San Diego TV used to be so simple.
Turn on the tube. Plop down on the sofa. Let it all wash over you.
But couch potatoes beware: New devices, new kinds of communication pipes and new business models are poised to forever change how we get and watch TV shows and movies.
“We’re going to see more change in the next five years in TV than we’ve seen in the last 50 years,” Paul Mitchell, general manager of Microsoft Corp.’s TV division, said at a technology conference here last week.
Like Microsoft, a growing number of big tech companies are tuning in to the potential of television, movies and other home entertainment.
They’re not just content supplying PCs or TVs or other equipment, either. Many tech companies are getting into the business of actually delivering programming too.
Some of the most notable:
Cisco Systems Inc. is known mainly for its back-office routers and switches that keep the Internet humming. But last week, it completed its $6.9 billion purchase of Lawrenceville, Ga.-based television set-top box maker Scientific Atlanta Inc., putting Cisco into millions of living rooms.
In February, Cisco put another feeler into the entertainment business, announcing a deal with Walt Disney Co. and Intel Corp. to resurrect MovieBeam, a service designed to beam movies on demand to customers using wireless equipment from Cisco’s Linksys subsidiary.
Apple Computer Inc. last week introduced its revamped, remote control-operated Mac mini computers that are designed as home-entertainment hubs and can easily connect to high-end TVs.
Some Apple watchers expect the company’s next move to be the introduction of a movie and television download service, much like the iTunes music store that works with Apple’s iPod players.
Microsoft has been trying to elbow its way out of the office and into consumers’ living rooms for years, with its Windows Media Center PCs, its Xbox gaming systems and its investment in ventures such as MSNBC. In January, Microsoft, Sony Corp. and Douglas County-based movie distributor Starz Entertainment Group announced a new service called Vongo that lets users download unlimited movies to their computers for $10 a month. Vongo is expected to announce soon that the service will be available to users of Sony’s next-generation PSP hand-held gaming devices.
Intel Corp. is rolling out a new computer processor technology, called Viiv, that helps PCs transfer movies, music and other media to televisions and other devices. But the chipmaker is putting money into content too. Along with its investment in MovieBeam, it is backing a company called ClickStar that plans to make movies exclusively for the Internet. Actor Morgan Freeman runs ClickStar.
AT&T Inc. recently got into the television business when it rolled out the first tests of its Internet-protocol TV service in its hometown of San Antonio. Called “U-Verse TV,” it offers television programming, movies on demand and other features. It is part of AT&T’s “Project Lightspeed” initiative for new voice and broadband Internet offerings that the company plans to introduce in 20 markets by the end of the year.
Technology companies have flirted with TV, movies and other forms of home entertainment for decades, with limited success, but several factors are coming together to drive the new efforts.
Foremost is the advent of the digital media. Now that programming is increasingly created and stored in digital format instead of analog, it can be easily moved around the world in a variety of ways.
Then there’s the growth of high-speed broadband Internet access.
Today, about 40 percent of U.S. households subscribe, making the Internet a viable alternative to cable television, satellite or other transmission methods.
The overall consumer technology and entertainment business, meanwhile, is growing by leaps and bounds. Last year, consumers spent nearly $77 billion on technology goods, according to research company NPD Group. Sales of some devices, such as flat-screen TVs, grew more than 100 percent.
Companies are realizing that high-tech home entertainment “is the next frontier,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research.
“It’s where the growth is.”
And then there’s the Apple factor. Apple has been so successful selling music – and now TV shows, movie clips and other video – with iTunes and its iPods that other big tech companies want to make sure they don’t miss out on the next media revolution.
All that said, nobody expects traditional television to disappear any time soon. In one telling sign, Americans still consume about four hours of television a day, on average, while Internet users view about 2 1/2 minutes a day of video on the Web, according to technology research company Yankee Group.
Some big tech companies that had grand plans for Web-based TV are actually backing off.
Part of the reason why: Although 40 percent of U.S. households have broadband Internet service, only about a fourth of them regularly access video on the Web, according to Yankee Group.
