I’d love to see Tablo partner with Over The Top (OTT) broadcast providers like SlingTV to provide a universal Electronic Program Guide (EPG) that allows customers to tune to any owned live media from a consolidated UI.
I’d imagine this would be no minor investment. It would require partnership between multiple organizations, API/DRM integration, etc. However, there are some key business benefits from such a partnership including:
Pull through sales: I purchased Tablo because of the Sling/Roku option. For OTA, I was perfectly happy with MediaPortal. However, since Tablo has a Roku front end, it’s easier for less technical folks to access both OTA (Tablo) and Cable (Sling) via one box (Roku). Tighter alignment means more sales for both companies (Tablo, Sling)
Apple is about to release a TV service that will provide both local broadcast channels (competitor to Tablo) and cable channels (Competitor to Sling) in one UI. I’d imagine that will be a huge draw to just purchase Apple TV rather than a non-cohesive environment for OTA (Tablo) & OTT (Sling). Combining forces will help combat the Apple threat by providing a comparable ecosystem on the Roku/Tablo.
Interesting idea - I don’t ever see it happening, Tablo is direct competitor of Dish that owns Sling TV. Well not direct competitor but OTA and cord cutters result in no revenue for Dish. The only agreements that would ever make this happen would result in you and me paying more for our Tablo or our Tablo service. I rather see Dish burn.
@theuser86 You’re right, for now. But when Apple comes and starts taking revenue away from both Dish and Tablo because they make low-ish cost television mind-numbingly easy for the masses, it may make sense to team up to provide a compatible ecosystem (to Apple’s forthcoming service) with which to compete.
Apple never makes anything cheap. They monetize everything, I doubt their TV service will be cheaper than the Tablo. I know it’s sort of comparing apples and oranges when talking about OTA and OTT.
Agreed. (I’m one of the few people in the US that doesn’t want Apple to take over the world.) Thinking out loud, it might make more sense for Tablo (and OTT providers) to integrate with the ecosystem provider (Google for Android TV like SiliconDust has done; no equivalent for Ruko that I know of so it may be greenfield.)