The Challenges to Google TV's Adoption

The Challenges to Google TV's Adoption Ross: We’re really seeing far more televisions adopt some way of connecting to the internet now whether it’s through a wired connection or increased wireless connection, which is really important because not a lot of consumers have a wired internet connection in their living room. We’re currently seeing about a third of flat panel televisions over 40 inches have some way of connecting to the internet that doesn’t necessarily mean consumers are connecting them because you know, they sometimes need to buy some extra equipment to do it but definitely, we’re starting to see more momentum in terms of consumers hooking them up. And what’s really driving it is actually something that has driven a television for decades which is more choice. you know more video option we’re seeing services such as Netflix and iTunes rental now for TV shows, Amazon on Box and increasingly Hulu which is now launched a subscription service so you know, over the past decade, TiVo really got consumers use to the idea of getting their TV shows on demand. And now, we’re just taking away a lot of the hustle involved in having to remember the set of a DVR to record the show. And just have it stream live over the internet. Male: So tell us about Google TV how do you think, that’s going to shape up? Ross: Well Google TV is leveraged as lot of the technology that Google has in its Android Smartphones which is done very well in the market place. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that Google TV will be as successful as Android has been in the handset market. There are a lot of variables, for one thing, carriers had a big role in the success of Android in the cell phone. Of a lot here in the US for example, Verizon was very strong backer of android and offers a variety of high end Smartphones that include android. With and because of carrier subsidization, they’ve been able to make those very affordable. In contrast in the TV market, in the Blu Ray market, there really is no subsidization you know consumers just go to the store and you know, pick out the device that they want and particularly at the beginning, they’re going to be some extra cost associated with Google TV but the idea is to bring that sort of freedom and flexibility of searching the web and being able to track down whatever video you want and install applications like you can on a smart phone and bring that to the television. Male: And what about Apple TV. There’s been a lot of talk about their recent announcements so and there’s a lot of anticipation, how might that rule out and what are your thoughts about it? Ross: So this is the third generation Apple TV and Apple or Steve Jobs continues to refer to it as a hobby for the company. It has been difficult to create that same of scale with that product that the company has with its iPhone or iPod Touch and it’s some of the same barriers that Google’s going to face with the Google TV and that it’s very difficult to integrate the cable programming or the satellite programming at this point and of course consumers are paying for those services and they want them integrated into the experience. What Apple’s has done differently with this round of Apple TV is that they’ve made the product much smaller, much less expensive and they’ve done away with the local storage so it’s really very much a rental device, you can’t purchase content from it and but again it’ this extra layer on top of the cattle satellite and cable services. Male: What about the Smart TV. Is there, you just said to plug the Ethernet cord and you’re ready to roll. Do they have an advantage or how’s that shaking up and also the Blu Ray Players also with your pervasive. Ross: Absolutely you know, now these are two very high volume devices that a lot of consumers have purchased DVD players in the past and Blu Ray is very much the successor to that device and not only is it a disc player, but it’s a relatively affordable way of getting blood band content to the living room much less expensive than purchasing a whole new television set. So on the other hand, if you’re going to purchase a new connected TV, it’s tough to compete with building it right in right, so these high volume devices definitely have an advantage in the marketplace and some cases, their user interfaces or the breath of their services or the scope of what they’re trying to do may not be as broad as what we’re seeing from vendors such as Apple or Google or another company called Boxee or Roku that all are purchasing these add-on devices that may have more feel for enthusiasts or another part of the market. Male: So the boxes these add-ons you think are more specialist enthusiast that their net not going to go main stream? Ross: I mean they are definitely an option for someone who has no plans to purchase a new TV or is not very excited by Blu Ray or doesn’t like the presentation of these services within Blu Ray or one part of choice but I wouldn’t necessarily call them enthusiast products I mean, quite a few of them are available for under a hundred dollars and now we’re even starting to see devices for under a hundred dollars that allow you to just take any content on your PC and send it out to the television so you have access to all the video, photos and other content on your PC when you don’t have to worry about the user interface on the television. You just send the video you want up to the TV. Male: Why now is this going to work or not work? I mean is it because of the bandwidth? is it because of the content producers. Why is this a particularly promising time or might there be a lot of stumbles again? Ross: Well you know, there are a lot of different things you can do on a television that you know, it’s a big screen and will certainly see a lot of different kinds of ideas tried. Interesting when a lot of the big TV brands really started to embrace internet connectivity. One of the things they embrace was Yahoo, Widgets which offer things such as weather and sports and other bits of information on the TV. That’s seen some success. We’ve started to see games, casual games registers, some success in connected TV but absolutely, it is the broadband is kind of broadband is table stakes to making the experience happen and really what’s driving it is the explosion and online video whether it be through a subscription service such as Netflix or purchasing or renting ala carte or you know, even fringe or user generated content out of YouTube. Male: Yes, so and just a follow up on this, in terms of consumption, do you see that people consuming on demand streaming, do you see them buying content that’s downloadable. I mean, there’s a lot of different places. Amazon has a sort of store on the cloud and Netflix’s streaming, is it the streaming sort of on demand service or is it downloadable purchasing, where is that going? Ross: It’s a mix of models certainly but streaming has a lot going for it right now. Studio certainly like it because it gets you know, it helps avoid some of the issues around piracy you know, there’s no file to be moved around. Nothing that has to be managed, nothing that has to be stored and again as the bandwidth improves, the streaming quality is also going to improve. You know, you can access the file from, you can access the steam rather, from a variety of services. In fact, one service called Vudu which was purchased by Wal-Mart actually, when you buy a movie through the service, you don’t actually get a file, you just get the right to unlimited streaming of that movie.