Television: Almost A La Carte
Cyndi and I are wavering between whether or not to keep our cable plan when our contract is up in July. Honestly, if NBC and its affiliated networks (Sci-Fi, Bravo, etc.) were on iTunes, the decision would be pretty easy. We hardly watch any television shows regularly, neither of us watch sports very often (the occasional baseball game, and football in the fall), and we don't have any premium channels. So really, we're paying a pretty high price to watch Lost, Battlestar, Top Chef/Project Runway, and, well, re-runs of House Hunters?
So what's out there. I've looked around, and there are actually a surprising amount of options to choose from. Just, none of them have really quite "arrived."
- First up, there's iTunes/AppleTV. The selection of shows is great, and from what I've read, the quality's not bad, although there's no HD option available yet (for TV). Shows are $1.99, less if you buy a season, stream from your computer, and have decent sound (not true 5.1, but better than straight stereo). As far as selection, the good news is that HBO is now offered ($2.99 each). The bad, of course, is no NBC -- in addition to the lack of HD, as I already said.
- Next, Tivo with Amazon Unbox. The price is comparable to iTunes ($1.99 per episode, less for a season) and the offerings are broader, including NBC, SciFi, and Bravo. It doesn't require a computer to stream from, either, not that this is a problem for us, and you can queue up your shows from any computer (including work) and have them ready for you when you get home. Cons: poor sound quality and no HD (even with an HD Tivo). It also takes a while to start watching an episode, from what I've read. Oh, and it requires having a Tivo and paying the monthly fee.
- The final option I looked into (and have played around with) was Xbox Live. Requires an Xbox 360, but you can actually download shows in HD. From the five or so episodes of Lost that we've watched, the quality is on par with Comcast HD. SD shows go for $1.99, HD for $2.99 (or the equivalent in Microsoft points or whatever). You can start watching after only a few minutes (much like Apple). No season pass option, no NBC or premium channels. And, of course, having to watch television over the jet-engine roar of the Xbox. Not sure if it's available for Silver Accounts (the free one), but even a Gold is only ~$4 a month ($49.99 for the year).
We don't have an AppleTV, and I don't see myself buying one of those until Apple offers shows in HD and makes up with NBC. But we do have both an Xbox and a Tivo, so for the time being, I suppose we could get by picking and choosing between the two options (and hulu.com when neither work). The bottom line, though, is that we've got a nice HDTV, I'd like to take advantage of it. Hopefully, one of these companies will figure it out.
[Note: there are definitely cons to watching television a la carte, including the death of public access television and probably some bad things for sports revenue, but that's for another discussion.]
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