流媒体电视服务 未来如何发展?
Consumers should be very happy with the news that Apple could soon sell a streaming-TV service that will offer a number of networks including CBS, ABC, Fox and ESPN.
对于苹果(Apple)可能很快就会提供流媒体电视服务的消息，消费者想必会非常高兴。该服务将提供大量广播网的节目，包括CBS、ABC、Fox及ESPN。Apple’s interest in this area could help provide at least some people with more alternatives to expensive bundles of channels sold by cable-TV companies like Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Several other companies like Dish Network and CBS have already started catering to the demand for smaller TV bundles, and others like HBO are planning to enter the market soon. The editorial board wrote favorably about the development of Internet-based TV services in October.
苹果对这个领域的兴趣，可能有助于让至少一部分人，在除康卡斯特(Comcast)和时代华纳有线(Time Warner Cable)等有线电视公司高价销售的捆绑频道之外，有更多其他选择。另外几家公司，如迪什网络(Dish Network)和CBS，已开始迎合对精简捆绑套餐的需求，还有HBO等其他一些公司正在计划马上进入这个市场。去年10月，本报编委会曾撰文探讨基于互联网的电视服务的发展，并表示看好。
While it is hard to know just how successful these services will ultimately be, there is clearly an appetite for them. Dish has signed up at least 100,000 customers for its Sling TV service after a little more than a month, ReCode reported in early March. And the top executive of CBS said last week that the company’s streaming service already had more subscribers than Sling.
尽管这些服务最终会有多成功还很难说，但显然它们是有市场的。据ReCode在3月初的报道，仅过了一个多月出头，就已经有至少10万用户签约购买迪什的Sling TV服务。CBS的首席执行官则在上周表示，他们的流媒体服务用户已经超过了Sling。
Even though we have few details about what Apple is planning, the company’s involvement will surely bolster this new business since so many Americans already use its phones, its tablets and its streaming device, Apple TV.
尽管我们对苹果的计划的细节知之甚少，但该公司的参与必然会推动这项新兴业务，因为美国已经有这么多人在使用苹果的手机、平板和流媒体设备Apple TV了。While Apple hasn’t said anything publicly about its plans for a TV service, The Times and other news organizations have reported that the new streaming service might not include programming from NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast. Apple and Comcast were in talks to start a streaming service together, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal last year, but the two companies were not able to reach a deal.
苹果尚未公开谈及自己的电视服务计划，但根据时报和其他一些新闻机构的报道，这项新的流媒体服务可能不包括康卡斯特旗下的NBC环球公司(NBCUniversal)的节目。从《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)去年的一篇报道来看，苹果和康卡斯特曾就合作成立一个流媒体服务平台进行过商谈。不过，双方未能达成协议。The growth of Internet-based TV services could be a competitive threat to big cable companies like Comcast. Executives at Comcast might have reasoned that they would only hurt their own cable business by licensing content to Apple.
基于互联网的电视服务的增长，可能会对康卡斯特这样的大型有线电视公司构成竞争威胁。康卡斯特的高管可能认为，授权苹果使用自己的节目内容只会损害他们的有线电视业务。Of course, we don’t know what really happened between Comcast and Apple. But officials at the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, who are reviewing Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable, should ask the company whether it has withheld content from streaming-TV businesses, and if so, why. After all, if Comcast acquires Time Warner Cable it will become both the country’s dominant cable company and the largest provider of broadband service, which customers need if they want to watch their favorite shows over the Internet.
当然，我们并不知道康卡斯特和苹果之间到底发生了什么。但正在审核康卡斯特收购时代华纳有线电视公司一事的联邦通信委员会(Federal Communications Commission)及司法部下属的反垄断部门的官员，应该询问康卡斯特否拒绝向流媒体电视服务提供内容，还有，如果答案是肯定的，原因又是什么。毕竟，如果收购了时代华纳有线，康卡斯特将不仅成为美国市场上的头号有线电视公司，也将是美国最大的宽带服务供应商。说白了，消费者需要有宽带服务，才能通过互联网观看自己喜欢的节目。
