Unauthoritative Pronouncements

A while ago Jason Snell said that he would do a streamer box/dongle shoot-out on an episode of Upgrade, and today’s the day he hit publish. It’s well worth your time to read it, particularly if you aren’t as familiar with “the state of the art” in the streaming landscape. The last time I did a “device shoot-out” was in 2016, and none of the platforms are the same. I certainly stopped recommending Fire TVs, and only recommend Apple TVs.

My usage of the Fire TV completely fell by the wayside as they overhauled the interface to include more and more advertising. Prime Video also has ads. Everything. Has. Ads.

That Jason Snell was able to get an ad for a local mattress retailer is a pretty clear indicator that Amazon’s insatiable appetite for advertising has only increased. I even thought about reconnecting my Fire TV 4K stick so see how bad it’s gotten, but as Jason pointed out, no one’s paying me to use one.

I’ve never had personal experience with Google’s platform, and that is perhaps the most interesting section in Snell’s overview —from the perspective of someone that mostly uses Apple products. It’s not that I’m considering picking one up, but it’s just interesting.

I would caution Apple fans from skimming this and coming away with only the comforting affirmation that the Apple TV is the frontrunner in TV streaming boxes/dongles. Snell’s clearly demonstrated that the Apple TV isn’t a laggard, but he also outlined where the competition has a leg-up on Apple. Mark Gurman’s original racing analogy doesn’t work when you’re talking about devices with many features that each can excel or fall behind.

Jason’s conclusions about organizing apps and media in the same place, and about the need for a comprehensive live-guide are hardly shocking to me since that’s basically the drum I’ve been banging on for years. Maybe someone at Apple will be receptive to Jason’s comparisons?

While it’s easy for Apple fans (who are predisposed to not like, or expect ads) to point to the ads in Apple’s competition as a sign of poor quality in and of themselves, it’s worth remembering that people have different thresholds for frustration and trade-offs they will tolerate. Like I outlined in my piece for Six Colors about FAST, some people accept ads in an array of forms if their TV viewing experience is easy or inexpensive.

On a person-by-person basis there are certainly lines for what’s too much advertising, but no agreed upon quantitative or qualitative metric. Each person knows the “too much” line when they see it, and the companies all see numbers go up, or down, against other dollar signs, and engagement patterns before they decide to pull back, or push forward.

You know what they say: One man’s trash is another Mancini’s Sleep World.