Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders
Year Ahead of Wall Street Journal
Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on April 19, 2010
Phil Leigh
Last week Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal reviewed a couple of new products from Hillcrest Labs. First, is a Web Browser built especially for big monitors such as televisions. Second is a hand-held device designed to control the browser remotely from a comfortable viewing distance as would apply when a TV is used as a computer’s display screen.
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The browser, termed Kylo, contains big icons for 128 popular Web video sites. Navigation to other websites is via an onscreen virtual keyboard. Hillcrest characterizes the loop pointer as a remote mouse. About the size of a gymnastics ring the pointer offers gesture-sensitive control much like a similar unit for the Nintendo Wii. In point of fact, Hillcrest claims Nintendo is infringing patents.
The significant point is that Mossberg’s review and Hillcrest’s innovations underscore the increasing acceptance that browser-centric televisions might be the best way to bring the Internet into the living room. Regular Inside Digital Media subscribers are familiar that we have been chanting this mantra for more than a year. It is a central tenet of our February ‘09 Third Generation Television market research report.
For the benefit of newcomers our conclusions stem from the following points.
First, ultimately consumers will want unlimited Internet access at their TVs. A browser provides such capability. Contrary to conventional wisdom, because it is familiar software it shall not intimidate viewers. Appliances merely offering a “walled garden” of Internet Video are essentially rationing food. Consumers realize that a nearly unlimited supply is available and rationing will powerfully stimulate an appetite for more. In short, eventually they’ll regard a “walled garden” as indistinguishable from “walled prison”.
Second, the TV in the Digital-Living-Room-of-the-Future will be an “electronic hearth”. As such, it will not only be a center for media consumption of all types, but also a focal point for communications including two-way video telephony.
Third, a browser-centric television empowers viewers to use search engines to find pertinent content thereby extending the appeal of the Long-Tail to video.
Fourth, sponsors will be pleased that advertising is targetable and can be held accountable on the Net. Thus, they need not pay for video ads that don’t get watched. Similarly, it will empower ad agencies to design ads segueing viewers directly into online purchases thereby enabling agencies to collect an additional bounty from sponsors.
Categories: Podcast Audio
Tags: Add new tag, advertising, Browser-Centric-TV, digital-media, future-of-advertising, Future-of-Television, Hillcrest Labs, Phil-Leigh, Television-Advertising, Wall-Street-Journal, Walt Mossberg
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