Future of TV (curated by Jeremy Toeman)

Smart TVs have a serious communication problem

jtoeman — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:12:18 +0000

Smart TVs are the new fashionable thing for popular TV-manufacturing companies to push on consumers. But we’ve still yet to see a really compelling, easy-to-use product trotted out—from CES or anywhere else. The more rounds that smart TVs go on the shelves at electronics expos, the more they seem to suffer from the same fundamental problem: a failure to communicate, or more appropriately, a failure to receive communication.

Binge Programming: How Netflix's 'House of Cards' Changes the Game

jtoeman — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:09:07 +0000

More than anything, the debut -- all 13 episodes -- of Netflix's "House of Cards" raises questions about what the binge viewing approach to programming will mean for TV as we know it. For those who haven't experienced binge viewing, it's what happens when you have an entire season of TV shows on DVDs or a streaming service and can watch as many episodes as you want.

The TV Business: A Primer For The Uninformed

jtoeman — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 01:23:13 +0000

It’s a relentless drumbeat: the TV industry is dead. It’s just like the music industry. 20somethings are avoiding the cord. I want HBO a la carte. YouTube will kill cable. The TV industry is dead.

Prediction: Cord Nevers Become Cord Getters

jtoeman — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:59:27 +0000

As the phenomenon of predicting the death of TV via cord cutters is waning, it’s being replaced by a plausible (at first) sounding theory: cord nevers. Whereas a cord cutter is one who cancels their Pay-TV service for free/streaming alternatives, a cord never is, roughly, a person under the age of 22 who, upon renting their first apartment after college, never subscribes for TV services in the first place. My theory at this point is these people may live happily cable-free for a year or few, but sooner or later, they’ll pay.

Why TV everywhere will kill what’s best about TV

jtoeman — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 22:49:47 +0000

As the primary way of watching TV shifts from a traditional broadcast, linear, scheduled, single-device mode to one that is all on-demand, on all devices, available at any time, anywhere, the consumer’s TV watching world is suddenly filled with a curse of choices. If everything we watch requires us to navigate menus, pick from lists, and choose, choose, choose — TV watching is in danger of losing its primary function: escapism.

Navigating What Intel Did (And Did Not) Announce About TV at CES

jtoeman — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:21:43 +0000

I’ve been trying to complete an opinion piece about Intel and TV. Unfortunately, the news landscape keeps making right turns and I’m having to rewrite this as it does. Hopefully, I can bring a bit of clarity to the news of the last couple weeks and describe why Intel’s virtual MSO plans are going to find a hard road ahead.

Why the HBO/Universal deal is VERY important

jtoeman — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 23:30:26 +0000

HBO and Universal just renewed a distribution deal. For the next 10 years. If you are in any ways connected to the TV industry, be it for the past, present, or future of it, this is quite significant. Why?

The only thing that could kill TV? TV itself.

jtoeman — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:23:29 +0000

It’s fun to write about the “death of TV” (or flip flop on it, whatever). Why it’s so fun, I’m not sure, but I have a hunch it’s because… It’s a HUGE industry ($500+B/year if not more) It’s been utterly untouched by the Internet (so far – a thing that really rankles a lot of people, mostly tech bloggers) The newspaper and music industries both got trashed, so why not TV too? It’s controlled by a very small number of extremely powerful and wealthy companies The aforementioned companies have a perception of (a) greedy profiteering, (b) being dinosaurs, and (c) restricting people from doing whatever they want with content, which also tends to rankle said tech bloggers

10 Predictions for the Second Screen Industry in 2013

jtoeman — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:18:54 +0000

It seems that technology triggers are often accompanied by the hype of future potential benefits, while the real value is elusive and slower to appear than industry journalists, analysts, or pundits would like, but I am going to lay out 10 scenarios that will develop in this still nascent industry during 2013.

Is TV the new rock?

jtoeman — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 20:10:42 +0000

Television has been a lot of things in its 60-some-year life, but one thing it was not, until this century, with certain rule-proving exceptions, was cool. It was the home of "Father Knows Best" and "The Andy Williams Show," "Dynasty" and "The Dukes of Hazzard" — something for the whole family to enjoy, when three broadcast networks ruled the nation and competed for viewers of all ages.