07 April, 2006
Where TV viewing is going!
Ok Ive been thinking(this doesn't happen often) about where I see TV heading in the future and what waves of change could hit us.
Tv shows and Movies have gone the way of MP3's every tom dick and harry (john: thomas, Richard and Harold) is downloading full length movies and and Tv shows soon after airing in the states (where most of the good stuff comes from)
bare with me here: I am curretly working at mnet and I check the schedules of shows that we have purchased from big studios, and I check when they are comign on air.
In the last 5 years the latency of shows airing in the states to them being aired on m-net has dropped from sometimes a year to now, for some shows a few months and as of yesterday a few weeks after their air date in the US to their airdate in South Africa.
The air date has got so short that we are having problems getting the Betacam tapes (what studios deliver in) from the studios to our broadcast centre's.
We have had to cancel our continuation of Alias (yes jenifer is hot) on air because our current show has now caught up with US air times.
Alias starts airing again this week in the states and we cannot put it on air because th enetwork will only send us the tapes after it has aired in the US.
So now this brings up an interesting point.
Let me set the scenario for all those people who crave a TV series fix way before its south African air date.
The need of these TV-holics (holds hand up) to download a show off bittorent or a friends drive or a news server(ty: nudge nudge) will reduce should the show air at the same time on local TV stations.
I would just set my PVR to do the recording, to watch in my own time on my TV without having to download or make any effort.
The movie/tv association does not like their shows being downloaded to countries where they could potentialy make money off selling the show to.
So herein is where I forsee TV evolving to.
Conventional broadcast television will still operate and I forsee there being a global broadcast time to all households. Timezones will no longer matter in large countries or continents.
You will control what you watch when you watch it using the PVR model.
All conventional broadcast channels will still operate sans boring bcommercials inbetween shows but rather clever product placement within shows. I see marketers clammering to buy product placement slots within "primetime" ( this idea will fall away) shows. Shows will now all be rated by the amount of recordings the PVRs globaly make, who will be able to report on this statistic.
Clever strapline advertising will start costing advertisers big bucks.
Advertisers will have to become more and more creative to have their adverts be in demand and lure viewers to watch it.
Shows will no longer be called primetime shows but "most tivo'ed shows" or highest rated or most thumbs up by the public (voting feature built into remotes).
This brings me to another point: Emersiveness
As we become more and more in control of our own viewing, watching when we want to watch, screens will become bigger and users will become more emersed in what they are watching hence the HD evolution.
In south africa consumers will drive the the networks to broadcast HD by purchasing the hardware, buying HD DVD players,blue ray and the gaming industry.
2007 WILL bring HD to South africa as by 2010 for the soccer world cup we have a mandate to broadcast the soccer in HD.
Users who download TV shows using the popular bit torrent client will notice HR versions of their favourite show. So the content is available in Hi Def but where are the Hi Def TV's.
I think the highest res plasma or LCD TV in most consumers reach ia around 1300 by 800 which is the lowest end of Hi Def.
Using a CRT gets you the resolution but where is the emersivness.
Projectors cost an arm and a leg!
Hi res laptop screens are your best bet for viewing a Hi Def right now.
The laptop screen is about 75cm from your eyes which makes it pretty emersive for 1 person but what about inviting your friends round to watch Lost in Hi def? you are not all gonna gather round a laptop are you?!
We need the importers of south africa to drive the Hi Def 1080p screens into our grasps.
Grey products? who cares "I want my HiDefTV"
NEXT!
If any of you actualy get round to readin this far down my Rant! well done!
A product I see revolutionising TV viewing.
Let me introduce it!
Now that I have covered watching TV when you want to and what you want lets get into WHERE YOU WANT!
The Sling box and Roc TV. 2 products very simalar but one is US (NTSC) and one is (PAL) UK.
They both do pretty much the same thing! Allow you to control your PVR from your phone!
Not only will it let you change a channel and set a recording on your PVR the will let you WATCH tv on your phone using your home ADSL line to broadcast the feed!
So now wherever you are, in a doctors office, on lunch, or commuting you can flip your phone and watch last night "Boston Legal" from the palm of your hand.
Sling box has a small limitation in that it needs a Hi speed phone (3g edge) where as the Roc player allows conventional 2.5g! YES you guessed it your current phone will support it!
Before you start googleing roc.tv let me just tell you it is still in trial and will be launching soon.
Don't bother with sling box they have are still in trial of the PAL version of their hardware.
All this cool geeky stuff just makes me more excited about where we will be in 3 years time, or for that matter next year?
