Dave Horvath
19 Nov 2007 10:41
Adding another company to the list of people who wish to topple the success of Apple, Pioneer will soon launch a subscription based television service similar to iTunes dubbed SyncTV. For a monthly fee, subscribers will be able to download as many television shows as they desire for personal consumption.
The product will soon be rolling out for beta testing, but expect it to have a monthly fee in the range of $2 (£1/€1.50) and $4 (£2/€3) per month per television Channel. So subscribing to BBC1, BBC2 and BBC3 for instance could net you anywhere from 3 to 6 quid, if you live in that part of the world. The product is in testing right now and will begin its closed beta testing in January.
SyncTV president John Gildred stated that the service will deliver home theater quality television episodes with picture as good as DVD and possibly high definition.
Currently the format is an open one and doesn't have a particular piece of hardware in mind, like Apple's iPod, but Pioneer is currently attempting to court several hardware manufacturers to develop a device specifically for this service. Devices are expected to begin appearing sometime in 2008.
Source:
The Register