The Revolution will be Televised…
My children prefer to download films (and TV series) and watch them on a laptop when they feel like it – rather than be bound by the dull old schedule of the box in the corner of the living room. And now it seems that the way we all watch television is about to be revolutionised…
Google are about to show off the fruits of their collaboration with various TV hardware partners at the Consumer Electronics Show next week in Las Vegas – and everyone knows that Apple are supposed to be launching a TV sometime this year.
All of which suggests that the time has come for our conventional assumptions about what a TV is (a screen connected to an aerial or a dish but nothing else) is about to change forever.
Exactly what this means to the TV industry is anyone’s guess at the moment – but you only have to look at what Apple did to the music and publishing industries to conclude that it may not turn out terribly well for our big old-fashioned broadcasters.
It’s pretty easy to see that some sort of connected TV that allows consumers to choose only the content they actually want (and probably ask for it by just talking to their Siri-controlled TV set) is going to be very attractive to viewers and not at all appealing – in fact, probably utterly terrifying – to the broadcasters and advertisers.
As Evan Niu of Motley Fool notes here: “As consumers ditch expensive cable TV packages for more affordable a la carte online offerings, content partners will have no choice but to give in to Cupertino. Again.”
