Word from CES is that Comcast is going to finally give this Fresh Giant blogger a reason to own a tablet PC. After countless debates with friends about the silliness of the too large for your pocket too small for you lap devices, Comcast became the first major content provider to propose a real game changer. Live streaming TV on your tablet. Yes!! So now I don’t have to actually be at my house to watch…House. I could be at my job or in an airport or even on the bus all watching the hilarious banter of a half-crazy, pill popping, doctor as he tries his best to almost kill everyone he treats. 2011 will be the year of me, oh how sweet it will be!
Wait, before I start my celebrations I should probably read up on some of these Comcast details. Because it says that the only way you can watch television on your tablet, is if you are IN YOUR HOUSE! Wait a minute, don’t I already have TVs in my house? Some people have like 8 TVs in their houses. So this unbelievable service is simply saying that as I walk from one room until the other, I can grab my iPad and not miss the 12 seconds it takes for me to get from my couch to my bedroom! Oh, my where do I sign up? Essentially all this magical service is doing is broadcasting your video stream from your cable box wirelessly so your tablet can stream it. There has been many other boxes that do this very same thing for many years, and Comcast is offering you nothing but a new service to add to your bill. It is a total failure.
Now lets wonder what might have been if indeed Comcast did something right, and allowed me to really take my cable TV to go. I could pack my silly little tablet into my silly little man purse and be on my way, stopping to check out whats on TV in between bus stops, long waits in the bank, or even in the bathroom. Life would be pretty sweet. And you know what, I would end up watching a lot more TV. I’d see a lot more ads, and Comcast would make a lot more money off me. But the idea of opening up this service gets too scary for Comcast. What happens if I get multiple ipads, could I just hand them out to friends and we all start watching TV on the same Comcast bill? Oh NO! Its not like people don’t have endless football or movie watching parties with dozens of people all watching the same screen. But this way Comcast could get the information from each individual iPad. Give their advertisers more realistic numbers as far as viewership and customize advertisements for each individual viewer creating a more successful advertising platform for Comcast. But I guess that is too much of a risk for Comcast. Until then we’ll just need to act impressed by being able to watch television on a 8 inch screen inside of our own house.
I totally agree with you here. Their “announcement” was a little disappointing considering the limitations. I’m probably just spoiled as a DISH customer/employee, but I’m used to being able to watch DVR recordings or live TV anywhere…whether I’m on break at work or a thousand miles from my house.