Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders
Third Generation Television: CATV Impact
Text | Posted by Phil Leigh on January 16, 2009
CATV and Satellite operators will be profoundly impacted by Third Generation Television. As noted in earlier posts, we believe that significant numbers of consumers will start watching Internet Video at their TVs in 2009. Many will simply connect their laptop computers to the TV and use it as a giant monitor. Since flat panel TVs and modern laptops both have common connection sockets the hook-up is not too complex. Nearly all laptops have built-in WiFi enabling connection to a home LAN and thence to the Internet.
One third of homes already have flat panel TVs and iSuppli estimates that nearly 90% will have at least one flat panel set by 2011. The vast majority of such sets have common connection sockets with laptop computers.
Initially consumers will retain their CATV service even after configuring their sets to watch Internet Video. Therefore, the Cable Industry might be unresponsive to the trend because they will suffer no immediate financial consequence. However, consumers will spend incrementally less time watching CATV channels as they watch more Internet Video. As more good quality content gets put onto the Web, Internet Video will account for an ever-growing percentage of “television” viewing. Ultimately, subscribers will decide to discontinue CATV service and rely on Internet Video exclusively.
The first adverse indication the Cable Industry may notice is reluctance by subscribers to “opt-into” higher tiers of service. The second one will be subscriber cancellations of premium tiers. The last sign will be cancellation of basic service. The first two have already started to appear. If the industry waits until the third sign, it will likely already be caught in an irrevocable death spiral much like has befallen the record label business.
To learn how the Cable Industry can respond constructively, consider purchasing our research report entitled “Third Generation Television: Internet-Video-to-the-TV”. To learn more click here.
Categories: Text
Tags: Cable Industry, digital-media, Free TV Shows on the Net, Future of TV, Future-of-Television
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I’ve been following you for years Phil and you are so on target with this. Common sense would dictate this change to OPEN internet TV. We are already used to OPEN internet on computers, so when we are commonly online on TVs in the near future, we won’t accept a CLOSED (walled garden) approach to our internet access, especially video.
Keep up the great work.