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SXSW panel preview: ‘From Hulu To Yahoo Widgets: Will The Internet Transform The TV?’
Richard Bullwinkle from Rovi Corp. joins the future of television SXSW Interactive bandwagon with a panel on the future of TV. Rovi contends that now that technology has transformed the computer into a television, the reverse is about ready to happen. Technologies such as Internet-connected televisions and widgets (small applications that will run on these sets) will turn the television into a computing device — but entertainment-focused. Rovi Corp. creates smart “guide” software: imagine the program guide on your television, but able to aggregate not only netwrok and cable television programming, but also photos from your PC, movies from services such as Netflix and any video you’ve got stored on local hard drives or care to pull from the Internet.
I spoke with Bullwinkle prior to his panel this afternoon at SXSW.
What can we expect to hear you talk about at your panel?
Bullwinkle: There’s a lot of new technology that’s sort of happened over the last, let’s say, two to three years — the ability to first download movies and then stream movies. At first we had proprietary boxes. Well, first we could download things and stream them to our computers — that’s the YouTube sort of thing. And also Cinema Now, which really had a PC app and there were very few other devices you could watch Cinema Now content on.
And then we started trying to integrate that content with the TV, but sort of with specialized boxes — I’m talking about the Rokus and the Vudus and the AppleTVs, where you’d go buy yet another set top box to set on top of the stack of set-top boxes and try to get a little more content.
And now we’re sort of in the third generation, which is I think you’ll start seeing connected TVs that can access that great Internet content and they will also access the content you’ve always gotten — your cable, your satellite, and also they’ll access the content in your home. So anything you already did download — your music, your photos or whatever you have on hard drives around the home — they’ll access that.
What about the idea that people don’t really want the Internet on their televisions?
I’m not really talking about e-mail or Facebook or things like that. I don’t think consumers want that on their televisions; there are too many wonderful devices to do that stuff. I love it on the computer, I love it on my iPhone. They’re great devices for interacting with that stuff. On my TV, I prefer to be entertained. I’m not saying that everybody’s that way; there are going to be people who want that stuff on their TVs. But I think putting a browser on a TV is probably the wrong approach. I’d much rather see things that bring more content in on the TV.
And also, by the way, in the third generation it doesn’t just have to be the TV. It can also be things like the Xbox, which do multiple things: it plays games; it accesses Netflix; there are some rumors that it will have access to Hulu and things in a few months. So I’m not just saying it has to be a connected TV. There’s lots of connected devices that do multiple things. But the idea of the one-trick pony — the box that only accesses one service — I think that’s going to die very quickly.
Does this go both ways? There’s also, certainly, television on the Internet.
Yes. So, that’s the interesting thing. With Hulu, a lot of people last year were talking about disconnecting their cable and switching to Hulu only. That didn’t work out, because Hulu has prevented that content from coming back to the TV. Netflix has gotten to the TV on a lot of devices but, for example, YouTube has pulled away from the TV. They announced a lot of products that would do YouTube to the TV, but also pulled back and didn’t offer those people the opportunity to ship. So, there is a lot of great Internet content; I don’t know how quickly it’s going to get back to the TV.
But TV on the INternet is somewhat successful.
Somewhat. I don’t think anybody’s making money hand over fist, but that’s just because this is a new market and the advertisers are not sure how quickly to shift their advertising dollars over to the Internet and the experience is a little rough right now. For exapmle, on Hulu, the night “Lost” airs, you can’t view “Lost.” The next day you can, but then you can only view it for about three days and they pull it off. So you have to be a bit of a wizard at memorizing when are the times to actually go visit things to get them. And that’s confusing to people. So the repeat customers are not as high as they’d like them to be, but that’s just because it’s too hard right now.
From Hulu To Yahoo Widgets: Will The Internet Transform The TV?
Monday, March 15 at 04:10 PM
Austin Convention Center, 12AB
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