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I attended the Future of Television 2009 conference last week in New York City. What a great year to attend, with the entire television industry in a state of upheaval. More and more television content will be viewed online or mobile and more and more online content will be viewed on your television. Platform will eventually become irrelevant.
The Future of Television conference was hosted by Digital Media Wire, and its CEO and President, Ned Sherman. Shelly Palmer, the host of MediaBytes and author of "Television Disrupted", began with talking about TV, the art form, not the platform. By 2020, do we want the U.S. to be the best broadcast country in the world or the best broadband country? Broadcast is dying. Local TV is having its worst year ever. The business of the networks is changing.
David Oxenford, a media lawyer from Davis Wright Tremaine spoke about the seven big issues pending in Washington:
- Its all broadband all the time at the FCC
- The coming spectrum battle - more spectrum is needed for wireless broadband
- Net Neutrality - Should all content be treated alike.
- Piracy and Content protection - We've seen music piracy and royalty disputes. How hard will video be hit? What about user generated content?
- Privacy - Privacy vs. Censorship. Do targeted ads invade our privacy?
- Disclosure - Sponsorship rules, new rules hold bloggers to a higher standard than traditional media. Disclosure issue permeates all other discussions.
- Content Regulation - Should there be platform parity? Why should cable and satellite get away with what broadcast can't?
A panel of top industry executives discussed monetization and consumer experience. Online is the only platform in which advertising can be controlled. On TV sets, DVRs have taken that away. Nielsen is working on adding online viewing their ratings. Right now there is a divergence of content systems by platform. Pay TV, online video, on demand, etc. all need to come together. However, will the younger generation buy into paying for TV?
The Convergence of the Internet and TV panel said that by 2013, close to 60% of consumers will have connected television. But with this access, we will need help controlling and organizing all of this content from all over that we can now view on our television sets. New web connected devices by companies such as Boxee and Sezmi are being made to fill this need. Linear TV is ending. Everything eventually will be all on demand. Consumers will play the role of network executive by creating their own lineup of what to watch. But we are not there yet. People aren't ready to give up their cable.The two things that are critical for TV to move forward are getting content on all screens and being able to anywhere and anytime. The Apple iStore for apps experience should be emulated for TV.
What is the future of online videos? Will it eventually all be available on televisions and mobile devices? Will it be free or for a fee? How big will social media be on the television set? Facebook and Twitter are coming to TV. What do you think of that?
Television will be personalized. GoTV is trying to help consumers make their watching more personalized by specializing in making made-for-mobile television programming. An International standard audio/video number is being developed (like a bar code) to help organize content. There is already a mandatory identifier in place for blu-ray discs. These identifiers will make it much easier for TV guides to be made that include all of your content. Viewership of Hulu is up but has not taken viewers away from TV viewing. Many users have found new shows on Hulu.
The main idea that the Future of Television conference 2009 communicated is that the TV industry is changing rapidly and is going to be completely tied together with the Internet and mobile in the not very distant future. The future of television is going to be very different from your parents TV. Stay tuned to further articles arising from the Future of Television conference.
See also: Millennials and the Future of Television
Comments
This is pretty lazy reporting. Of all media-related topics, “The future of television” is a giant question mark; but this article makes definitive pronouncements: “Platform will become irrelevant.” “Linear TV is ending. Everything eventually will be all on demand.” “Television will be personalized [by making it mobile].”
Maybe… maybe not.
Yes, we all know “TV is changing rapidly,” but beware the people who tell you they know where it’s going. They didn’t know in 1996, when Time Warner launched the first true digital On-Demand TV platform; they didn’t know in 2000, when the dot-com bubble burst… and they don’t know now.
Parroting what you overheard at a conference as some kind of definitive truth lacks any degree of critical thinking. (And how hard is it to spell “Nielsen”?)
Ken, I'm sorry that I spelled Nielsen wrong. Other than that, this article was not meant to analyze what I learned at the conference. I was merely reporting what was discussed there. This is not an editorial or even a blog. I am reporting the news. I think that many people will find it interesting to see what some of the top people in the industry discussed.
I'm sorry, I re-read this now and it's pretty rude, especially the "Nielsen" comment. Not my intention. But I still feel that it's not really reporting, but repeating, in very definitive terms, opinions presented as facts. This is very complicated stuff, and it's presented here with no ambiguity or complexity at all -- not even, "This is what was said," but "This is where we are headed."
Ken - if Jennifer did critique what was reported at the conference, wouldn't that then be commentary and not news? While you might not agree with what was said, it seems that Jennifer made it clear she was just reporting....maybe it's lazy reporting or maybe it's just regurgitating what she heard. In either case, I found the article interesting. Jennifer - I'll look forward to hearing what else was said.
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