Apple's iTunes store is the biggest digital media distribution platform the world has seen, with more than 100 million customers. It offers movies, games, music, podcasts and TV shows for PC, Mac, iPod and iPhone. Some of the content is paid for, whilst other content is free.
Other major digital distribution players include Netflix who stream movies and TV shows via its disc-by-mail subscription service to various devices including the Xbox 360 and will soon be available on Playstation 3 too. Xbox LIVE offers a similar service where you can rent or buy movies in SD and HD formats. Hulu meanwhile offers a TV streaming service that allows you to watch TV via your browser.
Over in the UK, Sky, towards the end of last month launched it's Sky Player on the Xbox 360. The service allows you to watch Sky's premium programs for a monthly subscription or for free if you currently subscribe to their direct to home TV service.
Staying in the UK, Spotify offers over 6 million music tracks, that users' can stream for free to their computer. Sky is to offer a similar service while Google just this week launched it's oneBox music streaming service. Finally Amazon's Kindle is doing a fine job at distributing digital copies of some of the worlds finest literature. Sony and other companies are offering similar services and devices.
![[iTunes screenshot]](http://images.bit-cast.net/technology/2009/10/image_appleappstoresmall.jpg)
It's quite obvious that digital distribution for traditional media is starting to take off big time. Company execs are starting to see that if their businesses ignore the Internet crowed and the new ways in which they consume and want media, then they will be doing it at the expense of their own businesses. The moto goes, "If you can't beat em, then join them" and that's exactly what they're starting to do. The music industry has mellowed in recent months/years after the onslaught that was (and still is) the RIAA. A few years back a service such as Spotify or even DRM free music via iTunes would have been unimaginable from their perspective. The movie industry is also starting to show signs of change and becoming less xenophobic to the new age of digital content distribution, however they still have some way to go.
Many of the former mentioned services offer their services for free with limitations, some are exclusively paid for while others offer both models where the user can upgrade to a paid for service that will largely remove the failings of the free alternative. However for TV distribution to hit it big on the Internet, it will need to be paid for, as the TV studios need a constant flow of cash to keep their programming ticking over at a steady rate and to invest money in new projects.
If reports by allthingsd.com are to be believed then Apple might soon be launching a subscription based TV service that will offer such a service. The new service an extension of iTunes will stream your favourite TV shows directly to your computer and you will not be tied into requiring an Apple TV Box or other propitiatory hardware either.
According to allthingsd.com Apple is trying to muster support from the TV studios and offer an "over the top" TV service for $30 per month that could rock the foundations of traditional TV operators' and it wants to do it as early as next year.
It is thought that if any broadcaster jumps first then it will be Disney. It makes perfect sense for them to play the guinea pig first as Steve Jobs bank rolled Pixar Animation Studios in it's early days and in 2006 Disney bought Pixar for over $7 billion, after years of Pixar producing a string of hit movies when Disneys own in house productions mostly foundered at the box office.
This gave Jobs the biggest chuck of the Disney shareholder pie. With Jobs on the Disney board and with such close ties to Disney, Jobs could use his influence to get an Apple subscription TV service started with Disney as one of the first broadcasters for the service. This partnership has worked in the past for Jobs, as Disney was the first company to offer it's content on iTunes. Several years down the line it's obvious that this paid off as iTunes is now a massively popular service.
However there is an element of risk involved for broadcasters, as they have existing deals and agreements in place with Cable TV operators such as Comcast. Undermining them by siding with Apple, could cause a spiralling funnel of discontent between all parties. Cable Networks are also worried about what might happen to Ad revenue. A good chuck of their income comes from advertising. Distributing their content via iTunes could see this business model being significantly eroded.
iTunes led the way with downloadable music distribution and now it appears that Apple wants to shake the broadcasting industry up by offering TV over the Internet. If this happens it could mark a huge shift in the way thousands, if not millions of people watch TV. In much the same way that iTunes changed the way many of us now listen to music.
Source: allthingsd.com via neowin.net
