The Lines Are Blurring
Published January 4th, 2010 in GeneralReadWriteWeb published an interesting video late last year in which Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, speculates about what the web will look like in five years time.
One of the key highlights from Schmidt’s interview for me was this tidbit - within five years there will be broadband well above 100MB in performance and distribution distinctions between TV, radio and the web will go away.
Just to note on that point, as I understand it Schmidt is making the point that the content will be available on a multitude of devices as opposed to the mediums merging.
In light of the ongoing TV license debate in Ireland, a number of commentators have already pointed out that our standard definition of a television doesn’t hold true anymore given that you can watch TV via a computer or mobile phone.
Schmidt’s point is interesting to me for a couple of reasons:
1. In five years time we won’t look at the box that sits in our living room in the same way. It will be more akin to a computer screen as its capacity will have multiplied.
2. There will be a number of more web like features to our TV viewing experience. Simply put, television will be a hell of a lot more interactive. For example, look at all the people that watch TV and air their opinions on Twitter about what they are watching. Xbox LIVE (disclosure: Xbox are a client) are already integrating Twitter and Facebook access into the service, so it will be possible for TV also. In addition, it will be taken a step further by being able to watch TV together with people in different locations, but yet being able to interact via text or audio through the monitor. Sounds slightly far fetched, but it’s possible to do with today’s technology.
3. We are going to increasingly look at TV in two ways - realtime content and content on demand. Realtime content is the likes of X Factor or Six Nations Rugby. Content on demand is access to a library of content that is readily accessible. As the distribution of content increases to shift to the web, what is to stop sites like FunnyOrDie.com from being thought of as a channel?
What I’d like to throw out there is surely the idea of a TV license is becoming increasingly obsolete? The Citizens Information Board says that a television licence is a certificate that states that you have paid the appropriate fee to the government and contributed to the cost of public service broadcasting in Ireland. That assumes obviously that you are viewing content through a TV.
Given that televisions and computers will eventually merge - how do you define public sector broadcasting? Particularly when you throw in the idea that given consumers will be able to access the web and TV content from the same device, they will also be able to access newspapers through their online editions.
All of a sudden we could find ourselves in the position of paying an internet tax to cover the cost of public service broadcasting. Should this fee simply cover video and audio content, or should it also cover text (i.e. newspapers)?
This is hardly far fetched, one only has to look at Project Canvas in the UK, a proposed internet-video service on TV (via the Times), to see that the lines are blurring.
The full video is available to view below:
4 Responses to “The Lines Are Blurring”
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There is a Sony Bravia in Clonmel that I have used to toggle from TE to YouTube by simply using the handheld remote controller. It’s only a matter of timebefore a Sound & Vision grant will fund the scraping of HD camera clips into web-first, broadcast-second production flow. Six One does this already.
I’ll ask a silly question here…
I don’t have a TV license, as I don’t have a TV. I do however have a lot of computer monitors. (And I had a nice visit from an inspector about 2 years ago who told me I was OK at the time).
I have one monitor connected (to a central switch) to a DVD player and computer, and I have one connected to my XBox.
I only went gold on XBox live recently, and I am now capable of seeing a Sky “sample channel” (usually Sky News) via the XBox. I am capable of seeing RTE.ie and their player.
Given the legislation, do I need a TV license? This isn’t a future looking question, this is a here-and-now legal one?
I know that laptop computers are exempt, but something like a desktop and RTE or an XBox and Sky (or a Wii and the BBC) are not mobile devices.
Bernie, with a “nettop” connected to the back of a TV, you have everything in one unit. Hobbled together, but one unit.
Back to the point… public sector broadcasting is a legal definition. Its what the law says it is. Currently public sector broadcasting requires a slice of some spectrum to be granted to them, (Be that radio waves or some other means) in return they have to do something. The something changes by jurisdiction.
The definition can be changed. I can see the likes of News Corp asking about “top-slicing” if they haven’t done so already. But that slicing can be used to keep dead-tree newspapers alive in an era of electronic news slates.
Not a silly question at all Will. I honestly don’t know the answer whether you need a license or not, I would say that if an inspector walked in and found you watching content, you’d certainly be challenged about it. I’ll tweet about it and see if anyone’s the wiser.
This subject (the status of devices as TV receivers) was raised at the oral hearings before the Oireachtas Committee on Communications in early 2008 when they were in consultation ahead of the framing of the 2009 Broadcasting Act. I don’t recall the detail other than that it was somewhat kicked to touch in that particular process.
The question of defining ‘Public Service Broadcasting’ is one that was also raised in that process. It isn’t just an Ireland thing of course but we have a way to go in that here, as I suspect is the case also in other jurisdictions, it is a question that is approached from the perspective of a status quo - i.e. start with the position of the incumbent and work out. Some of that conversation touched on the applicability of the ‘Public Service Publisher’ model which was floated by Ofcom in the UK, initially in 2004 and again in 2007 before being pulled in 2008 - http://is.gd/5MOM6.
It is a debate that will run.