Posted on 12/25/2012 3:07:32 PM PST by delacoert
Most television will be streamed over the Internet in the coming years, said Anthony Wood, CEO of Roku, maker of the streaming TV device of the same name.
The question is how Internet-delivered content will get to your TV and who will deliver it, Wood told CNBC's Squawk on the Street. Right now, set-top devices like Roku and Apple TV and Internet-enabled Smart TVs are best positioned to take advantage of the sea change, said Wood.
"Those are the two ways that most people are going to be watching television that's distributed over the Internet," said Wood.
In the set-top battle, Roku and Apple are neck and neck right now. The two devices account for roughly 90 percent of the stream-to-television market. As of April, Roku had sold about 3 million Roku players since the company was founded in 2002. The rest of 2012 has been positive, said Wood.
"We were selling a Roku every second on Black Friday. We're having our best quarter ever this year, and the platform is doing really well," he said.
Stream-to-television devices currently have an advantage over Smart TVs, said Wood. Whereas most Smart TVs deliver a few marquee services, such as Netflix and Hulu, Roku gives customers access to nearly 700 streaming channels, according to the company.
However, the lines between Roku and its Smart TV competition could begin to blur. A number of Roku-ready televisions will debut at CES, the preeminent technology trade show, this January.
"We think there's a huge opportunity to expand our platform from streaming players, where we're a leader today, into TVs," said Wood.
While Wood believes that the future of television is on the Internet, he said it will be some time before consumers give up the bundled services offered by cable and satellite providers. But as these the incumbents face competition from streaming services, he said they may begin to offer more options and cheaper services.
The next generation, he says, is a virtual MSO, or multiple system operator. Such a system would combine on-demand services such as Netflix and Hulu with traditional subscription fee service for programmed TV — all via the Internet, rather than cable or satellite.
"That's the big question. I think that's coming, but whether it's next year or not we'll have to see," said Wood.
Not if you live where we do and Centurytel (Centurylink) is the only ISP available. I pay for broadband yet enjoy dialup.
Cable TV Companies are toast.
But they still charge outrageous amounts and you STILL have to buy their stupid bundle packages.
I have been cable-free for 5 years now. Never going back.
I want my FReeper-TV
The present of PORN TV is Internet, everybody knows that!
It is the future, but the future is farther away than these guys think. They still need to expand past the digital elite. And they have to solve the sports issue. Eventually it’ll happen, but we’re talking at least another decade, maybe even 2.
Roku needs to sit down with YouTube and iron something out.
So far, that is my only disappointment with Roku: no YouTube.
I predict many more stations on the internet TV. This is both good and bad. There will be Tea Party TV with Conservative programming, Red TV with Communist Propaganda, the Black Power TV and the KKK Network with there flagship show “The White Power Hour”—heck, even Glen Beck is setting up an internet network. Their will be a Mormon Station, a Gay channel, an old TV show channel—westerns and war movies—all sorts of things. One will just show movies made by people rather than studios. I see a comeback of the 15 minute TV show and the 1/2 hour show. Six years down the pike all we know will be changed when it comes to entertainment.
Not yet time for sea change due t broadband congestion.
One major problem with Internet broadcasting is generating enough revenue to justify content development.
The Internet is great for streaming existing movies and TV programs. However, some attempts by groups to develop Internet content has lacked a revenue stream to support further development.
I dumped my $70 cable tv bought a Roku, now I pay $8 for netflix. So when they went down, just rented a HD movie on Amazon. Did the same for my mom and she loves it too.
I don’t get any espn but I would have boycotted them anyway.
Which is basically what’s been going on in the community access section of the cable dial since the 80s. Not to mention the high number channels for the same kind of thing nationally.
The issue really isn’t what’s going on in the sending side, it’s the receiver side. Roku has 3 million boxes out. Netflix has 25 million subscribers. And even most of these people haven’t cut the cable, they’re doing internet WITH cable.
6 years from now it will be more of the same. Figure about 50 million people will be interneting some of their TV, but even then 3/4 of them will be supplementing cable not replacing it. A nation of 311 million changes slowly, because they need to gain the technology (outside urban high speed internet is still difficult to acquire), and change their brains. And that change has to go against one of the basic rules of life, they have to fix something that isn’t broke. They’re getting TV just fine now, through a system they understand and can navigate. Folks won’t be that eager to learn a whole new way of doing their TV business.
You can run software that emulates any of them, and you can download any content you want.
I talked to several other family members who indicated their Netflix service was down last night as well. i didn’t realize it was nationwide. Yeah I’d say the interview was ironically and badly timed...lol
I've had a Roku for two years now and right away we were using it 20% of the time (compared to cable). Now it is easily 80% of the time we go to the Roku and we've cut down to the basic cable service. Other than NFL football (which I DVR), I'm hard pressed to think of something I like to watch on cable that I can't get through the Roku (Internet streaming)
Netflix and Hulu are definitely worth the monthly payments they charge but I wish Netflix would have more available streaming (most of their movies you still have to get the DVD mailed to you).
This is not news.
I dont have cable anymore-i got an hd antennae on my roof and get 69 stations. i watch many more things online like gold rush- dont miss the cable bill ay all. i dohave a roku but dont watch it much
I would use Netflix, for my cellphone, but the bandwidth cost would kill me. I wish that these companies would create an app, for my phone, to allow me to upload the videos, through WiFi, watch the movies without using bandwidth, then it could be deleted from my phone after.
