[Advanced] The Future of TV (1)

The way you watch your favorite TV shows may be changing

The price of cable TV continues to grow. Better online video content and streaming devices have spawned cord-cutters. What did these movements mean for the future of TV? Disrupters and cable insiders offer a sneak peek.

Avner Ronen CEO, Boxee
The reform cord-cutter

Boxee’s recent tuner add-on lets users of the Boxee Box--an open-source media-streaming device--watch HD broadcast stations on their televisions.

"When we started, we weren’t as intimately familiar with how this industry worked. Just telling people, 'Yeah, you should go ahead and cut the cord' without being able to watch the Olympics doesn’t work. That’s why we decided to concentrate on providing the broadcast networks to our users. If you can offer broadcast network, and add them to Netflix and Hulu and YouTube, for many people that would be a great experience. And a more affordable one.

TV should not be free

We believe that content makers need to be compensated for their work. We’re not advocating that the future of TV should be free. Stuff is being produced for YouTube that is getting. We have to make sure the incumbents understand: We are not trying to destroy their business.

Anand Subramanian CEO, NimbleTV
The Visionary

NimbleTV's technology streams a cable or satellite subscriber's programming to the web, enabling TV viewing on virtually any device connected to the Internet.

"I'm sure I wasn't the first to wonder, Why can't we watch live TV--stuff we pay a cable subscription for--on the device of our choosing? So I met with cable operators and stations, and learned. They're bound by a complex patchwork of old contracts and regulations. But a third party like me is unbound by all of this. I'd never succeed by disrupting the industry model, so I'm working within it. To use NimbleTV, you have to pay for a cable subscription. That way, everyone's still getting paid. And I'm making it easy; you won't even need a cable box anymore. 


Notes and Vocabulary
streaming adj.
playing continuously as data is sent to a computer over the Internet

spawn v.
1 to produce or lay eggs in water — used of animals such as fish or frogs
2 to cause (something) to develop or begin : to produce or create (something)

intimately adv.
very complete

incumbent
a person who holds a particular office or position

visionary adj.
having or showing clear ideas about what should happen or be done in the future ;
having or showing a powerful imagination

patchwork n.
1 something that is made up of different things
2 pieces of cloth of different colors and shapes that are sewn together in a pattern


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