It’s no secret that Netflix took an ego-beating these past few months, serving as poster-child for bad press as investors and members alike abandoned ship in droves. Today the network giant’s swimming happily again after release of a new statistic stating the remaining 20 million members streamed more than 2 billion hours of content in Q4. That’s nearly two China’s worth of time spent curled up with a laptop and bag of potato chips
While Netflix executives have had a finger in the streaming pot for quite some time, rumor has it this week’s CES in Las Vegas will once again pit television as an event centerpiece with clear indication that Google’s now funneled significant change into its TV platform.
Covert Apple operations are also underway, including a bid for EPL TV rights, as electronics giants wrestle to develop a television screen that's toilet paper thin (even our newest gadgets can’t escape New Year's pressure to remain sexy ‘n slim).
One need not look further then rampant YouTube and Wii adoption among Betty White’s graduating class to recognize that while our relationship with television and video content has begun to change, it’s arguably healthier than ever before.
These past few years we devoted careful attention to mobile, nurturing the brainchild through the first few stages of development, including a mastery of basic speech. Yet the sheer fact that web-connected TVs still remain a CES highlight after a decade+ to play with the technology demonstrates a true neglect that I believe will be amended in 2012.
Yes, 2012 will be the year of the TV as developers struggle to create television “apps” that utilize all the perks of Kinected technology, allow for user-submitted content, and encourage the engaging viewer experience that’s now required to rip audience member’s attention away from their smartphones.
Evolution at its finest - just as Bell was ultimately upstaged by Farnsworth, mobile will soon be upstaged by a trove of applications and games fit for the big screen - a feat companies like Pandora have already undertaken.
So where does social fit into the new television experience?
Engagement plug-ins like sharing, comments, and product reviews must be developed to fit the new smart medium as we increasingly turn our attention to the TV screen. Aggregators of popular television app-content (like those fighting the mobile problem that prevents “good stuff” from going viral) will also emerge.
It is now widely recognized that allowing users to pump content into social feeds is a major referred traffic factor, and this understanding will remain strong as our televisions morph into the Web on ‘roids this 2012.
The good news? Thanks to Kinect and the like it will be a lot easier to stay fit when our farms require true hoeing. Now might also be a crucial point for wanna-be social networks to capitalize on the lag-time between Facebook & Twitter’s full-on TV conversion.
No comments:
Post a Comment