Watch TV Online Free

This is a great article when coupled with the second article below. Also check out the link to a nice video on the topic of Watch TV Online Free. Several media executives have asked me about the convergence of the Internet and TV over the last couple of months. I now have a nice reference point for them about the short-term obstacles and possible
solutions, courtesy of Nick Wingfield in an article in the Wall Street Journal titled The Internet. The TV. They have even created a brief video. Nick frames the issue as a series of problems with potential solutions:

THE PROBLEM: Too Many Boxes
THE SOLUTION: Blend Boxes

THE PROBLEM: Too Complicated
THE SOLUTION: Keep it simple

THE PROBLEM: Sticker Shock
THE SOLUTION: Set Video Free

THE PROBLEM: Limited Selection
THE SOLUTION: Open up the Boxes

THE PROBLEM: Slow Downloads
THE SOLUTION: Faster, Smarter

Thinking as a futurist, this is one of those developments that we know for a certainty will happen, but we don't know precisely how long it will happen or the path it will take.

The very rapid rise of IPTV (TV delivered over the Internet) is resulting in a proliferation of content that people want to watch, but it's content that they want to watch in their living rooms from a sofa rather than sitting right in front of a PC. There is no doubt that by the end of 2008 the current crop of IPTV contenders, including Joost, Babelgum, Brightcove, and Hulu, will be joined by many others, and the sector will collectively be providing enough quality content to keep the most avid channel surfer locked to their coach. The reality is that this rich IPTV content is only available now, making this one of the top issues for the industry for the year ahead.

Now that large flat screens are in a large proportion of developed-country homes, these are absolutely where people will want to view this content. In a sense, home convergence is a fait-accompli in the viewing device. However the box which converges TV signals, IP content, and gaming devices is still very much in play, slowing the overall development of the converged home.
One point to add to Nick's excellent analysis is that once IPTV is available on people's living room flat screens, they will get used to accessing the Internet from the comfort of their sofa, and want to do more than just watch TV channels. Indeed, Internet entertainment does - and will even more - encompass far more than video, as Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight become fully-fledged entertainment platforms in their own right. Having an easy-to-use input device and mouse that can be used seated will be essential. This could include gesture recognition, so people can simply point to the screen and snap their fingers (for example), though a Wii-style pointer is more likely in the short-term.

The only way that IPTV will genuinely take off is when it can be easily accessed in the living room. While the problems described by Nick are collectively a major roadblock to uptake, I believe the availability of content is going to mean that 2008 will be the year that Internet truly reaches the living room big screen.

The Internet. The TV.
Here's how to finally bring them together.
By NICK WINGFIELD
December 11, 2007; Page R1

Millions of people love watching Internet video on their PCs. So why can't the technology industry figure out how to get them to watch Internet video on their television sets?

It isn't for lack of trying. For several years, Silicon Valley has bombarded the market with gadgets that let you tune into online video in your living room. Plug one of these set-top boxes into your TV, and you can download a selection of movies and TV shows, or perhaps browse video sites like YouTube.

It seems like a no-brainer: Consumers get a greater breadth of on-demand content than cable offers, and in the comfort of their living room or bedroom, the industry argues.

WSJ's Nick Wingfield reviews some of the gadgets that are bringing TV shows, movies and a broad range of other video from the Internet to the living room.
Yet consumers aren't buying. Internet video players like Apple Inc.'s Apple TV and Akimbo Systems Inc.'s Akimbo Player haven't managed to reach an audience beyond the early-adopter crowd. And multipurpose devices that let you watch Internet video -- such as TiVo Inc.'s digital video recorders -- haven't found a mass market either, analysts say.

What's the holdup? Generally speaking, the video players are just too complicated to hook up, too expensive and too limited in what they can do. There are skeptics, too, who think Internet video players are trying to solve a problem that simply doesn't exist -- especially as cable companies enhance on-demand video services.

"The issue with these next-generation set-top boxes is they're hard to use, hard to install and the return on investment isn't particularly large because the content is available elsewhere," says Mike Volpi, CEO of Joost NV, a London-based Internet television service available through PCs.

Still, tech companies can't stay away from the idea, because of the booming popularity of Internet video. In August, Internet users in the U.S. viewed 9.13 billion online videos, up 26% from 7.24 billion in January, estimates research firm com score Inc.

Users watched more than a quarter of those videos on Google Inc.'s YouTube, but online video from traditional entertainment companies is exploding, too. Over the past two years, broadcasters have begun streaming nearly all of their most popular shows free with advertisements on their Web sites. (A stream doesn't allow users to keep a permanent copy of the show.) NBC alone says it streamed 50 million shows from its site during October.

EXPANDING THE MARKET

PODCAST: Even a hot, entertainment-savvy company like Apple is finding it tough to sell consumers on watching Internet video on TV. WSJ's Nick Wingfield talks with Forrester Research's James McQuivey about who's likely to win in the quest to expand this market.
THE JOURNAL REPORT

Software tools allow people to manage the clutter that threatens to overwhelm their daily lives. Plus, house hunters can arm themselves with information long before they contact a real-estate agent.
%u2022 See the complete Technology report.How can tech companies get consumers to take the next step and start watching Internet video on their TVs? We interviewed more than a dozen executives in the technology and entertainment industries, analysts and others. What follows are five reasons Internet video players haven't taken off -- and five broad changes that could help their chances of reshaping the television landscape:

THE PROBLEM: Too Many Boxes

Let's start with one of the most basic problems: clutter. Consumers simply don't want to add a new box to their home-entertainment centers. Consumers made exceptions, of course, for DVD players and VCRs. But the benefits of stand-alone Internet video players have been too weak to make people clear space in their homes.