Anyhow the blog is just way way too long anyhow.
*wave*
Tv shows and Movies have gone the way of MP3's every tom dick and harry (john: thomas, Richard and Harold) is downloading full length movies and and Tv shows soon after airing in the states (where most of the good stuff comes from)
bare with me here: I am curretly working at mnet and I check the schedules of shows that we have purchased from big studios, and I check when they are comign on air.
In the last 5 years the latency of shows airing in the states to them being aired on m-net has dropped from sometimes a year to now, for some shows a few months and as of yesterday a few weeks after their air date in the US to their airdate in South Africa.
The air date has got so short that we are having problems getting the Betacam tapes (what studios deliver in) from the studios to our broadcast centre's.
We have had to cancel our continuation of Alias (yes jenifer is hot) on air because our current show has now caught up with US air times.
Alias starts airing again this week in the states and we cannot put it on air because th enetwork will only send us the tapes after it has aired in the US.
So now this brings up an interesting point.
Let me set the scenario for all those people who crave a TV series fix way before its south African air date.
The need of these TV-holics (holds hand up) to download a show off bittorent or a friends drive or a news server(ty: nudge nudge) will reduce should the show air at the same time on local TV stations.
I would just set my PVR to do the recording, to watch in my own time on my TV without having to download or make any effort.
The movie/tv association does not like their shows being downloaded to countries where they could potentialy make money off selling the show to.
So herein is where I forsee TV evolving to.
Conventional broadcast television will still operate and I forsee there being a global broadcast time to all households. Timezones will no longer matter in large countries or continents.
You will control what you watch when you watch it using the PVR model.
All conventional broadcast channels will still operate sans boring bcommercials inbetween shows but rather clever product placement within shows. I see marketers clammering to buy product placement slots within "primetime" ( this idea will fall away) shows. Shows will now all be rated by the amount of recordings the PVRs globaly make, who will be able to report on this statistic.
Clever strapline advertising will start costing advertisers big bucks.
Advertisers will have to become more and more creative to have their adverts be in demand and lure viewers to watch it.
Shows will no longer be called primetime shows but "most tivo'ed shows" or highest rated or most thumbs up by the public (voting feature built into remotes).
This brings me to another point: Emersiveness
As we become more and more in control of our own viewing, watching when we want to watch, screens will become bigger and users will become more emersed in what they are watching hence the HD evolution.
In south africa consumers will drive the the networks to broadcast HD by purchasing the hardware, buying HD DVD players,blue ray and the gaming industry.
2007 WILL bring HD to South africa as by 2010 for the soccer world cup we have a mandate to broadcast the soccer in HD.
Users who download TV shows using the popular bit torrent client will notice HR versions of their favourite show. So the content is available in Hi Def but where are the Hi Def TV's.
I think the highest res plasma or LCD TV in most consumers reach ia around 1300 by 800 which is the lowest end of Hi Def.
Using a CRT gets you the resolution but where is the emersivness.
Projectors cost an arm and a leg!
Hi res laptop screens are your best bet for viewing a Hi Def right now.
The laptop screen is about 75cm from your eyes which makes it pretty emersive for 1 person but what about inviting your friends round to watch Lost in Hi def? you are not all gonna gather round a laptop are you?!
We need the importers of south africa to drive the Hi Def 1080p screens into our grasps.
Grey products? who cares "I want my HiDefTV"
NEXT!
If any of you actualy get round to readin this far down my Rant! well done!
A product I see revolutionising TV viewing.
Let me introduce it!
Now that I have covered watching TV when you want to and what you want lets get into WHERE YOU WANT!
The Sling box and Roc TV. 2 products very simalar but one is US (NTSC) and one is (PAL) UK.
They both do pretty much the same thing! Allow you to control your PVR from your phone!
Not only will it let you change a channel and set a recording on your PVR the will let you WATCH tv on your phone using your home ADSL line to broadcast the feed!
So now wherever you are, in a doctors office, on lunch, or commuting you can flip your phone and watch last night "Boston Legal" from the palm of your hand.
Sling box has a small limitation in that it needs a Hi speed phone (3g edge) where as the Roc player allows conventional 2.5g! YES you guessed it your current phone will support it!
Before you start googleing roc.tv let me just tell you it is still in trial and will be launching soon.
Don't bother with sling box they have are still in trial of the PAL version of their hardware.
All this cool geeky stuff just makes me more excited about where we will be in 3 years time, or for that matter next year?
Anyhow the blog is just way way too long anyhow.
*wave*
