The Future of Television

The Future of Television Kyle Gillingham The Future of Television …is online …is mobile …is on-demand Mobile Television • iTunes, iPods, PSPs, cell phones, etc… • PC video  TV • AppleTV Television Online • Broadband internet everywhere • Streaming video • Full episodes online • Easy to access and watch • Downsides: quality, limited selection, ads New Technologies • Peer-to-peer (P2P) software • Easy sharing of files • Allows illegal distribution of recorded television shows • BitTorrent • P2P protocol that enables fast distribution of files • Released in 2001 • By 2004 it was estimated to account for 35% of Internet traffic BitTorrenting TV • Benefits • Free • No advertisements • Easy to find and download • No digital rights management • Good quality • Transferable to other devices • On-demand • Access to television from other countries The Downside • Illegal • No advertisements, no money made • People expect TV to be free • It is pointless to try to convince us otherwise • So what do we do? Piracy is Good? • Presentation by Mark Pesce • Technology writer, researcher, and teacher • He believes we can use this technology to satisfy audiences while still making money Hyperdistribution • We have a very effective way to distribute content to a huge audience • TV producers want their shows to be watched as widely as possible, because for them, audiences equal money • The broadcasters have two main jobs: • Broadcast the television • Connect the producers with the advertisers • Then is the broadcaster really necessary? Hyperdistribution • Why don’t the producers distribute their shows themselves (online) and deal with advertisers directly? • Advertisers could pay less for ad time, and producers would probably even make more money than they do now Better Advertisements • Another problem that can be addressed is the annoying advertisements we see today • They interrupt the program for several minutes at a time • They are too easy to ignore or skip through • Solution: use a “bug”/watermark • Use an easily recognizable logo • Constant, unobtrusive reminder • Could swap advertisers every 5 minutes or so The Future • Of course, these changes would occur gradually • Conventional TV won’t die out overnight • But these new technologies like BitTorrent aren’t going away either, so it is up to those in the television industry to learn to adapt and use it to their benefit Questions?