers, there's no way of pinpointing when an Apple TV set might ship. He also argues, however, that content subscribers may find themselves turning to Apple, since services like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and iTunes itself are allowing people to drop expensive cable and satellite packages.

Wu speculates that Apple could try IPTV as an option, since this would be "more in-line with its iTunes and iCloud model." The practicality of this may be debatable though, since Apple has already invested hundreds of millions in bandwidth and storage for iCloud and iTunes. IPTV would add even more demand on Apple, and the Internet in general, since Netflix alone is estimated to consume about 20 percent of US bandwidth.

By Electronista Staff