OK, so they took a prat fall. It’s still true. The technology is there with plain vanilla ADSL to stream movies as good as what the old 525 line NTSC TV could display, with far better sound. Better quality can be, if not streamed on economy broadband, then downloaded within a reasonable time. They’ll be laughing about the server prat fall in a couple of years while bragging that it came to pass in spades.
There are still some flyover areas that need better bandwidth, I would love to dump traditional cable in favor of on demand, but more reliable broadband service would be needed.
The future of television is self-produced youtube (or other hosted) video clips. Why spend 30-60 minutes watching ONE show? Just invest that time in a MOVIE from the past 80 years of talkies.
And tv shows just go on and on and on for years. Who can afford that much time commitment?
Well, I'll probably still be laughing.
My daughter got her boyfriend a Smart TV for Christmas. We haven’t figured it all out yet, but he loves the NetFlix feature.
While I don’t mind self produced videos, I’d rather watch a well a tv show that has well developed plotline that can take years to resolve itself. I tend to watch them in short segments, as I have time to watch them.
But how can I get my Internet service without cable? Right now stuck with Comcast but would love to cut that off if possible.
We buy internet from our local Cable TV provider over fiber optics and we get 5gb speeds. We do NOT pay for any TV package, because it would add minimum $30/month, and we’re very happy with our internet w/o TV. They do call from time to time to try to sell us the TV package, and we don’t buy. We’re just the weird ones, I suppose.
You can buy the internet without the TV package. Just be an ass about it and they’ll eventually relent.
I’m a big curling fan and up until 2011 the only ways I could see it are:
1. Beg someone in Canada for VHS tapes or DVDs
2. Buy select games from CBC for outrageous prices (I don’t think they even offer that service anymore)
3. Get a “grey market dish” and go through the hassles in setting up an account or endure signal outages.
4. Wait every four years for the Olympics
Now with high a speed cable modem and HDMI cable, I can connect my computer to my TV and watch a plethora of curling content. Many sources such as TSN, TESN, WCFTV and Youtube offer full matches for viewing (available either live on a short time delay). Last week, for the first time, I was able to watch the European curling championships....something that was once only viewable via Eurosport.
With Netflix and HULU many of my DVD collections are no longer needed.
I no longer have a need for a land line phone (I use an Ooma phone), cable TV, dish or even standard over-the-air. There is so much content I only watch “regular” TV for live sporting events or breaking news.
Dropped cable 3 years ago, I have an LCD plugged directly into my computer, watch everything via internet via a channel’s website, I use a wireless mouse and keyboard, no cable bill, Comcast owns MSNBC, I will never watch nor affiliate myself with any subsidiary owned by Comcast Universal NBC! I would rather get my info from North Korean state TV than watch any of Comcast’s socialist propaganda!
I love seeing how the pundits have aged though, but I love the fact I no longer have to hear them yelling over each other.
I know but its still pricey. Like $70 per month for Internet only service. I wonder if I can find a way to cut that down to $30 to $40 per month. Comcast.
A lot depends on whether you have competing services available. Once we got ATT U-Verse availablity, I was able to browbeat Brighthouse Cable pretty effectively on price. I do have to negotiate every 6 months or so.
I bought a ROKU 1000 on Ebay to play with.
Does anyone know how to connect the old roku’s to a computer to play video files?
The man is correct. Cable will be relegated to broadband. Satellite will be consumed
Are you able to use a DVR very easily with that setup? I watch very little live tv so if I can’t record, that would be ineffective for me.
Okey, dokey, so you cut off cable, as many report above, and then order Internet only service. From who[m?}, the cable company or the phone company? For how much, as opposed to cable+Internet?
Internet only comes to about $70 per month from Comcast. Not a great deal. How about tethering a 4G phone to a laptop that has a router for the other laptops in the home?
HDTV Ping list
How many of you are using ROKU or Apple TV.
Do you find it superior to Cable or Satellite? Is it price competitive?
.....watch everything via internet via a channel’s website.....
Elucidate please
What about Fox News?
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LasVegasDave.
all that is there now plus more church stations than AM radio
For us it’s both, not one replacing the other.
If your tethering, the cellphone companies will charge you,for coming and going, where your cell phone is concerned. Downloading from the tower, then downloading onto your device. It’s no problem, if you can keep your data to within your plan, but if you go over, the overcharges are just huge.
I have an opinion about porn and its effect on the internet. Get out of its way.
And we have 3 DVRs. Another reason to put up with cable bundling.
Yes you can, windows Media Player has a feature to record TV and there are various programs that do it too, they have video cards that have TV tuners too for over air HD antennas, also, the LCD TV’s today have both HDMI input and the older DVI standard that older computers used, it truly is a great set up, funny, I used to be a cable guy too, ha,ha, I hated seeing how customers had to pay out a hundreds of dollars for entertainment, especially those who couldn’t afford it, the internet is a gift from God, it truly empowers the individual in a way that is truly astounding, the cable industry can no longer dictate which channels to carry, the phone companies and wireless providers are laying the ground work to compete, the cable industry will be forced to change or die like the corrupt monopoly they are!
Thanks, I may take that path, right now by browbeating the cable co with the possibility of a switch to U-verse my costs aren’t too bad. But I continue to look at alternatives.
I have DSL with download speeds of 2.4. What do you need for decent Roku usage?
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