Our take...
By developing the TakeTV device in conjunction with the Fanfare store SanDisk recognised the importance of providing an easy way for consumers to watch paid-for digital content on the television screen. However, the company failed to make either aspect of the Fanfare/TakeTV ecosystem sufficiently compelling to attract consumers.

The catalogue available through the Fanfare store lacked depth – no new content providers have been announced since the addition of shows from NBCU in December 2007. The associated hardware was expensive – retailing at $99.99 (€64) for a 4GB USB device capable of storing just five hours of video. The demise of the TakeTV is yet another demonstration of the unwillingness of consumers to purchase a device whose sole purpose is to transfer video from the PC to the television.

The few content owners who supported the Fanfare project are likely to have been attracted by the variable pricing structure used to sell video through the store. At a time when NBCU had removed its TV content from iTunes over a dispute on Apple's fixed pricing policy, Fanfare provided an alternative outlet with the potential to reduce Apple's dominance of the paid-for digital video market. Since then Apple has begun experimenting with variable pricing for TV shows and this change in strategy may encourage more content owners to offer video through iTunes. A limited selection of series from NBCU are now available through the UK iTunes store, possibly paving the way for a return to Apple's US platform.