Exploding TV (continued)

I have this vision that someday soon we'll sit in front of our TV and we'll face a screen that looks like this:

1) Cable/Satellite

2)  Internet

3) Stored Shows

The point being that today cable is the way we get TV.  In the future, it's going to be one of options, but not the only option.  We'll have a media server somewhere in our house that has the DVDs we've bought and ripped, the videos we've acquired by Bit Torrent or some other means, and the stuff we've bought via digital download over the Internet.  That will be our stored content.

There will also be the option of watching live video over the Internet.  In the past week a half, there has been a huge amount of streaming Tsunami video watching.  But that's happening on PCs.  Why won't that activity move to TVs?  It will.

Sometime in the late 80s, I told my brothers that someday all the music we owned would be able to be stored on PC hard drive and that's the way we'd listen to our music.  I didn't go one step further to the iPod, but at least I had a sense of where it was going.

And I am pretty certain that TV is going in this direction too.

Comments

[Bryan Surface]

Good post. I think what is going on in communications today is revolutionary. Not just with cable/satellite programming, but the evolution of satellite radio, VoIP, VOD, Wi-fi, and Wi-max.

Makes me want to re-evaluate some of the late 90's early 2000 long-haul, fiber-optic network operators who were way too early, but did not necessarily think way too big.

[Brad]

I think you stopped one step short of where we will end up. I don't think we will know or care how the content gets to us.. Cable, Internet, local storage. We will focus only on what it is we want to watch or listen to. The interesting question is how we will know what we want.

Ultimately it will be a combination of programming guides, collaborative filtering, shared playlists, and search. I suspect you will use one of these techniques to choose, and then something like Google desktop will look accross your own stuff and across all of the other suppliers to find it.

Then the question is how will what is delivered be paid for.

[Chris]

Media Center 2005 PCs offer all what you describe (and more) right now. And now they can sit in the study where they belong, streaming to slim CE devices ("Extenders") at each TV. Microsoft finally got it right and, I suspect, will now push to make them ubiquitous.

[drazen]

Great post! I have the similar vision to, and am torking towards it. Feel that the upstream (and video publishing) is going to be increasingly important, since after a while people are going to want to post their own stuff...

Working model: DV Guide (dv.open4all.info)
Concept: www.open4all.info

[alain]

You are right on. However, the interesting thing is that the US is truly backwards in some aspects. Wireless is one. Adsl is another. In France, a few million people have been watching TV over ADSL for over a year now with unlimited voice and up to 8 MB/s Internet access.

So the future of the US is already here in Europe and of course in Japan. I just wish more euro and asian companies got VC funding in the US.

[Alex Rowland]

I have to agree with Brad somewhaat as to the concern for the consumer re: the source of the content. However, the iPod demonstrates that old habits die hard (consumers still like to own their music, even though this does not make complete economic sense).

My issue is really with Akimbo. While I believe that similar devices will ultimately be the gateway to a world of content, I find it curious that Akimbo plans to do so using their own device. I understand they are moving towards a more open model of partnering with Microsoft (MCE2005) and some cablecos to deliver their content through these devices. But they are still asking for ~$13/month for the service. The last I checked, TiVo burnt a $half billion or so trying to execute the same business model with a much higher value proposition for the consumer. I'm curious to find out what anyone thinks of Akimbo and more importantly, their business model.

[tony]

Have you heard of the PCTVT -- the vision you express is partially going out to trial in Rural India?
http://west.cmu.edu/executive/pdc/projects/pctvt/pctvt.htm

[Josh Goldman]

Good comments and discussion...

To Alex Rowland - we do have our own branded Akimbo device but believe that the vast majority of consumers will come by getting Akimbo via integrated devices that we enable to receive our programs. We've announced XP Media Center deployment for Q3 this year, and will announce partnerships for other consumer devices this year as well. Think all types of STBs and devices you may already have that connect to a TV. Enabling those devices to receive Akimbo content has always been the strategy and you'll see it this year...

--Josh Goldman
CEO, Akimbo Systems, Inc.

[petit dejeuner]

petit dejeuner - piercing - piercings - porc - postale - postales - poulet - quicktime - realplayer - recette - recettes - repas