Tear down the TV tower

Experts in the field of TV and the Internet give a forecast: how will we watch TV in a few years

The Internet entered our lives in the mid-1990s, and television in the mid-1950s. Not surprisingly, these two technologies for a long time were at different poles of the information world. Television was a means to convey information to a wide range of people, and the philosophy of the Internet was limited to two-way contacts between people.
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But at some point, TV and the Internet began to merge with each other. Now, with the help of TVs, people work with e-mail and go on Skype, and watch football broadcasts and TV shows online on computers. It can be difficult to answer the question, do you watch “telly” or sit online. And at the junction of the two technologies, a lot of products and services appear - and that’s what happened with the CDN we are working on.

What will happen next? What will television become an era of the Internet? About this we asked four experts from different industries, connected with TV and the Internet at the same time. Rikor-TV sells equipment for television, My Planet TV channels and TV Center organize TV broadcasts in various formats, and we, CDNvideo , help to broadcast TV broadcasts on the Internet.


Which devices for watching TV will be the most popular in the future?

Alexey Azarevich, ex-adviser to the general director of Rikor-TV:

TV SETTINGS
“Along with Smart TV, TV set-top boxes (Dongle set-top box) will be used. Already, there are devices in a miniature form factor with HDMI output, which act as a thin client: you can connect peripheral devices to them and fully work with documents and multimedia. Such gadgets will gain popularity among TV viewers, since even now the number of Internet users in Russia is more than 72 million people and 40 million watch online video (according to comScore data for 2013).

Hybrid TV set-top boxes (STB) will also be distributed. Through them you can watch satellite TV, digital television and television over the Internet. I think they will find their consumer. No matter what they connect to - to a TV or monitor. Television will not be associated with a specific type of screen. "

Sergey Koshlyakov, general director of the TV channel "My Planet":

TRADITIONAL TELEVISION
“People gather and watch movies on TV, news, entertainment programs, and technology getting content into the“ TV ”are not important here at all - this is just a method of socialization and leisure. Television viewing is a tradition that is deeply rooted in society, and it will not change soon. Only 10% of TV audiences are ready to choose for themselves what they want from a huge content offer. The rest do not want to perform any actions, except for switching buttons on the remote within 10 favorite channels. This means that the TV, as a device with a large screen and simple navigation, will long remain the main means of consuming content. It may become three-dimensional, but it will remain easy to use. ”

Igor Shmakov, Head of Information Technology, TV Center:

SCREENS WITH PRESENCE EFFECT
“If you dream up, in 10 years everything will be just like the classics of fiction by the Strugatsky brothers in the book“ Midday XXII Century ”. It will be possible not only to watch the “picture” in 3D, but also to smell, taste and touch. There will be the full effect of presence. ”

Yaroslav Gorodetsky, CEO of CDNvideo:

SMART TV (Smart TV)
“Among the devices for home viewing, there will be an active struggle between the standards of access to content. Telecom operators, TV manufacturers, and even Internet companies claim their share of the pie. For example, Google recently released its set-top box for TV to watch YouTube videos. But it seems to me that TV manufacturers will win, because the power of habit and ergonomics play for them - most users simply do not want to have an extra device at home. But for this to happen, TV manufacturers want to adopt a common standard of applications for Smart TV. ”

What technologies will become the drivers for television in the Internet era?

Alexey Azarevich, ex-adviser to the general director of Rikor-TV:

PROTECTION OF CONTENT
“Watching legal video content is many times easier than pirated, and in the future it will be 90% free for the user, because when switching from viewing pirated content to viewing legal, the most convenient monetization model is advertising. But for companies to engage in the display of legal content, it will need to be protected. If you do not do this, then the right holders will not work with you (recently, because of this, on the verge of closing, there was a good online cinema with legal content “Divan TV”). Already, online cinemas are using DRM systems (Widevine, Adobe DRM), including for protecting content from partners who bring TV set-top boxes to the market. ”

Sergey Koshlyakov, general director of the TV channel "My Planet":

PERSONAL ADVERTISING
“There are lots of technologies that allow you to develop personal advertising on TV. Already, with a 90 percent probability, it is possible to determine the portrait of the viewer by his IP, and then begin with him completely different communications in the field of promotion of goods and services. But in order for these technologies to gain popularity, a complete change of the modern generation of advertising technologists is needed. In the meantime, it is considered that personal advertising is too expensive, and the advertiser and his agent smear the advertisement with a thin layer to the entire audience. ”

