One in five broadband-enabled homes will own the means to watch internet-based videos on their regular TV's by the end of this year, according to new analysis from Emerging Media Dynamics. The report is based on reviews of the widespread usage of devices like Apple TV, the XBox 360 and Sling Media's 'SlingCatcher.' Over 72-million homes – that's two-thirds of the nation's entire TV marketplace – are projected to have PC/TV hybrid capacity within ten years.
This is news. And in my book those figures are modest, and conservatively long-term. The internet is the single greatest technological adjunct to the human experience in at least 50 years. The web and its many facets have touched and transformed every aspect of human interaction...and we've barely scratched the surface. Make no mistake - Fifty years from now, people will regard the current technology with the same quaint incomprehension as we reserve for silent movies and phones with a dial.
Until the late 60's, all TV was live. The audience were obliged to be sitting down and paying attention at a time chosen [dictated] by the Network, or miss the show entirely. Sponsors and advertisers salivated at the prospect of these legions of eyeballs who couldn't dare move. The 1970's brought the remote, and that wondrous device known as the VCR, and this dictatorial stranglehold vanished. Now the audience were free to watch what, and when they wanted. And they've never looked back.
Times change, and VCR's are now being supplanted by DVR's and the Media Center PC - a perfect melange of PC and TV in one powerful unit. The new-found convenience has been both the key, and the single, unstoppable driving force the entire time, and convergence is its natural twin. For the networks, this is no longer an option, it's a life-saving mantra; Give the audience what they like, when and how they want it and your survival is [almost] assured. Ignore this simple credo and by one means or other, you will inexorably perish.
With Citizen Journalists, YouTube, Camera Phones and the endless growth of technology and bandwidth, the prognosis for the Internet is almost as enticing as that for its most apposite medium. Between them, they have achieved a level of acceptance and evolution that would leave even our own Grandparents aghast and amazed.
The only question is, can we keep pace.
This is news. And in my book those figures are modest, and conservatively long-term. The internet is the single greatest technological adjunct to the human experience in at least 50 years. The web and its many facets have touched and transformed every aspect of human interaction...and we've barely scratched the surface. Make no mistake - Fifty years from now, people will regard the current technology with the same quaint incomprehension as we reserve for silent movies and phones with a dial.
Until the late 60's, all TV was live. The audience were obliged to be sitting down and paying attention at a time chosen [dictated] by the Network, or miss the show entirely. Sponsors and advertisers salivated at the prospect of these legions of eyeballs who couldn't dare move. The 1970's brought the remote, and that wondrous device known as the VCR, and this dictatorial stranglehold vanished. Now the audience were free to watch what, and when they wanted. And they've never looked back.
Times change, and VCR's are now being supplanted by DVR's and the Media Center PC - a perfect melange of PC and TV in one powerful unit. The new-found convenience has been both the key, and the single, unstoppable driving force the entire time, and convergence is its natural twin. For the networks, this is no longer an option, it's a life-saving mantra; Give the audience what they like, when and how they want it and your survival is [almost] assured. Ignore this simple credo and by one means or other, you will inexorably perish.
With Citizen Journalists, YouTube, Camera Phones and the endless growth of technology and bandwidth, the prognosis for the Internet is almost as enticing as that for its most apposite medium. Between them, they have achieved a level of acceptance and evolution that would leave even our own Grandparents aghast and amazed.
The only question is, can we keep pace.
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