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The Internet is set to revolutionize television within five years, due to an explosion of online video content and the merging of PCs and TV sets, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said on Saturday."I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had," he told business leaders and politicians at the World Economic Forum.
The rise of high-speed Internet and the popularity of video sites like Google Inc.'s YouTube has already led to a worldwide decline in the number hours spent by young people in front of a TV set.
Internet to revolutionize TV in 5 years: Gates [today.reuters.co.uk]
has already led to a worldwide decline in the number hours spent by young people in front of a TV set
I will agree with that statement! I remember watching TV when I came home from School, and then when I got the internet more time was spent talking to friends on MSN Messanger and then broadband, even less time at the TV and more time watching clips and videos.
The only time now when I watch the TV is to see the news while eating dinner!
Kids my age and younger spend much more time on their PC then watching TV.
I know that I watch far less TV than I used to. Also children seem to spend much of their time on MSN Messenger and online games sites.
What is the role of the ISPs going to be in this? Comcast is not going to give up their TV income without a fight. Verizon likewise has visions of making money from cable TV. What if they become only the ISP and firms such as Netflix or Google are the providers? It's going to be interesting.
The Internet is set to revolutionize television within five years, due to an explosion of online video content and the merging of PCs and TV sets, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said on Saturday.
Is this the same Bill Gates that said at the same economic forum in 2004 that "Two years from now, spam will be solved”?
Bill's timelines are always too short. He has proven this over the last 25 years!
However, they are almost always right, eventually,.....you just need to give his predictions 500% more time!
TV is dying! The Internet is growing, so why isn't MS at the helm as Gates knows this is happening?
Bill's timelines are always too short.
Mostly because he underestimates how technologically conservative most people are.
And he's wrong. There will always be space for mixed schedule / public service / appointment-to-view programming.
TV did not destroy cinema and video did not kill the radio star.
Problem is, there is only so many hours in the day and people will be attracted to the most compelling format. (But, true, people are very conservative and change will come in fits and starts. Still, five years from now TV is going to be very, very different.)
TV did not destroy cinema and video did not kill the radio star.
The Internet to TV is not what TV was to cinema. TV is going to come across as a 'subset' of the Internet with convergence. The later will do everything the former does and still be interactive, something the former is not.
Assuming TV will survive despite the Internet seems a little unrealistic. It's like someone may have said decades ago that 'talkies may be coming but silent movies will still have their own charm and will survive'. Silent movies were finished. They can best be seen as a sub set of talkies. If you don't like the sound on tv, hit the mute button and voila! you have a silent movie!
Similarly, if you don't like the interactivity on the internet, just watch a movie on it, don't chat, go to bulletin boards, buy online or do any of the interactive things you can do. TV, someone said, is a lean-back medium while the Internet is a lean ahead medium.
In five years, maybe ten, I don't know when but eventually, we'll have a single unit for both internet access and tv as the norm and TVs will be dinosaurs, possibly even the landline phone and a few other things.
Well I can tune my TV to channel 200 for CNN and 90% of the time get commercials, or tune to 205 for Fox News and 85% of the time get commercials.
On the off-chance either is broadcasting at that time, the best I will get is a stay tuned for the next 60 minutes of commercials and we might give you some biased news somewhere in between!
It is a joke, and the reason why they will die!
I can go to Google, Yahoo, MSN and many other sources and get instant news.....no Ads, no waiting, no editorials! Just News of a type....
Into the future those looking for factual information will turn to the Internet, and the many different opinions it has to offer......If you are reading this, you are already one of them!
Prior to TV, communication was via individuals....word of mouth.....post TV it will be the same......right now typed, but moving more to sound and video as YouTube shows!
If you don't like the sound on tv, hit the mute button and voila! you have a silent movie!
Actually, I've found myself doing this more and more. It's weird how I like it.
