Future of TV: “Internet and TV together”
FreeTV Australia demonstrates a new take on not just what we are watching, but how we are watching.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
FreeTV Australia, which represents the interests of our Free to Air commercial channels, has launched an industry initiative dedicated to exploring how television will evolve over the next ten years.
It begins with a series of online documentary clips about the “Future of TV” with industry experts from Australia and around the world, including Mark Fennessy, Courtney Gibson, Gary Carter and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Clip 1, “The Multi-Screen Experience”, experts discuss how television viewing is migrating across multiple screens. Many of them discuss the integration of television with the internet: multitasking, interactive, watching on multiple devices.
While it’s main agenda is to thwart the myth that television viewing is dying, it’s a refreshing understanding of not just what we are watching, but how we are watching.
You can see the first clip here.
26 Responses
@casting couch gotta agree with ya,at the rate we are going it will be well & truly 10 years before we get HD
Internet enabled televisions,bring it on,the sooner the better,then television experience will really be awesome.
quote from the recent SMH article:
“broadcastersneed to set up an Australian version of the Hulu streaming website or risk losing out to a competitor, says the chief operating officer of SBS.”
Lots of newspaper reports suggest Hulu is coming to Australia-even a recent SMH article implied broadcasters here have had talks with them.
No conspiracy theories mate,only need to knock out the big offenders private sharing will always endure in one form or another and we are not talking about whats being blocked now.
It might take another 10 years before they actually broadcast shows in HD again.
@Denis, easy with the conspiracy theory mate. What you’re suggesting wouldn’t work, so is pointless as a theory. Most US based services (Hulu et al) don’t work to Australian IP addresses anyway (blocked by the service provider, Not by the australian government).
What the networks would want to stop, is pirate viewing of overseas content, which no amount of IP address filtering could ever make a dent in, let alone stop.
@Russell – fans keep in touch world wide via online forums, an episode that is even days or weeks old is outdated and they have moved on to the next. I know every fan wants their show to be aired as soon as the US but I also know that is not practical with current technology they just don’t have the channels to cope with demand.
This is why I think the whole business model needs changing, give fans the option to legally download shows as they air around the world, even at a small cost. Networks can still air them in their own time and ratings can also include those who have seen it online.
FreeTV are a joke and simply trying to control a broadcasting system that is quickly becoming irrelevant whilst trying to hold on to revenue that is slipping.
Thankfully there are ways to bypass a lot of Australian TV programming rubbish and get content without Ads. The sooner TV stations go away and are replaced by Net content the better.
So, FTA make a pitch about internet and televsion together – and still won’t show sport live?
I’m definitely watching More television these days. It’s how I’m watching them that’s so different. Sometimes live, sometimes recorded on my PS3, sometimes via iView or 7’s PS3 interface or Ten’s on-line catchup via my laptop connected to the TV… And I know this has become the norm for most people.
i would like a future where i could watch the opening round of AFL this week Not on a 4 hour delay…..
what a joke.
i have foxtel and pay and still cant see the games on thursday and friday night live – 4 hour delays both of them. why dont they just show it the next morning ….
i find it odd that people in nsw and qld can watch it live on ONEHD but not in perth….
@ Russell:
Because we love the shows and we want to see them Now!!! We will not wait for the “insensitive” Aus programmers if we don’t have to …
@Russell: We want to see it and talk about the shows online with our international friends when they have seen it, so the discussion can be pertinent and relevant. If we are delayed by months, then we are at risk of being spoiled by plot details revealed before watching, as well as all discussions being out of date or only minimally contributed to by local viewers only.
Why in Australia there this feeling if an overwhelming need to watch shows (scripted) just weeks days or even hours after they go to air in the US? Its not time sensitive. Whether you watch it today or in 4 months doesn’t really matter.
Even Iif a show airs today in the US, it was actually shot 3 months ago. And in many cases with shows like Law & Order or Castle the show has been ‘in the can’ months before the US network airs it.
I live in the US and most of my shows sit in my DVR for months before I get around to them. I dont care. It makes no difference to my viewing experience
The same as waiting to view a big blockbuster at home on home theatre.
Why do Aussies feel
The need to see something the second it has aired in the US?
The trump card free to air TV has is the airing of Australian Drama and Australian Sport. You can’t see it at all on the net before it is aired. That is good news for aussie jobs and it make great television.
No one is allowed to discuss the real reason why the Government is so keen to push filtering,they will play a big part through the NBN and protecting local content will require the ability to block overseas IP addresses.
Currently there are numerous ways of watching TV shows immediately as they are screened in the USA and the only way Local broadcasters will protect their revenue is through blocking.
Effectively ensuring internet censorship is just around the corner,the porn thing is purely a smokescreen.
I would like to be able to access content directly from the producers or via content aggregator sites. TV stations such as Seven and Nine would only be relevant for content that they produced.
Local advertising can easily be inserted which should permit the content to be delivered free of charge. This occurs now with lots of stuff that I watch on the net. I’m accessing content from (mostly) the UK and US but am presented with Australian advertising (except when I’m forced to use non-Aus proxies). It works for me.
Future of TV: “Internet and TV together” wow they have only just noticed? No point discussing the next 10 years, discuss about whats happening already!
Many people have been using the Internet for their TV for years. I think in years to come it will be come common practice to pay a monthly fee for access to all the TV shows you want online, just like you currently do with PayTV channels. The difference being you can watch what you want, when you want and never be reliant on TV schedules. Maybe a small extra fee if you want to keep a show or movie, instead of paying for the DVD later.
It’s easy to speculate and guess how TV will be like in the future, when it would be better to join forces and come up with concrete ideas about what to implement by listening to what is wanted by viewers and coming up with solutions. I’d personally like to see in the next 10 years is more interconnectedness from international networks. For example, being able to view foreign channels like BBC, CBS, and other channels, even if they are not targeted to our market. To have access to a large variety of content. Otherwise, we will have to turn to other means to access content, just like when networks don’t fast-track shows.
I don’t think audiences want more for free. I think they want on-demand service; to watch what they want, when they want. That translates to watching a show only hours, or at the most days, after screening in the US or UK, and having local shows available online immediately after, or screening simultaneously with the broadcast show.
I found the streaming news coverage of the Christchurch earthquake invaluable. It would’ve been great to have online streaming of all FTA channels, advertising included. (Though perhaps they do, and I’m just not aware of it)
I don’t know if this is feasible or practical with our current state of internet technology, but it seems inevitable.
JB…the problem with fast tracking show from OS….is summed up in your own words…US shows are often moved, bumped and broken up with no certainty of traditional programming….Aus audiences wouldn’t keep up
Television is not dying but it is not as it once was. The audience is so fragmented and people want more for free and with the FTA networks with the exception of 10 and Abc dragging their feet then people will always looks for better alternatives. Audiences want specific genres now what they get on pay tv thats partly why pay tv has grown. I think that in the future not long from now that the websites of tv networks will become increasingly important especially since more people are watching their content online. We will still have ads but we will have more choice. I would not be surprised if a future tv screen is a huge computer monitor.
Well unless networks start really fastracking content so we’re not months behind the rest of the world, and start sticking to their scheduled times instead of running late, i don’t think there is a future of tv.
Immediacy and consistency are the key. Shows need immediate showing here after it’s screened in the US/UK. And no point having a show start 8.38 on a Monday, and then 8.32 another week, and then switch it to a Tuesday the next week. People will just switch off. Look at City Homicide, moved days, timeslots, and viewers dropped despite being a great show. Modern Family also, timeslot changes, diff days, endless repeats, numbers have dropped. Not rocket science.