The Future of TV is the Internet
I turn on my Wii. It connects to the internet via my home wireless network and downloads the latest updates or allows me to purchase and download old console games. I log on to hulu.com and watch hours of TV shows and even full-length movies. Why can't the two come together? They certain will, maybe even by the end of the year.
In my random thoughts post a few days ago, I quickly noted that the death of cable may be around the corner. While that's still a ways off, we may be closer than we think. The cards are certainly starting to line up. There were two announcements in the last couple of days that are very relevant. First, Intel and Adobe announced that they are teamming up to work on embedding Adobe Flash support into TVs. Flash Video is the number one way people watch video online and Flash itself would enable rich internet-driven content to appear on TVs that could be controlled by remote controls or a Wii-like mouse (more likely the two devices will be one and the same soon). The second big announcement is that Netflix and LG have worked out a deal where new LG televisions will connect to WiFi networks to allow you to seamlessly download and watch Netflix movies on your TV! Freaking awesome... this is the direction we are going.
In the very near future all sorts of devices are going to come WiFi-enabled. Specific to the living room, within a few years every television, DVR box, gaming console, Bluray player, and audio receiver are going to have this capability. Firstly, these devices are going to continue to come together. If you have a PS3 then you don't need a Bluray player. This consolidation of devices is good because you don't want five different boxes. Potentially your TV could also serve as your DVR as hard disks get cheaper and smaller.
So picture this... your TV talks to the internet (either itself through its own wifi or wifi in the DVR) and through your broadband connection streams all of your video content: movies, news, tv shows, YouTube videos, etc. Regular television networks will start to stream their content directly online live (why aren't they already doing this??) and your TV connects directly to this stream. You set up your favorite channels, so you can still channel surf from one internet TV stream to another... just as you do with your TV now.
The cable company is no longer in the loop--except for perhaps providing your internet connection. We are no longer bound to a finite number of channels that the cable company can contract with or the cable line can deliver. TV delivery is suddenly a lot cheaper and a lot more democratized. You can literally watch any network you want... no longer do you have to hope your cable company will pick up that niche channel that you like that you'd have to subscribe to a satellite service to get access to.
No longer are you limited to the on-demand movies that your cable company is streaming this month. You can access a complete library of basically any movie ever made and watch it instantly. This could be done via Netflix as a subscription service or just like you do now on your cable box as a pay-per-view rental.
As a sports fan, you have access to watch any game that is being broadcast anywhere because it is all being streamed online so again you're not limited by your geographic location.
During the game, you can pull up a side bar or have a scrolling ticker at the bottom of your screen that shows the latest news headlines, stock ticker, incoming emails, or other data you choose to have on your custom feed. If you see something you like, you merely pick up the remote control and point it on the screen. The universal remote works not only as it does today but also functions as a mouse like the Wiimote does. You hover over the ticker and it stops scrolling, allowing you to click on that email that just came in. The game you are watching shrinks to a picture-in-picture mode and your email pops up. You read it on the screen and decide to reply later, close the email, and your game is back on.
This is coming.... soon. Maybe even in 2009.
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