There is a definite acceleration in the mish-mash of offerings for your eyeballs. Your TV set is about to be an internet thingy, a video-on-demand thingy, a catchup TV thingy, a gameing thingy. Offerings are coming from many new makers, of which Apple, Goggle and UK's YouView are just some of the media ones.
Apple TV - your TV as a monitor
The new Apple TV is an amazingly small and simple box. It links to the world via WiFi and to your TV by HDMI, and that's it. But what it does is put your TV into the Apple eco-system. You can browse the iTunes store and rent movies and TV programs, you can stream movies from your other Apple gear - your MacBook, your iPad, your iPhone... - directly to your TV screen. And all in 720 HD format.
Apple TV also streams audio to its Optical audio output, connect your ADM9.1 powered loudspeakers and you have a complete music centre, also based on buying music from iTunes. And playing from your iPad remotely.
But the Apple TV does not have the BBC's iPlayer. For some reason these two guys cannot get on enough to allow the BBC to create an iPlayer app (probably the DRM problem, Apple won't licence there's and the BBC can't implement iPlayer without DRM as the studios won't have it?).
The Apple TV also does not have TV!
And you have the frustrating business of using the TV remote to switch across to Freesat, another to watch a DVD or Blu-Ray, another to control your HiFi... More than one controller for your home system is too much.
Google TV - your TV as a nerd's paradise
Google TV is just an OEM software product, like their new Android OS. It is provided to equipment and TV makers to implement. When included it allows the TV to become a TV, a VOD source, and an internet browser (for YouTube, etc).
Google TV uses a QWERTY keyboard so you get the full computer/internet experience on your TV, much to the annoyance of everyone else in the room... A TV is a shared experience, not the domain of one person holding the remote.
There will also be Google TV boxes that link up to older TVs.
Google is working hard, at least in the USA (there is no sign of Google TV support in Europe) to get a lot of media sources signed up - the likes of Netflix, Hulu, and the TV channels.
YouView - your TV as a broadcaster's delivery terminal, but via the internet
YouView is the broadcasters idea of what the future of TV should be like. When they think they have to move from expensive TV transmitters, expensive Satellites and onto the internet as a delivery chain, YouView is what they have come up with. But it is a closed, gatekeeper system, not the open internet.
There's not a lot going for YouView, it has no eco-system, it is just another set top box you have to buy (after you have already purchased one or two generations of Freeview and Freesat boxes), great for the licensed electronic's companies, but very bad for the consumer.
What is worse is that the whole thing is to be dominated by the BBC who will control the User Interface - look and feel. Its a total lock-in.
Don't forget
Apple and Google are building huge data centres - to store movies, music, TV shows? They plan to be the complete offering, storage and delivery. Maybe the broadcasters don't stand a chance in this battle.
What could you imagine?
You don't want just a TV, you don't want internet on your TV - a TV is a shared viewing experience, not a individual one. You don't want multiple boxes, plus your DVD and Blu-Ray players, Wii and others connected by a forest of wires and half a dozen different remotes.
What you want is an eco-system that integrates your PC, your Pad, your Phone, your game box and your TV. In such as way that they can all be used separately, or can interact to give your eyeballs all the information they need, when they want it.
Who will win the battle? Well it depends how stupid we are.
YouView may be foisted on us, by politicians who don't know any better or care, and by the powerful media giants (BBC, ITV, Five, Arquiva (who run the TV transmitters), BT (who own the telephone lines and exchanges) and others). But it is probably not what we want or need.
Apple may like us to invest in their eco-system, and they have been pretty successful in doing that! But they don't have the media offering we need - no live TV, no catch up (maybe coming?), so far few rentals, no purchases. But they do have interconnectivity which others don't.
Google TV is a loser, like many of the other Google ventures. It depends on getting us to buy complete new TVs. It offers combined TV and internet, which means it reaches only one set of eyeballs, not a shared experience. Sure it is an interesting distribution channel, but so are the others.
My money is on Apple in the end, the TV as a monitor, it makes system sense. But they desperately need to have a long hard look at the UK market and give us the features we want.
The other battle - copyright sub-division and control
Of course the other battle is between the companies that deliver the media (Apple, Google, Netflix, Hulu, Seesaw, Cable, Sky, BT, Virgin...) and those that generate it. For too long studios have been controlling the delivery chain, licensing sub-divided permissions of copyright to others who want to carry the content. Even our public broadcaster, the BBC, has fallen in the trap of believing it needs to own the delivery chain and play the studio's game (viz DRM on the "free" iPlayer catchup service, and limits to the time programs are available...). Sorry but public broadcasting is just that, public. It has also chosen a strong encryption system (or DRM) for the YouView project. Our TV is now firmly locked up.
Rogue thought
I watch 1500 hours of TV a year, I pay £140 TV licence for this. Or about £0.10 per hour of viewing.
If I just paid £0.10 per view, and no licence fee. And had free and open access to all channels, VOD on the internet would this be better? Yes, Yes, Yes.
But then YouView has no payment mechanism, so this blocks even this outrageous suggestion.
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