tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post4691418398543781904..comments2024-02-06T16:17:25.826+00:00Comments on THE GRØNMARK BLOG: Why online giants will never gain control of our TVsScott Gronmarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-90099389583645751502011-10-18T22:40:09.054+01:002011-10-18T22:40:09.054+01:00Well, Ex-BBC, I agree that the strength of our dig...Well, Ex-BBC, I agree that the strength of our digital TV platforms makes web via the TV a bit pointless – but the main point is that once you take away any sense of immediacy from the offering, the allure is lost. The iPlayer works because most programmes disappear after a week – if they just sat there forever (once a dream of the BBC’s) hardly anyone would bother. I had IPTV for several months about ten years ago – and it was dull!<br /><br />Nerds may no longer be 7-stone weaklings lusting after revenge – but they grew up with TV, whatever happened to them after puberty, and I reckon they still want to control that friend (perhaps their only friend when they were little) in the corner of the living room. <br /><br />No, I can’t blame these companies for spending their own money on R&D – especially not Apple, whose superb design and imagination tend to create a need for products no one realized they wanted – but I’d much prefer it if Microsoft concentrated all their energy on improving their crappy, bloated software rather than trying to capture a market they know sod all about: having suffered years of Windows, I really don’t want these people coming anywhere near my TV!<br />Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 08:08 PMScott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-20945879710039754482011-10-18T22:39:54.871+01:002011-10-18T22:39:54.871+01:00I can’t answer for the US TV market, but the reaso...I can’t answer for the US TV market, but the reason for IPTV’s relative lack of success in the UK must be a mixture of the strength of the three main digital offerings and the difficulty of understanding what IPTV would add to it. I can’t see why current digital viewers would feel the need for what BT Vision offers, especially as it comes from a source most phone customers aren’t that impressed with. If our digital TV was a lot worse I’m sure IPTV would have won a larger share of the market by now. On another point I’m not sure your portrayal of the “online giants” as a bunch of envious nerds is still accurate. They must have hired a lot of broadcasters by now, including the BBC’s very own former new media director Ashley Highfield, who must have been at Microsoft for a few years by now, and didn’t the BBC announce last week that Eric Huggers, Hghfield’s replacement was off to Intel? <br /><br />Finally can you really blame the Googles and Apples and Microsofts from trying to gatecrash the TV party? Yes, they probably all got it a bit wrong, imagining that TV viewers would love to have a You Tube experience on their TVs (horses for courses, as you say)but surely there’s nothing wrong with these very rich companies investing in research in new fields? I should have thought that someone from your end of the political spectrum would have applauded all this private sector endeavour. You’re not paying for it, it does no harm, and some universally beneficial technological advances might ensue.<br />Sunday, January 23, 2011 - 12:54 AMEX-BBCnoreply@blogger.com