I've been thinking a lot about the future of TV lately — so much that my brain hurts. The Peabody people invited me and the Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan and some scholars to discuss "The State of Television" over the past few days, and I know what you're thinking and you're right. Still, I thought it was a pretty productive series of conversations about the future of a medium whose present I barely am able to keep track of most days.
How exactly all these discussions will affect my day-to-day, I can scarcely guess, but one ongoing conversation topic is already popping up in my daily mail and web browsing with Susan Boyle-ish regularity. Namely: How soon before any video that you view on the Web is going to be instantly, immediately viewable in high quality on TV? And then what happens?
Last month the writer and commentator Rob Long persuasively argued that the TV industry must do a deal with Boxee, a startup company whose new technology allows the user to display content from Hulu — inarguably the best video player on the Web right now — on her nearby 55-inch big screen.
But why stop there? Why not go to the company that makes the underlying technology for Hulu ... Adobe Flash?
And so, it is happening. At today's NAB show, Adobe's CEO will announce something called the "Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home," which will allow viewers "to access their favorite Flash technology-based videos, applications, services and other rich Web content across screens."
Comcast, Netflix and the New York Times Co. are among the companies already backing the Flashization of television, and why not? It's already obvious that Flash has won the computer video standard derby and is nickering in its stall, waiting for another race to win. How about the hearts and minds of TV viewers who keep wondering why all the good stuff lately seems to have been available only on their 19-inch screen ... and I don't mean the old Zenith in the rec room.
The involvement of NYT is particularly striking for me. Just this weekend I heard from the Renaud brothers about their latest piece of video journalism. It was really something to watch on my computer. I can't imagine how powerful it would look on my big 55.
its kind of weird to think of YouTube as the future of television. For the past couple of years I'd been thinking of YouTube as a rescuer of old discarded TV (you know with the uploads of loong discontinued tv shows and otherwise unavilable movies strewn throughout) Its odd to think of YouTube as the future when so much of what I enjoy about it is directly out of the past.
Posted by: matt stechel | April 21, 2009 at 12:21 AM