Intel's Internet TV Box

[GoldenGlove]

Why Intel could be the company to finally crack internet TV | The Verge

Make no mistake: Intel is proposing something genuinely audacious here. It's live multichannel programming delivered over a broadband data pipe, but sold separately. It might be delivered over coaxial cable if that's where you get your broadband, but that's an accident. It could just as easily be over fiberoptic or wireless. You could switch providers and keep your TV service exactly the same; you could move across the country and keep your TV service exactly the same.

"You would have your own broadband and we provide the device and the service," says Intel Media spokesperson Jon Carvill. Later, Carvill clarified: the customer "would buy the device and then subscribe to the services they want… Live TV, on demand content, and applications." It's a big bet that broadband speed and ISP data caps will continue to increase, as ISPs focus on what's increasingly the most profitable part of their business, the data plans.

Unlike Google Fiber, you don't have to wait for Intel to come to your town. Buy an Intel box and you're ready to go.

The fact that Intel doesn't by and large work in media could be a handicap, but if you stop to reconsider, it potentially gives Intel a huge advantage. Think about it: how was Google ever going to make a deal with Viacom when Viacom was suing Google? How were companies like Google or Yahoo built on selling advertising ever going to meaningfully share data and revenue with other companies built on advertising like TV networks? How were Sony or Samsung ever going to create a smart TV platform large enough to compete with cable when their businesses depended on selling giant multithousand-dollar screens that were only updated every few years? How would Apple, or Microsoft, or Amazon, or Netflix create new deals for live TV with networks when they already had huge businesses in selling digital video in completely different formats?

Intel has no conflicts of interest with television; it has no strategy taxes. All it has are years of R&D into hardware for the connected home, a solid history of developing hardware standards and prototypes, and many, many chips built for graphics-intensive, generally stationary devices that badly need somewhere to go.

Does Intel have a game changer on their hands or a monumental flop?

 

[The Phoenix]

Does Intel have a game changer on their hands?

I sure in the hell hope so. If they can get the content to drive this and its easy to do, its a wrap for cable as we know it. People have been asking for this for so long, hopefully it sees the light of day.

 

[GoldenGlove]

I sure in the hell hope so. If they can get the content to drive this and its easy to do, its a wrap for cable as we know it. People have been asking for this for so long, hopefully it sees the light of day.

The article seemed to imply that Intel would still rely on bundling packages together like how cable companies go about it.

I just want to see what the cost would be per channel, the latency of the feed compared to cable, and the pic quality.

 

[trick]

If they offer sports packages, it's a wrap.

 

[The_Sheff]

This shyt is going nowhere as far as live tv is concerned. The reason cable is so expensive in the first place is because networks wont let you get certain channels without bundling it with a bunch of other shyt. If you want MTV its like 10 other channels they make you include in the package. Viacom isnt going to give Intel a discount or let them break up the channels. Comcast owns NBC, you think Comcast is going to give any channels to Intel at a discount?

 

[newarkhiphop]

We spoke about this on the podcast this weekend

Intel to take on Apple, Roku with own TV box | PCWorld

I think this has potential to be big if done right , am interested to see what they mean by "live channels " though , i want it to be more than just another roku,boxee type of devices. I know this thing was supposed to launch last year and the cable companies gave them hell, so idk if they went back and worked some deal

All i need is

-HBO
-AMC
-CNN
-DISCOVERY
- A&E
-BBC
-STARZ
- 1 LOCAL NEWS CHANNEL


Hopefully they get the combination of hardware,software and price right

 

[GoldenGlove]

This shyt is going nowhere as far as live tv is concerned. The reason cable is so expensive in the first place is because networks wont let you get certain channels without bundling it with a bunch of other shyt. If you want MTV its like 10 other channels they make you include in the package. Viacom isnt going to give Intel a discount or let them break up the channels. Comcast owns NBC, you think Comcast is going to give any channels to Intel at a discount?

And this is exactly why something needs to be changed in how these companies operate. I say the more options the better. The majority of people are stuck in their ways anyway. So this news won't impact the majority of cable subscribers.

Wouldn't content providers open up more avenues for profit if they offered their content/channels to anybody who wanted them?

There's already tons of ways and workarounds to access their shyt for FREE right now. They'll cake either way, because some people won't budge from their cable subscriptions, while the tech heads will be interested in something like this...

 

[The_Sheff]

And this is exactly why something needs to be changed in how these companies operate. I say the more options the better. The majority of people are stuck in their ways anyway. So this news won't impact the majority of cable subscribers.

Wouldn't content providers open up more avenues for profit if they offered their content/channels to anybody who wanted them?

There's already tons of ways and workarounds to access their shyt for FREE right now. They'll cake either way, because some people won't budge from their cable subscriptions, while the tech heads will be interested in something like this...

I think they would lose money if they let you get only what you want. You know tons of households in this country would only have the basic channels and sports related channels if it was available. Everything else you can get on Netflix for 8 bucks a month. I only watch like 10 channels but they're on different programming tiers so that's how the cable companies get money out of me.

 

[Johnny Kilroy]

I download all shows or use my man's netflix account and I stream all sports.

Haven't needed cable for a while.

 

[Hersh]

what exactly will this b? cable box + tivo + stream ??

 

[Strapped]

this box will be useless when your isp slows down your connection

 

[daze23]

this place is just full of negative nancy's

 

[GoldenGlove]

I think they would lose money if they let you get only what you want. You know tons of households in this country would only have the basic channels and sports related channels if it was available. Everything else you can get on Netflix for 8 bucks a month. I only watch like 10 channels but they're on different programming tiers so that's how the cable companies get money out of me.

Not initially...

It's not like this thing is going to come out and people will cancel their cable package right away (I know some would). It will take time for an alternative like this to creep in and make that kind of an impact. People will still have their cable subscriptions just due to the familiarity of it all. Then they could eat off the well informed who go this route.

The reality is, the current model for how we get content is tired and lame. I'm just glad there's something new to come out of this whole thing.

 

[The_Sheff]

Not initially...

It's not like this thing is going to come out and people will cancel their cable package right away (I know some would). It will take time for an alternative like this to creep in and make that kind of an impact. People will still have their cable subscriptions just due to the familiarity of it all. Then they could eat off the well informed who go this route.

The reality is, the current model for how we get content is tired and lame. I'm just glad there's something new to come out of this whole thing.

The second i tell my boy i just got basic and all the sports channels he is going to switch his shyt. I mean word of a change this monumental would spread like wildfire. People are tired of 100 buck cable bills when they watch 10 channels. I would tell all my immediate family members to drop that cable and they would tell their friends and so on.

People are begging and pleading Time Warner to offer HBO Go without going through cable but they arent budging one bit because they know them cable subscriptions would disappear.

 

[GoldenGlove]

The second i tell my boy i just got basic and all the sports channels he is going to switch his shyt. I mean word of a change this monumental would spread like wildfire. People are tired of 100 buck cable bills when they watch 10 channels. I would tell all my immediate family members to drop that cable and they would tell their friends and so on.

People are begging and pleading Time Warner to offer HBO Go without going through cable but they arent budging one bit because they know them cable subscriptions would disappear.

So how long are people going to let it slide then?

For the HBO Go access, all you need is a password and you're good to go. They don't even verify shyt else as far as I know.

But the people who want it without going through a cable provider want it because they don't have it on cable. So really, if they offered it to those people they would open themselves up to another market. Most subscribers of HBO don't even use the application for HBOGo... so the shyt is being wasted in a lot of cases.

The business model is not going to fly, and someone will come up with something to shake things up. But even when that happens, I don't see people abandoning cable all together, mainly because they're just too used to it.