In media, a new world is coming. One of the things I spend a lot of spare time thinking about is television, specifically how changes in tech are continuing to influence how we access and use video. As the internet evolves, I believe it is seems clear that the medium of choice for communication is increasingly video and already, most of the bandwidth being used on the net is for video rather than data or text. As the provision of bandwidth and faster speed continues to grow, it is also clear that traditional TV networks and channels will see their aggregate audience share decrease as more people migrate to the internet to source their programming. The roll-out of 4G capacity makes internet based video universally available via mobiles and tablets, a reach that traditional TV can never match. That, coupled with the infinite amount of video uploaded everyday by everyone, which dwarfs what the network model can produce, provides a platform for competition to old TV that is a game-changer. There was only one thing keeping the gargantuan monster at bay, the missing link between the big screen (ie: normal TV sets versus the little screens of PCs and mobiles) and this huge source of programming. Traditional networks controlled free-to-air and cable access to TV sets. There have been abortive devices over the years which have attempted to bridge the gap between internet and TV, but for the most part they have proven either expensive, clunky or unreliable. Now, all that has changed. With the arrival of simple casting usb sticks, the last yard between the TV and the greatest source of free programming known to man has disappeared. Chromecast and Ezcast are the most prominent of these soon to be ubiquitous and attractively cheap devices which will bring profound changes to what we see, how we see it and where it comes from. What has happened to the music business by the advent of digital media is about to happen to the TV Networks and unless they are nimble enough to re-invent themselves there are going to be major casualties. It is no accident that Chromecast is owned by Google, they also own Youtube and being the controllers of the largest amount of programming on the planet their ultimate aim is to control every screen, globally - which they will. This is already happening, profound change is coming, but also new opportunities. For anyone involved in producing media the time to re-align how you package and disseminate your productions is now. The window of opportunity exists because there is yet still one more missing link to complete the conquest of TV by the internet. The appropriate software to aid discovery of material to view from the limitless variety that exists, is not yet realised in its optimum form, despite the slick interfaces of Netflix and Hulu. The sheer scale of the video material on the internet means that we only pick a few random grains of sand from the vast desert of unknown programming out there, based on whim and googles recommendations mostly. This is why we waste so much time looking at silliness on Youtube rather than targeted viewing. The mechanism to guide us to what we want to see is still crude. Therein lies the opportunity and this is the space I play in. - wired/2014/04/youtube-campaigns-for-stars/
Posted on: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 18:49:40 +0000
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