Over the past few years now there has been an ongoing rumor that Apple may be looking into getting into the TV business and with that there's been the obvious rumors of dealings with content companies and cable providers. That said though, there has been an increasing amount of cord cutting happening as well these days wherein people are killing off their cable and satellite packages and just simply going with broadband-only connections and getting all of their content online.
It's a trend that if Apple is really thinking about getting into TV's they're sure to watching. But here's the thing. For some cord cutters, Apple is already in the TV business by way of their AppleTV and iTunes offerings. To their credit, Apple keeps adding more content to the mix as well. Channels such as iTunes Radio, PBS, Yahoo! Screen and more have recently been added and arguably Apple has turned their 'hobby' into something pretty compelling.
I don't think it's enough yet, it is however enough to get by with a basic cable plan.
But has it reached the point yet where having an Apple TV enough to cancel cable or satellite TV? It's a question that was asked in the iMore Forums recently and much to my surprise, plenty of folks in the iMore Forums have already moved to broadband-only and are making use of Apple's offerings combined with a few other services. It's something I've been thinking about doing for a while now considering that I don't really watch a lot of TV in general but the things I do want to watch are pretty readily available on iTunes, Netflix or various other services.
A lot of the networks are requiring you to have a cable subscription anyways to use the on demand streaming functions.
Sadly, some of what Apple does offer through AppleTV still has to be coupled with a subscription through cable or satellite providers so for some folks, it's really not enough. Especially if you're into a lot of sports or a lot of network TV shows, so that's clearly a bummer and something I'm not so sure will go away because that means more people might end up cutting the cord.
Thus far, from what I gather in the forums, it all comes down to what your needs and watching habits are. It's not hard to imagine a person who watches a lot of TV shows ending up spending more on the different service subscriptions and purchases than they would for cable, in which case, that would defeat the purpose. But if you're not all that into TV shows or sports, you could save yourself some money by cutting the cable off and just making due with an AppleTV along with its other offerings. Have your say though in the forums and in the comments.
