Future of TV is big and simple
Source: Agencies |
December 4, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
TV executives are predicting that in the future, televisions will be as thin as paper, can stretch across entire walls in the home and will be voice controlled - to name but a few of the advances mentioned.
However, not all agree on details - some, like Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman, warned big changes could take more than five years given that people tend to have "a very optimistic view of how quickly and widely devices will be adopted."
But there was broad consensus that the act of relaxing in the living room to watch TV was not about to go away. Indeed, executives said the experience will only grow richer, and hopefully simpler.
"You don't want in the future for people to have to have a PhD in device management to use their media products," said Time Warner Inc Chief Executive Jeffrey Bewkes.
Speaking in Paris, Frederic Rose, CEO of French set-top box maker Technicolor, said that in five years' time he hoped the living room would feature one big-screen TV, one remote, and one set-top box that allowed viewers to connect to the Internet, watch live TV, and search for videos and movies.
"Today it can often take a dozen clicks to find one news program," he said. "There are too many boxes, too many remotes, and too much hardware."
Confusing remote controls were the most frequently mentioned problem with the current TV experience.
"The typical remote control is not useful for playing video games. The video game controller is not useful for watching films. Neither of those is useful for searching. They are dumb controllers," said Bobby Kotick, chief executive of Activision Blizzard Inc, the video game company behind "Call of Duty."
He and others said that would have to change if the TV were ever to blossom into a screen where consumers could not only watch shows and play games, but could also write emails, video chat with friends, read the newspaper or shop online for groceries.
Another gaming executive and media industry veteran, Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc, said one critical feature for consumers is that all their entertainment devices be "wireless, synced, compatible, pretty seamless and plug-and-play," meaning they do not require constant calls to a helpdesk.
As for the television itself, he predicted that "you've got a very large-format flatscreen television in the living room that is almost like wallpaper, not quite. Very high-quality, very high-definition."
However, not all agree on details - some, like Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman, warned big changes could take more than five years given that people tend to have "a very optimistic view of how quickly and widely devices will be adopted."
But there was broad consensus that the act of relaxing in the living room to watch TV was not about to go away. Indeed, executives said the experience will only grow richer, and hopefully simpler.
"You don't want in the future for people to have to have a PhD in device management to use their media products," said Time Warner Inc Chief Executive Jeffrey Bewkes.
Speaking in Paris, Frederic Rose, CEO of French set-top box maker Technicolor, said that in five years' time he hoped the living room would feature one big-screen TV, one remote, and one set-top box that allowed viewers to connect to the Internet, watch live TV, and search for videos and movies.
"Today it can often take a dozen clicks to find one news program," he said. "There are too many boxes, too many remotes, and too much hardware."
Confusing remote controls were the most frequently mentioned problem with the current TV experience.
"The typical remote control is not useful for playing video games. The video game controller is not useful for watching films. Neither of those is useful for searching. They are dumb controllers," said Bobby Kotick, chief executive of Activision Blizzard Inc, the video game company behind "Call of Duty."
He and others said that would have to change if the TV were ever to blossom into a screen where consumers could not only watch shows and play games, but could also write emails, video chat with friends, read the newspaper or shop online for groceries.
Another gaming executive and media industry veteran, Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc, said one critical feature for consumers is that all their entertainment devices be "wireless, synced, compatible, pretty seamless and plug-and-play," meaning they do not require constant calls to a helpdesk.
As for the television itself, he predicted that "you've got a very large-format flatscreen television in the living room that is almost like wallpaper, not quite. Very high-quality, very high-definition."
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