In this week's round-up of recent happenings of interest to all cordcutters, not just Roku users, we look at an update to Apple's "TV" app, Dropbox brings cloud storage access to Xbox, FuboTV expands OTT offerings with more sports channels and general-interest channels, and more.
Apple's new TV application is now available. Called simply "TV," the new app is intended to simplify video viewing across Apple TV, iPhone and iPad devices. with a user experience that feels more like a Netflix front-end to the wide array of content that’s available across applications. However, TheVerge concludes that "the TV app is neither what Apple really wants to deliver nor is it even a remotely suitable stopgap until the company can realize its vision for the future." The problem? It doesn't incorporate programming across all platforms. "Apple doesn't have the support of Netflix or Amazon Video. The company's single sign-on feature, which is designed to make it easier to use a cable subscription to sign into individual channel apps, only works with a handful of providers, excluding huge names like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon FiOS."
Netflix has started re-encoding its catalog with new video codecs to make downloading more efficient on mobile devices. These new codecs, AVCHi-Mobile and VP9-Mobile, promise better video quality for the same bitrate compared to current streams. While the mobile encodes are currently being used only in the recently-launched downloads feature, Netflix says they roll out these new bitstreams for mobile streaming in the near future.
While the proliferation of over-the-top (OTT) streaming services seems should should keep prices down for consumers due to competition, it's also making it more difficult for OTT services to become profitable. According to research analyst Dan Rayburn in an article on Seeking Alpha, competition has caused content licensing costs to skyrocket because OTT platforms have been bidding up prices. In addition, he says that Netflix now "has so many competitors that original content is the only way to differentiate the service. Netflix is spending nearly $5B in content licensing/creation costs in 2016 alone."
One of those OTT competitors is an unexpected entrant in this field: Soccer website FuboTV is adding more sports channels and some general-interest networks. AP technology writer Tali Arbel reported that sports channels FS1, NBA TV, NBCSN, and regional sports networks are coming in January.
"A few dozen non-sports channels like Lifetime, Bravo, Fox News, A&E and Hallmark" are also planned.
Dropbox is launching an app on Xbox, leting you stream photos and videos from your Dropbox account to your TV. Dropbox is reportedly the first cloud storage provider to provide such capability for Xbox users. It should be noted a Dropbox Roku app has been available since mid-2015, and there are also Roku apps for other cloud storage services including Google Drive, OneDrive, and Amazon Cloud Drive.
Streaming TV services won’t lure cord-cutters back to bundles, analyst says
https://news.fastcompany.com/streaming-tv-services-wont-lure-cord-cutter...
Fast Company reports that BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield doesn't think cable-like OTT services with streaming TV bundles will work. "The basic problem... is that these new streaming products are trying to mimic a service that viewers have already decided they don't want to pay for."
Cordcutting isn't a cost-saver for everyone. CNBC reports that a new survey from PwC found that "more than half of consumers who trimmed or shaved down their TV bundles are actually paying more now for content then they were last year, thanks to the cumulative cost of over-the-top services."
