Future of Television (restated)

My remarks about the “Future of Television” at Georgia Tech’s Future Media Fest this week included the following points.

• I hate the future: It’s always wrong.
• Content is always shaped by business model.
• Business models are defined by technology trends that create opportunity.
• Opportunity is another word for disruption.
• In the age of the Internet, if you are not disrupting, you are disrupted.
• The evidence is in consumer behavior.
• The future of the Internet is television, or to be more precise, video, some of which comes from traditional TV suppliers, and much of which no longer does.
• Tech trends are enabling new business models, which in turn empower new content models, such as:
• It costs less to capture and process video
• Broadband connectivity is widespread, even more so outside the U.S.
• Video compression makes mobile content possible
• IP massively distributes networks for both programs and ads & creates new models.
• Content is costing less, not only because of cheap tools and broader distribution of producers, but also because fees are going down (just look at reality TV trend).
• Most importantly, consumer behavior has changed.
• Three current buckets can help us understand the immediate future:
  • CONNECTED TV…(track consumer electronics companies like Samsung, LG, Sony, Panasonic, Philips and new box providers including Apple, Google, Roku, Boxee and over-the-top superstars like Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, and others.
  • SOCIAL TV… Check-in sites like Miso, GetGlue, IntoNow, Tunerfish, Beyond TV are being joined by next-gen apps likeZeebox, Watchpoints, Frequency,
  • EXPANDED TV… is my name for companion apps to individual shows or networks. Companies in this space include Media Sync (Nielsen), Shazam, Sidebar, Facebook, YouTube, Android/ioS/Siri, cable’sTV Everywhere initiative, (HBO Go), and Ultraviolet/Flixster.

Comments

[Lance Morrisey]

True, with all the changes today the biggest change would probably be on the consumer's side. People are more particular and skeptic at the same time.