HDTV Expert - Connected TVs – Are They, Or Are They Not A Threat?

[720pete]

I guess it all depends on who’s taking the survey!

[url=http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/columns/2010/12/hdtv-expert-connected-tvs-are-they-or-are-they-not-a-threat.php]Read Column[/url]

[alfredpoor]

Good piece, Pete! Of course, I'll spit into the wind and suggest that there's a third interpretation of all these surevey results. Magid may well be right that Internet-connected devices (NeTVs, network media players, game consoles, etc.) and the services that they provide are additive to the traditional sources of entertainment content. However, that may be a very short-term interpretation. I'm currently paying two services that I use to process credit card payments: a traditional service from my bank, and a new one that works off my smartphone. Why pay for both? I'm not ready to switch over to the new one yet until I'm confident that it will work reliably.

I would bet that the same holds true for Internet content streamed into the living room; maybe people are trying it out, but not letting their old service go until they're sure that they'll watch everything they want. (We still record "The Mentalist", but that's about it. All our other favorite shows are on Hulu for free, and we can't keep up with the subscribed episodes in our queue.) Once they realize that paying $1,200 a year to watch just couple dozen episodes of shows that they can't get otherwise, I bet more people will start letting go of their old services.

Of course, more HD content from Hulu and Netflix might accelerate the changeover.

Alfred
HDTV Almanac

[gartrste]

Alternative sources for TV are vulnerable to Comcast et al's attempt to make the internet a toll road. Should net neutrality go by the wayside, I don't see Hulu, Netflix, etc. having their traffic "prioritized"...quite the contrary. TV is a cash cow for traditional cable particularly given their ability to raise its cost any time they want. They'll fight to protect it, and that will include buying as much influence in Congress and the FCC as they can.

As they are.

[Roger Halstead]

I see that Comcast has already blocked Netflix. Would Net Neutrality, as the government sees it, really help, or be what we want.

Although congress has voted the bill down, the FCC has announced they will start enforcing Net Neutrality "as they see it" and as they see it amounts more to the "fairness doctrine" as they apply it to Television and radio than the original intent of Net Neutrality. The way the head of the FCC explained it they would like to see sites that espouse one opinion to also either give the opposing view or provide prominent links to sites that do. This would really be a new "can of worms" for most any special interest group, club, or individual site. Think of what this *could* mean as far as politics, science, and religion.

It appears that "Net Neutrality" as the government sees it is far different than the original concept and IF the FCC goes ahead it depends on what they expect and how they enforce it.

Again it appears we have an agency planning on circumventing congress which is a rather dangerous approach.