Its early in the year and the talk is of acquisitions. With AOL buying the Huffington Post and Apple flush with cash, I wonder if it is time for Apple to make a purchase. The linked article describing Sirius's new website and link to iTunes makes me wonder, should this relationship be even more connected? Should Apple buy Sirius? Is it time for Apple to own a distribution platform?
A Sirius purchase would give Apple a mobile connection and perhaps lead to a stronger connection. And adding a Sirius subscription not only to the car but also to iPhones and iPods would be a consumer benefit. Could Sirius also drive video through its subscription, Apple would gain even more of a platform share.
But if not Sirius, the other platform that would seem to make sense for them could be Direct TV. Both in its reach and content delivery, it could add another dimension to Apple TV. The challenge of satellite, for both Sirius and Direct TV is the one way nature of the signal. Designing a solution to correct that issue would be another game changer in the entertainment and communication landscape. And I have no doubt that the folks at Apple are up to the task.
In the pay-TV industry it's not the "one way nature of the signal" that's a problem. It's the cost of bandwidth to support 2way communication. I can't speak about DirecTV, but I can say that DISH does have the ability to have 2-way communication with receivers - but there is an extra cost involved with that for the bandwidth so it doesn't really happen. Satellite bandwidth is very expensive so it's not cost effective to have constant 2-way communication.
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