Steve Rubel: Open TV

From an interview on jemmille:

"jemmille.com: Can you give the jemmille.com readers a taste of what is coming up next in the blogsphere? Are there any new trends or “must have” tech that you see on the blogging horizon?

Steve Rubel: The blogosphere is maturing. It’s out of beta. So, I am looking out on the horizon. One of the things I am most excited about is Open TV.

For years only the big media could afford to create content for television. The distribution costs were (and still largely are) too high. However, millions of people are going to add one or more set-top boxes.

These will pipe in content from off the Internet and not just from the pros. I am already watching 720p podcasts from off the Internet on my Apple TV. I also rent movies on on my Xbox 360. (Xbox is a client). Magical things will happen when people realize they can get on TV without going on American Idol. We need more users first, then the content will be there."

Bill Gates: Five Years, that's all we've got

In another big Davos speech, Bill Gates proclaimed that the internet would revolutionize television in five years.

Reuters:

"I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had," Gates told business leaders and politicians at the World Economic Forum.

In the years ahead, more and more viewers will hanker after the flexibility offered by online video and abandon conventional broadcast television, with its fixed program slots and advertisements that interrupt shows, Gates said.

"Certain things like elections or the Olympics really point out how TV is terrible. You have to wait for the guy to talk about the thing you care about or you miss the event and want to go back and see it," he said.

"Internet presentation of these things is vastly superior."

"Because TV is moving into being delivered over the Internet -- and some of the big phone companies are building up the infrastructure for that -- you're going to have that experience all together," Gates said."