Akimbo, of San Mateo, Calif., earlier this year gave up selling its $99 Internet video player, which let users download cooking shows, anime and other niche programming from the Internet. The company is now focusing on offering its video-on-demand service through PCs and multipurpose set-top boxes like AT&T Inc.'s Home zone, which contain a satellite-television tuner and digital video recorder.

"I love toys, but a stand-alone box needs to give me something I can't get anywhere else," says Thomas Frank, CEO of Akimbo.

Even Apple, despite its smashing success in digital entertainment with the iPod, hasn't seen a big success with Apple TV, which went on sale early this year. Forrester Research Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., estimates Apple has sold fewer than 400,000 Apple TVs. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has tried to downplay expectations for the product by calling Apple TV a "hobby" for the company.

THE SOLUTION: Blend Boxes

Many technology and entertainment executives now believe the surest path for Internet video is through an existing device in the living room -- though there are lots of guesses about what that device is.

Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu, an online video site that's a joint venture of News Corp.'s Fox and General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, believes the device will be a specially equipped television set, because while people may not buy any more boxes, they might be willing to upgrade to a new TV. Jeremy Allaire, chairman and CEO of video-delivery service Brightcove Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., thinks high-definition DVD players are likely candidates; he believes lots of consumers already plan to replace existing players with ones capable of playing high-definition movies.

Watch TV Online Free: Continued below

Some companies, like Akimbo, are already taking steps in this direction. Sony Corp. this year began selling a $300 adapter for its Bravia high-definition television sets that tunes into Internet video. The company eventually plans to let users download television shows and movies to its PlayStation 3 game console, as Microsoft Corp. already does with its Xbox 360 game console. Microsoft says about a third of its more than seven million Xbox 360 users in the U.S. have downloaded television shows and movies through the company's Xbox Live online service.

Meanwhile, Tom Rogers, CEO of TiVo, is betting his company's DVRs are the best system for downloading Internet video. TiVo, of Alviso, Calif., already lets its users download television shows and movies through a partnership with Amazon.com Inc.

Cable and satellite set-top boxes might be in a strong position to become Internet video players, in part because of their history of copying innovations and bringing them to a mass market. For example, the vast majority of the roughly 22 million DVRs in U.S. households are part of TV tuners from cable and satellite companies; fewer than two million are stand-alone TiVo models.

Kip Compton, general manager of the video and content networking unit at Cisco Systems Inc., which owns cable set-top box maker Scientific Atlanta, predicts cable companies will begin rolling out the first cable boxes that can access Internet video next year. "People are buying, testing and getting ready to deploy them," Mr. Compton says.

Some tech executives believe the cable industry will drag its feet rolling out Internet-based video because it could represent a long-term threat to its traditional subscription-television business. The fear: Will people be willing to pay for traditional cable service if they can watch lots of TV shows free of charge from the Internet, on their regular TV sets?

On the other hand, wide acceptance of Internet video would likely be a huge boon for cable companies' broadband Internet-access businesses. "We're going to go where the customer takes us," says an executive at one cable company.

Some analysts predict new entrants to the pay-television market, Verizon Communications Inc.'s FiOS TV and AT&T's U-verse, will be the first to open their set-top boxes to video from the Internet. That's because their services already use the same underlying communications technologies as the Internet. (For now, video on those services is delivered over the telecom companies' private networks, not the public Internet.)

THE PROBLEM: Too Complicated

Besides the hassles of getting Internet video players hooked up to television sets, most of them also need to be configured to connect to the Internet over a wired or wireless home network. And that process can be daunting. Wireless access points often require users to remember and enter a password before adding any new devices to the network, which hinders the "plug and play" experience many consumers expect from entertainment systems. Some devices like Apple TV force users to take an awkward first step: Users must purchase movies and TV shows on their PCs before they can access them in the living room. (Though Apple TV users can access YouTube videos on the Internet directly from their devices.)

THE SOLUTION: Keep it simple

First, home networks and Internet video players will have to play more nicely with each other. Cisco's Linksys division, which makes home-networking equipment, has made it easier to add new computers to a wireless network by pushing a button on the devices, eliminating the need to enter a security password. Makers of Internet video players will need to integrate support for such features into their products to make setup easier.

Cable, satellite and telecommunications companies entering the video market may, again, have a leg up on rivals because they have fleets of technicians who handle the installation of new gear in living rooms.

Another way to make things simpler is to give the set-top box its own Internet connection. Building B Inc., a Belmont, Calif., company developing an Internet video player, uses long-range wireless Internet technologies to send video directly to television sets, so users don't necessarily have to connect the box to their home network.

THE PROBLEM: Sticker Shock

Compared with other methods of getting entertainment