http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-tv-apps-are-about-to-remake-the-small-screen-and-unleash-a-new-land-grab/?tag=nl.e539&s_cid=e539&ttag=e539&ftag=TRE17cfd61
How TV apps are about to remake the small screen and unleash a new land grab
As fast as the technology industry moves, some things still take forever.
Apps on TVs are a good example. This has been an arena filled with empty
promises, false starts, and lame efforts.
Apps have technically been on TVs for years, but they've been dominated by
disappointing experiences from traditional channels that you'll find on Samsung
and Vizio TVs or the unorganized hornet's nest of apps on Roku--which is still
a great little box.
I've been writing for years that the app model that has been so successful on
smartphones would eventually come to TV and bring a major upgrade to the
concept of the TV channel.
This new model is destined to combine the things we love about the evolution of
TV--on-demand viewing, binge watching seasons, instant access without fiddling
with tapes or discs, and pay-per-view for premium content--with a slew of new
features that will quickly make today's TV feel like the bygone era of VHS
tapes and bunny ear antennas.
It's these new possibilities that make the app-as-TV-channel paradigm so
exciting. Here are four quick examples of some of the new things TV apps (in
the smartphone model) will enable viewers to do:
1. Experience more forms of content. With apps, next generation channels can
mix their traditional programming with highlight clips, audio stories,
slideshows, and even headlines of text stories.
2. Scan news headlines and interact with your phone. For news channels, in
addition to live video programming and video clips from top stories, they will
be enable to quickly scan through headlines with a remote and flag stories to
read later (on a smartphone app, for example). There's also the possibility of
allowing users to set up custom news tickers.
3. Get information bubbles to enhance viewing. As you're watching shows, you'll
be able to get live, up-to-date bubbles of information pop up on the screen to
explain things and update viewers with new information on old programming. A
few shows have already done information bubbles effectively (see the "Facts are
Stubborn Things" bubbles on HBO's John Adams DVDs), but these are done with
static information.
4. Shop interactively. To some, this is akin to the holy grail of digital
television. It involves everything from linking directly to something you want
to buy from a commercial to getting more information about products you see
used in shows to getting interactive coupons for products that are presented
directly or subtly--expect a brave new world of product placement--as you
watch. For better or worse, the app paradigm on TV will finally make all of
this possible. It could mean fewer commercials and more interactive coupons and
product placements.
There are many other possibilities--good and bad--but the point is that the
appification of TV channels will unlock new capabilities and create a new set
of winners and losers in the TV business. New empires will be built by the
companies that evolve the fastest and the best. And existing empires will be
scattered by the companies that cling to their old business models and old
content paradigms and are slow to react.
The 2015 Apple TV is the first platform to bring the app experience to its TV
box in a polished, highly usable way that gives us a glimpse of where this is
going. Google won't be far behind. It's been trying to get the Android app
experience on to the TV in a variety of ways for the last several years. It
just hasn't nailed it yet. Amazon is also a threat with Fire TV, but it doesn't
have the Google or Apple app ecosystems to give it a head start. Roku, Samsung,
LG, Vizio, and others are going to make a run at this as well. Competing
ecosystems will proliferate in the next few years. There's also the possibility
that a player like Netflix could create its own box and turn itself into a
platform or closely partner with an existing player.
However it plays it, the new land grab is on--for both platforms and the new
app channels. It will take years for it to play out as the next generation
television boxes and services evolve. But, this new paradigm will reshape how
and what people watch, it will upend the advertising model (which is already
under attack from DVRs), it will commercialize television in new ways, and it
will drastically lower the bar for new channels to enter the game.
For viewers, you will have an easy-to-use and inexpensive box, you will
download the apps/channels you want, and you will have quick have access to all
of the content you care about the most. What's not to like?
The open question is how much it will cost. It will certainly be less than the
$100 bill that current cable operators stick most customers with--people are
tired of paying for so much they don't use--but it will likely be more than the
$20 that most cord cutters pay for a handful of subscriptions to services like
Netflix and Hulu. Most likely, it will vary much more widely based on what you
actually consume, which many people will welcome.