Future Watch
I know I've written this anecdote before, but bear with me - it still has merit.
Several years ago, I worked for public television. At that time, there were broadcast channels only, though there was this pesky little thing called "cable" that had been introduced in some areas where broadcast tv was difficult to get.
We, of course, were asking people to make contributions to PBS to keep it functioning, and keep the programs on air in our locality that people most liked. The idea of "paying" for television had to be defended, since most tv was free. Well, free in the sense that advertisers paid for the privilege of being able to interrupt your programming with commercial messages every so often. You endured the messages, but in return you got "free" tv.
Along came cable, and people were convinced this would never fly because who in their right mind was going to pay for a service that had previously been free?
Well, cable didn't necessarily come with commercials, for one thing! Just like PBS, shows ran without interruption, creating a whole new approach to watching television. HBO was probably the most powerful entree into our homes, uninterrupted movies, right at home.
A man I worked with at PBS used to make a speech about how one day, in the not-too-distant future, we would be paying $100 a month to have television in our homes, and we'd think nothing of it. People thought this was amusing, but unlikely.
Fast foward to 2011, and not only do we pay for cable, but we pay for internet service, and we have integrated the two in ways that even that prescient man could not have foreseen.
For example, I have Apple TV in my home. What's that? A simple little device that ties your wireless router (your internet access) to your television set. Now, you can watch - on your HD TV - pretty much anything that you can watch via the Internet. Hence, Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, the various networks, and even the iTunes store for really recent releases. It sets up in seconds, and you can access it quite easily. The quality of the streaming is fairly reliable - every so often you get a little glitch in a Netflix movie, but in general, I have no complaints.
Prior to getting this, I had hooked an old laptop up to one of my tvs. The laptop was tied into my wireless router, and thus to the Internet. However, what I could see what limited by the quality of the laptop itself. Not so with Apple TV. The upper limit is the download speed of your ISP, and the quality of your wireless router.
And while you do have to pay for iTunes movies, and subscribe (for a very nominal fee) for Netflix movies (especially if you opt for the streaming only), once you've purchased your Apple TV, that's it.
There have been many scenarios proposed for how we will view our at-home entertainment: media servers (where we store the content we "own"), tuners we add to our computers (to pick up television via computer), obviously the in-store rental of movies and shows (replaced rather quickly with the mail-to-you version).
I'm guessing that the more likely scenario will be on-demand subscription based, home-broadcast programming that's accessed via our computers, broadcast via our wireless home networks, and paid for by fees based on usage.
What's your idea?
Several years ago, I worked for public television. At that time, there were broadcast channels only, though there was this pesky little thing called "cable" that had been introduced in some areas where broadcast tv was difficult to get.
We, of course, were asking people to make contributions to PBS to keep it functioning, and keep the programs on air in our locality that people most liked. The idea of "paying" for television had to be defended, since most tv was free. Well, free in the sense that advertisers paid for the privilege of being able to interrupt your programming with commercial messages every so often. You endured the messages, but in return you got "free" tv.
Along came cable, and people were convinced this would never fly because who in their right mind was going to pay for a service that had previously been free?
Well, cable didn't necessarily come with commercials, for one thing! Just like PBS, shows ran without interruption, creating a whole new approach to watching television. HBO was probably the most powerful entree into our homes, uninterrupted movies, right at home.
A man I worked with at PBS used to make a speech about how one day, in the not-too-distant future, we would be paying $100 a month to have television in our homes, and we'd think nothing of it. People thought this was amusing, but unlikely.
Fast foward to 2011, and not only do we pay for cable, but we pay for internet service, and we have integrated the two in ways that even that prescient man could not have foreseen.
For example, I have Apple TV in my home. What's that? A simple little device that ties your wireless router (your internet access) to your television set. Now, you can watch - on your HD TV - pretty much anything that you can watch via the Internet. Hence, Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, the various networks, and even the iTunes store for really recent releases. It sets up in seconds, and you can access it quite easily. The quality of the streaming is fairly reliable - every so often you get a little glitch in a Netflix movie, but in general, I have no complaints.
Prior to getting this, I had hooked an old laptop up to one of my tvs. The laptop was tied into my wireless router, and thus to the Internet. However, what I could see what limited by the quality of the laptop itself. Not so with Apple TV. The upper limit is the download speed of your ISP, and the quality of your wireless router.
And while you do have to pay for iTunes movies, and subscribe (for a very nominal fee) for Netflix movies (especially if you opt for the streaming only), once you've purchased your Apple TV, that's it.
There have been many scenarios proposed for how we will view our at-home entertainment: media servers (where we store the content we "own"), tuners we add to our computers (to pick up television via computer), obviously the in-store rental of movies and shows (replaced rather quickly with the mail-to-you version).
I'm guessing that the more likely scenario will be on-demand subscription based, home-broadcast programming that's accessed via our computers, broadcast via our wireless home networks, and paid for by fees based on usage.
What's your idea?
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