We Do Not Need Another iPod for Streaming TV, We Need an iTunes ⇥ spyglass.org

M.G. Siegler:

Just close your eyes and imagine a single interface where all the world’s content is served up to you and you’re just one click away from watching any of it. Not a few clicks and navigating some other UI. Not a click and a dialog box saying you can’t access the content. Just a click and you’re watching.

This sounds like… well, iTunes. Or if you want to use the heir apparent in our streaming age: Spotify. Again, that’s sort of the dream. That interface and ease of use, but for all video content. No more need to use Google to see which show is playing on what service. Or which movie is coming when to a streaming service you already subscribe to. It all just works.

We almost had this in the first years of Netflix, when it was chock full of licensed movies and shows you could stream on demand. Then the handful of large corporations responsible for all layers of media production and distribution realized they could stream their own library. Now, over half of Netflix’s library is original movies and shows, and it competes with Disney Plus, Hulu (also owned by Disney), Max (owned by Warner), and Peacock (owned by NBCUniversal). As Siegler points out, all of these are being offered in various bundle deals. Canadian ISP Rogers, for example, includes Disney Plus access in cable TV subscriptions.

I think people would love a model more similar to streaming music. I think media conglomerates would hate it. Their relationship with the iTunes Store was less stable than music labels’, and they continue to be more interested in fighting illegal copies of their media than in trying to meet viewers where they already are.