Sounds great, ESPN on the Apple TV (and possibly the forthcoming iTV)! Until you see this quote:

“We’re a platform-agnostic content company,” Bratches, the network’s executive vice president of affiliate and advertising sales, said today in an interview. “To the extent that in the future there’s an opportunity with Apple to authenticate through the pay-TV food chain as we’re doing with Microsoft, that’s something that we will participate in.”

In other words: you’ll get access as long as you’re a cable TV subscriber…

As I’m not a cable TV subscriber, this is worthless to me.

For as much as I bitch about HBO being blind to future disruption, I continue to think that it’s ESPN that has to be the true pioneer here. They’re the one content provider that has the cable companies by the balls. No cable provider can afford not to offer ESPN. So ESPN has the most leeway to do what they want without fear of retribution. 

iThinkNot.

After nearly two years off the air, Mad Men starts up again on Sunday. Can’t wait.

Obviously, I’ve been bitching a lot about the new season of Game of Thrones because I can’t watch it (legally) for a year since I don’t have cable. But the same isn’t true of Mad Men — I already bought the season pass through iTunes. I have to wait a day longer than those with cable (well, technically until midnight most of the time), but I’m fine with that.

Amazon also emailed this morning to say they have a season pass option for the new season of Mad Men through Amazon Instant Video. Also cool. One problem: I can’t for the life of me find a price anywhere. And there are about 17 possible buttons to click. This entire design really needs to be re-thought. 

Anyway, good on AMC for giving me options to give them money for their great content.

Actor/comedian Aziz Ansari shares my Games of Thrones pain. As he tells GQ:

The way people release media is so far behind the way people actually consume it. There’s so much frustration. I mean, I get frustrated. I want to watch Game of Thrones. I’d love to see it before it comes back. Is it on iTunes? Do I watch it on HBO On Demand? What’s going on? What do I do? I bought the DVD, but I can’t watch it on my iPad?

And:

This is $5, and you have a video file that you can watch anywhere. I think people like the simplicity. Many surveys have people who stream TV shows or steal content saying that if it was available at a fair price and in a convenient form, they wouldn’t steal. And I believe that. Let’s say you hear that show Homeland is great, and you don’t have Showtime. You want to buy it. You go to Amazon, it’s not there. You go to Netflix, it’s not there. OK, fuck it, you’re just going to steal it from a torrent. But if you saw that it was $10, you could get all the episodes and watch it on anything, wouldn’t you do that? If you knew that the quality was proper and everything?

A-fucking-men. 

And unlike me, Ansari is in a position to do something about it on his end. He has put his comedy special online Louis C.K.-style.

For $5, you buy it, you own it, you can watch it anywhere. Support sanity.

[thanks Eric]

I’m all for anything that disrupts the region-based cable monopolies.

But remember that Google had a hell of a time trying to reach agreements with content providers for Google TV. And recall that it’s coming up on two years (!) since Google first showed off their music product — and they still don’t have a deal with all the labels. The types of deals needed for content plays don’t seem to exactly be Google’s strong suit.

Speaking of Netflix, Comcast is launching a Netflix competitor.

But wait — isn’t Comcast already a Netflix competitor with their On Demand service, their Xfinity service, and their stake in Hulu? Well yes, but this will have a new name and new fees! Joy!

Reports Andrew Wallenstein for Variety:

With a business model and catalog-oriented content mix similar to Netflix and other competing services like Amazon and a coming joint venture from Verizon and Redbox, Comcast is clearly attempting to supplement its existing digital presence, Xfinity, with a long-tail-oriented offering. But Streampix is not available to those who don’t already get Comcast cable.

Streampix will either be free to those who get Comcast’s triple-play package of video, broadband and phone or for an additional $4.99 fee on top of other varieties of Comcast offerings.

So, it will only be available to those people who already have Comcast cable. AND it will likely cost you an additional fee even if you’re already spending upwards of $100 a month on cable. What a fucking fantastic sounding service.

Hollywood’s core piracy “problem” is perfectly captured in this one cartoon by The Oatmeal.

In fact, I’ve had this exact debate with myself. I really want to watch Game of Thrones. But I’m not an HBO subscriber because I’m not a cable subscriber and unfortunately, the two go hand-in-hand, no matter what I’m willing to pay.

Speaking of “willing to pay”, okay fine, I can’t get Game of Thrones on HBO, but I’m willing to pay a quite a bit of money to get it via iTunes. Wait. Nope. Can’t do that either. At least not for a few more months — well over a year after the first season wrapped.

Netflix? Nope. Not streaming or DVD/Blu-ray. Amazon? Nope. HBO.com? Not unless I’m a cable subscriber. 

So my options are…

…

…well, I only have one option. Thanks Hollywood!

[via Yun on Twitter]