January 16

Our Changing World – Internet TV

My children will not remember a TV without a Net connection. The boys are 5 and almost 2. By the time they are 10, all TVs will connect to the Net natively.

Sony just released a new TV that reads RSS channels. This means the couch potato will be able to surf from a La-z-boy with little to no hassle. One could do it, now, but it requires a bit of technical know-how.

Yahoo just cut a deal with an Internet TV firm. Brightcove delivers video for content owners and producers. Like IFC and National Geographic.

I’m sure many services will pop up over the next few years.

We already have provider options, but there’s a bandwidth issue. Depending on who you talk to this is an issue or its not. I don’t think it is yet because there’s not a high penetration of heavy bandwidth home users. As soon as its easy for the average person to access the content, then the home Net providers will want to raise rates.

The biggest issue I see is content. With the ability to spawn (and I use that term on purpose) new channels because one can, people may create a channel and not think about populating it. We all know what that looks like — Law & Order on 15 different channels. While Law & Order is a show in demand, some of the content for these insta-channels may not be as desired.

There will be a proliferation of insta-channels and a bunch of people who see low- to no-talent shows and be turned off. Then, like the web, people will create guides to channels and shows. Eventually, it’ll all balance out and we’ll wonder why there’s nothing to watch on one million channels.

(I bet Google owns the ad network for many of these channels, too.)