Apple Rumor: iTV Hitting in the Fall, $99?

Adrianne Jeffries — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:23:54 -0800

Rumors about the next iteration of Apple TV have coalesced around a few key facts - the device is expected to be named iTV in the style of the company's more successful offerings, run customers an easy $99 and be fully revealed sometime in the fall.

Engadget is reporting that the set top box will resemble the iPhone 4's appearance and capabilities, including apps, but will only be capable of playing back video at 720p, same as the current Apple TV.

]]> Apple first launched Apple TV in 2007, when it basically flopped. Steve Jobs tried again in 2008, when he admitted the difficulty Apple faced in trying to get Web-enabled TV into consumers' living rooms: "All of us have tried. We have, Microsoft, Amazon, TiVo, Netflix, Blockbuster. We've all tried to figure out how to get movies, over the internet onto a widescreen TV, and you know what, we've all missed. No one has succeeded yet."

Note: An excellent point as to why Internet TV has yet to succeed was made in the comments by Chris McCray, a UK resident and voracious data-user. McCray points out that watching multiple movies in a week could easily push data usage upwards of 40 GB. Compare that to the two and three GB Comcast says its average residential users consume.

Apple is reportedly hosting an event in mid-September.

If the rumors are true, Apple could be announcing iTV at the same time the first Google TV comes out. The blatantly-named "Sony Internet TV," the first TV running Google's Android-based platform, is scheduled to be released in the fall. Google TV will be capable of playing back video at 720p or 1080p.

But with apps, an affordable price tag, and a few more years of introducing members of the uninitiated public to the iPhone and the iPod under its belt, it's possible Apple could crack the mainstream this time.

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Nobody is Making Money Online from Susan Boyle Video (Yet)

Frederic Lardinois — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:16:27 -0800

Unless you lived in an exceptionally dark cave in the last two weeks, you probably weren't able to escape the Susan Boyle phenomenon. According to some metrics, over 100 million people have watched the immaculately edited video of the 'frumpy' 47-year-old's performance on Britain's Got Talent (BGT) by now. While this is most definitely an interesting cultural phenomenon, the Times today also reports that neither ITV, the network that shows BGT, nor YouTube have really been able to directly profit from this huge hit because the network and YouTube have been arguing about the terms of their advertising agreement.

]]> ITV, according to the Times Online, wants to run pre-roll ads before its videos, but YouTube, even though it is still highly unprofitable, is still resisting this move because, unsurprisingly, its research has shown that pre-roll ads are very unpopular with its users. Interestingly, on its own site, ITV features a sponsored player, but no pre-roll ads.

It is also noteworthy that the most popular version of the video (with about 41 million views so far) was uploaded by a fan, BritainsSoTalented, and ITV doesn't even seem to have its own YouTube channel.

So, how much money did ITV lose so far? About $1.87 million, according to the Times Online's Dan Sabbagh, based on the assumption that a TV network could get about $20 to $35 per 1000 viewers, which is not completely unreasonable, though we have also seen far lower numbers around $12 and less. Using those numbers, ITV probably lost about $1 million, which is still quite a lot of money, especially considering that this is just pure, additional profit for the network. But then, few people have ever been able to turn a YouTube hit into direct income and most of the rewards come later in the form of recording contracts or endorsement deals.

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Apple Rumor: iTV Hitting in the Fall, $99?

Nobody is Making Money Online from Susan Boyle Video (Yet)