I sure am. I woke up yesterday morning excited about the potential announcement of a next generation Apple TV device. Following Apple’s launch event, I was psyched about the addition of front and rear-facing cameras to the iPod Touch, but I was less than thrilled about Apple’s vision for the future of television.
As far as I’m concerned, the new Apple TV is a minor addition to the company’s family of products. Internet-connected television will not be driven by a limited use rental model. Why would I pay $0.99 for a single TV episode that disappears once the rental period is over? The future of Internet-connected television is likely to be a freemium model, with subscription services taking much of the revenue Apple hopes to garner from its rental-based system.
Early reports point to Apple looking to integrate an all-you-can-eat subscritption service into its new Apple TV offering, but ABC and Fox supposedly balked on that idea. Even though a $0.99 per show rental plan could prove less costly for infrequent TV watchers, it’s easy to see how quickly costs could escalate for avid couch potatoes.
To make matters worse, yesterday Amazon unveiled a $0.99 per episode purchase plan for ABC and Fox shows through its video-on-demand service. Users are actually buying the videos instead of just renting them. Amazon’s video-on-demand service is available on a range of devices, including dozens of HDTVs from Samsung, Sony, and Panasonic, and set top boxes like TiVo. Even though I’m not a fan of the unit-based model, it clearly trumps Apple’s offering.