Igor Shmakov, Head of Information Technology, TV Center:

MOBILE TV
“After 10 years, television will use Internet content delivery as the main or only means. I mean, including, the mobile Internet. Already, there are several operators who provide access to content by subscription from mobile devices, moreover, with the ability to automatically adjust the picture quality to the width of the channel. ”

Yaroslav Gorodetsky, CEO of CDNvideo:

RECOMMENDATION SYSTEMS
“What will happen to TV in the future can be called the heyday of personal content. I mean the content selected for each individual. People are too lazy to always choose from the vast sea of ​​video what they like, as it happens in modern VOD services. Therefore, for people, the choice of content will be made by a recommendation service that creates a personal TV channel for a person or for his family as a whole. Recommendations services began to appear 6-7 years ago, but now it is time for them to start developing more actively than ever before. ”

Of course, we asked about ourselves. How will a CDN evolve?

Alexey Azarevich, ex-adviser to the general director of Rikor-TV:

GROWTH IN THE REGIONS
“A CDN network is, first of all, content delivery to the end user with the highest quality. Now is a good time for the emergence of new video content consumption models, and the Russian market proves this: Russia is the largest market by the number of online video users in Europe (according to ComScore data for July 2013, about 60 million users watch videos online every month). It is expected that the growth of online video audience will be 18% per year. In my opinion, the growth dynamics will continue and will grow. This means that CDN networks will expand, thereby delighting end users and providing decent access to legal content. ”

Sergey Koshlyakov, general director of the TV channel "My Planet":

“In my opinion, CDN is not directly related to TV or the Internet. This is a technology to optimize traffic and optimize the cost of content delivery. But I am not an expert in this, but I will not express a non-professional view. ”

Igor Shmakov, Head of Information Technology, TV Center:

NEW DATA CENTERS
“The demand for CDN services will grow in proportion to the increase in the number of viewers who use the Internet to watch TV. This growth will last another 10 years, and in the coming years we will see an increase in the number of data centers of operators providing video content distribution services through CDN technologies. ”

Yaroslav Gorodetsky, CEO of CDNvideo:

TRAFFIC GROWTH AND NICHE SERVICES
“Not so long ago, we conducted a study and found that only 20% of those who watch movies on the Internet watch them in HD. This leaves great potential for video traffic growth, and therefore for the development of CDN services. Moreover, the first TVs with Smart TV, capable of displaying video in 4K format (Ultra HD), are on sale now. After a couple of years, video consumption in this format will become popular, and this is another two-fold increase in traffic compared to HD.

On the other hand, CDN operators will develop additional services and specialize in specific areas: television, radio, electronic commerce, etc. For example, we, CDNvideo, specialize in showing videos on the Internet and servicing TV channels, our Russian competitors are in services for small sites, while in the UK there is a company that specializes in CDN services for radio stations. This is natural - each segment has its own special requirements for CDN, and therefore those CDN operators who specialize in a particular market will benefit rather than those who provide a wide range of services and try to catch any client in their networks. ”

Results What will be the future television? ..

No one is waiting for a revolution in television. The classic image of the head of the family, who sprawled in front of the TV with the remote control in his hands, will not leave life and popular culture for a very long time. The sofa, beer and football will remain in the rank of enduring values. And television will remain the same to which we are accustomed - a set of channels that make up the background for home life. In general, outwardly everything will remain as it was, but in the nuances something will change.

First, the television will be personal. At the same time, we are unlikely to create an individual viewing program for ourselves, digging into the sea of ​​video content. For this we are too lazy. But the TV itself will adapt to our preferences, analyzing our tastes, habits and personal information in the network. He will also show advertising individually - for each family.

Secondly, the television will completely go online. Probably, if the TV appeared now, then the content would be received only through the network. So the broadcasting will disappear with time, and the video content will be transmitted via Internet channels. At the same time, the traffic will grow many times, because the quality of the video will be incommensurable with the current one, and the content will become “heavier”. Now, in the Ultra HD format with a horizontal extension of 4000 pixels, only one channel broadcasts, and that one in Japan, but the development of this format is a matter of time.

All the technologies that can make television unrecognizable, is already there. Watching TV programs right now could become an immersion in virtual reality. But this is hampered by conservatism - both TV viewers and people in the TV industry. However, the changes that the experts are waiting for in the coming years will still delight the viewers, and the prospects for multiple growth will bring us.

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