It’s about to get a lot harder to turn off the TV.
A torrent of television-ready gadgets will hit the
store shelves this year, including dozens of phones and tablet
computers that will allow viewers to watch movies and TV shows from
just about anywhere.
The proliferation of viewing devices — including a
new generation of TV sets that connect to the Internet — could boost
the chances that viewers will do what cable and satellite companies
fear most: cancel their
“2010 was the year that people started wondering, questioning if cord-cutting is real,” said
co-founder and president of Sezmi, a service that allows users to watch
TV from both local stations and online sources. “In 2011, it’s going to
become obvious.”
Many of the TVs will be unveiled at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, the annual conference in
This year the buzz is centered on the
Internet-connected TV and whether it will take off. Internet TVs would
allow viewers to watch Web videos alongside traditional television
shows and movies. Nearly every TV manufacturer at the electronics show
is expected to unveil a Web-capable television. Most TVs currently
require a separate box in order to access the Internet — the new models
have the capability built-in.
This year the buzz is centered on Internet-connected
TV and whether it will take off. Internet TV would allow viewers to
watch Web videos alongside traditional television shows and movies.
Nearly every manufacturer is expected to unveil a Web-capable
television at the electronics show.
“It’s going to be a fundamentally big transition,” said
chief executive of the Hulu online video service. “You’ll see
unparalleled choice, from the standpoint of the consumer, when you open
up the Web through that screen.”
Manufacturers are also sure to trot out a parade of new tablet computers, each hoping to compete with
The cast of iPad rivals is expected to include devices from
New tablets — like their cousin, the Web-connected TV — will also be
video-friendly, with high-resolution screens that will let users watch
movies and shows they can download from the Internet.
The next generation of smart phones is also likely
to grab a share of the spotlight. The newer 4G phones — that’s fourth
generation — operate close to 10 times faster than current smart
phones, allowing users to watch movies and television via a cellular
connection.
“People more and more want to take all the stuff
they’re doing on a computer or a TV and start putting it in their
pocket,” said
Automakers will also jump on the Internet bandwagon,
rolling out cars that will let drivers send one another real-time road
conditions or allow passengers to watch YouTube on in-car displays.
Whether Web-connected TVs will be this year’s holy grail of gadgetry is uncertain. Last year the
“it” gadget was 3-D television, but 3-D TV has yet to gain traction
with consumers. Before that it was HD DVD, which was touted as offering
extra-sharp high-definition home video. But HD DVD succumbed to rival
format Blu-ray.
But much-hyped gadgets in other years, such as the high-definition TV, have become ubiquitous.
More than 80 percent of
Blu-ray players and Blu-ray home theater systems will have the ability
to connect to the Internet to pipe in additional content.
Internet-TV services like Boxee are expected to join
TV makers in a flurry of technology partnerships to be touted at the
trade show.
“There will be a bunch of content-related announcements — content that has not before been on TV,” said
Boxee’s chief executive and co-founder. “This is a huge market that’s
getting disrupted: the living room. The giants of the tech world —
Apple,
For entertainment industry executives, Internet
video’s migration from the PC to the TV presents opportunities as well
as fresh headaches. It opens the market to a new crop of distributors
willing to pay top dollar for licensing rights to TV shows and movies.
But it also causes friction with cable, satellite and
telecommunications carriers, which pay
“You’ll start to see a lot of conflict between the
ambitions of the connected-device manufacturers and the ambitions of
the cable operators,” said
The tension was brought sharply into focus when search giant
announced its first foray into the connected living room with Google TV
software, which marries the Web and traditional TV. Fears that the
technology would disrupt traditional television viewing habits caused
broadcasters to block access to Web streams of their shows. Meanwhile,
tepid reviews of the product prompted
to ask TV manufacturers to delay any announcements at the Consumer
Electronics Show until the software could be further refined, according
to published reports.
“Our long-term goal is to collaborate with a broad
community of consumer electronics manufactures to help drive the
next-generation TV-watching experience,” a
Nonetheless, Internet TVs began gathering retail
momentum this year, as 1 in 4 high-definition televisions sold in the
U.S. provided Internet capability, according to researcher
Fewer than half of the consumers who purchased such high-end devices,
or 40 percent, took advantage of this feature, Parks found.
A scant 5 percent of people whose televisions are
connected to the Internet have used their TVs to access online video
services such as
Amazon Video on Demand, Vudu or Hulu Plus. Although this is seemingly
insignificant compared with the 60 million people who subscribe to pay
TV, analysts say this nonetheless represents a meaningful shift away
from these Internet-based on-demand services as computer-centric
experiences.
“It’s a huge jump,”
devices in general is what it means for video rentals and video
downloads. Over time, these devices become your movie rental store.”
———
(c) 2011, Los Angeles Times.
Visit the Los Angeles Times on the Internet at http://www.latimes.com/.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
