Apologies

I try to post on Tuesday. I am afraid I have been unwell for a few days. Sorry. Back next week.

Internet TV? Just buy a cable connector

From TV Debunked, Fortune Magazine, January 2011

The lead picture in this post – and nearly all the numbers -- come from a piece in January’s Fortune magazine. (Click on the caption for the link).

The writer, Jessi Hempel, has just received the brick-sized box enabling her to hook-up Google TV, and having played around with some of the cooler functions (like tweeting from her TV (@jessiwrites) she set out to watch some real stuff, namely of a recent episode of the sitcom Modern Family – but it’s not available. Or rather, she can get it from Amazon for $1.99 (if she is already a cable subscriber) or get old episodes from Netflix. Modern Family plays on ABC, and ABC like all the networks and major broadcasters, are teasing with the new media. At bottom, ABC still wants to keep you watching new episodes the way you always have, on their main channel. (You can see Modern Family on Sky1 in the UK).

In fact, the best new-tech option – if you live in the US – apart from watching it live on an HD TV, would be to catch up the latest episode on ABC.com. (From the UK, I could watch highlights of the next episode on ABC.com  but the latest full episode was blocked.)

All the devices in that picture, and the failures in their wake like Joost, add lots of convenience extras like search, and even more potential benefits like targeted advertising. But as Jessi puts it, “Netflix, Google and Apple can’t just swoop in and disrupt the $85 billion home entertainment industry. Their challenge lies in navigating the entrenched interests that make up the television business.”

So far they have not succeeded in doing that.