The TV Apps Economy Will Be A $14 Billion Business

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelwolf/2013/06/20/heres-why-the-tv-apps-economy-will-be-a-14-billion-business/

by bgamido • 13 years ago

18 22 13 years ago

TV+Internet convergence... now with Apps.

Not really sure what makes it different from the other times this has been tried. Those Cable companies are really good at stomping out any innovation.

Caligula• 13 years ago

Cable companies are terrible at getting good software on televisions. They are obsessed with control. They flirted with OCAP for years and after a decade it was all a waste.

nwhitehead• 13 years ago

If you have a good idea for a television app you can build it and publish it now on Roku. No need to wait for some revolution or anything.

To get started in Roku development just takes a Roku device for testing (cheap) and free registration as a developer [1]. You build applications using a custom language (BrightScript) that is similar to Lua or VB. Once you're done you can publish your app for free or charge for it. Publishing channels that show up in the main channel store requires Roku testing and certification, which can take a few weeks sometimes.

My experience developing apps on Roku has been pretty positive. The biggest negative is the non-standard language and environment (they should have gone with an existing language IMO). Another issue is that you can't show foreign language content, they now have a DISH Network exclusive agreement for foreign channels.

[1] http://www.roku.com/developer

KaiserPro3• 13 years ago

I'm really sorry, but it won't. Not in its current form.

Microsoft, intel, Sky(in the UK) and Google have been trying to promote this since the late 90's and they've failed.

There is limited scope to have a few widgets on a dashboard. Thats about it.

Think about it, when you sit down to watch TV, you want to be absorbed in the programme. You don't want to be distracted by silly popups asking you to "fill in this for to get x" or "wipe the screen to interact with this advert"

We have lots of smart TVs in britian, and most of them are just used as TVs. They interfaces suck balls (I'm looking at you samsung with voice activations)

There is a trend for "second screen" interfaces. Where a smartphone/tablet can receive content relevant to whats on TV. That is far more likley to take off. Its still equally useless and annoying for all but america's got talent and the like.

If the TV content is good, then there is no need for second screen/twitter popups (Dangerous catch I'm looking at you, seriously, fishing is shit, and no amount of popups is going to make it more dramatic.)

The one thing I am glad of in the UK is the BBC. American TV is so utterly broken its unbelievable. As a demonstration of this: go and find a UK edit of top gear, then compare it to the US.

Top gear is full of content, but in the US it appears that this is bad, so they cut out half the stuff and replace it with plot spoilers and recaps every five minutes. The BBC did an edit of the first series of myth busters, they chopped it down to 25 minutes, just by getting rid of the stupid recaps. There is so much filler in american TV.

TV is about content, and content discovery. Distractions are bad. unless they are more interesting than the TV you are watching (assuming the proliferation of antique hunting/storage unit buying programmes won't be too long)

anigbrowl• 13 years ago

Quoted for truth. I am constantly embarrassed by how awful American TV formats are - most of the drama is just as bad, with a few startling exceptions.

aaronbrethorst3• 13 years ago

Assuming the article's thesis is correct, I think that where the article says "The TV apps economy will be a $14bn business," you could just as well change it to say, "Apple is going to create a new $14bn P&L in the next few years." Here's why:

    Microsoft, intel, Sky(in the UK) and Google have
    been trying to promote this since the late 90's
    and they've failed.

    ...

    They[sic] interfaces suck balls (I'm looking at
    you samsung with voice activations)

Apple didn't invent the smartphone, or the tablet, but they made them good. (I had a smartphone in 2002 and a tablet PC in 2003, and they were terrible! And they continued to be terrible until Apple came in and redefined the markets.)

If anyone is going to win the 'smart TV' space and make second screen apps generally palatable to a broad base of consumers, it'll be Apple.

One thing that's interesting to consider is that Apple can't be making much, if any, money on the Apple TV. They also can't be making a ton of money on iTunes-sold content, although they finally did admit recently that the iTunes Store is no longer a break-even business that exists solely to sell hardware. And Apple, traditionally, has loved having fat margins. So, where are they going to make money in this?

wilfra2• 13 years ago

Apple or somebody capable of channeling Steve Jobs. Yes. Exactly.

My Samsung "Smart" TV and AT&T Uverse (cable) are terrible at everything other than playing video once I've finally found it. Not because the hardware and data are crap - but because the software is a UX nightmare.

That's a solvable problem. One which Samsung and AT&T are clearly not capable of solving, but solvable nonetheless.

KaiserPro3• 13 years ago

Oh apple are making a nice margin on iTunes content!

zalew2• 13 years ago

Ads and BS aside, Top Gear is legendary and they just get it right on so many levels that no licensed localized version can keep up with it (there is Australian and a Russian one). It's like if you tried to make an adaptation of Goodfellas only not by Scorsese and without Liotta, De Niro and Pesci.

KaiserPro3• 13 years ago

100% and I am grateful for the likes of the simpsons, family guy, archer, 24, community, lost(well sortof) band of brother, CSI & big bang theory, just to mention a few

I'm not implying the british TV is the only way.

I'd actually forgotten about the US produced version of topgear. I think I lost interest at the after they started playing lots of heavy metal to try and jazz up the "drama".

sc00ter• 13 years ago

The BBC did an edit of the first series of myth busters, they chopped it down to 25 minutes, just by getting rid of the stupid recaps.

Now there's a service I'd pay for! It wouldn't even have to sell the edited content, just an edit decision list that given the original video skips over all the dross on playback.

drawkbox• 13 years ago

Apple TV with games, that will be the big part. It will be a new console and one that is more open. It will win if they do it right, they will own handheld and console/screen platforms

Controlling or flicking apps to the Apple TV from your device/pad and then playing. Or using an app like that in school, business presentations etc. AirPlay was just the first step.

Further on that leads to remote controlling very large screens, movie theater waiting games, street big screens, big screens at concerts/sports venues. I think they are underestimating it... Screens everywhere with apps/games tightly tied to remote control devices on your phone.

Apple TV will use native and common languages not just scripting like Roku although there will be many scripting libraries that will pop up. I'd love to work on some of this and can't wait.

Side note: I think Microsoft being closed and XBone is further missing a huge opportunity here... they are the only other one that has the full device setup like Apple (hardware, software, devices, pull) but they fumbled it over and over. Including the older Win7 being on C# only and non native for one -- xbox being closed. It's too late for them. Apple TV can accidentally disrupt the entire game console market and TV app market introducing all sorts of things and standards for controlling screens.

josephlord• 13 years ago

This may be true but 95-99% of that revenue will go to those apps allowing access to video content (Netflix, Amazon, Lovefilm, HBO and many other services around the world). Whether the remainder is 1% or 5% will probably depend on whether there is a good enough interface for games developed.

The 10ft user interface sucks (and is always going to suck) compared with handheld touch device so it is a lousy platform for interaction. It may even be that browsing of the content provided by apps increasingly moves to the tablet while playback remains on the big screen.

ippisl• 13 years ago

Two new models for TV apps I see are:

1. Games that are specifically fitted to replace TV. They'll probably be non competitive, fit for nearly passive consumption, with great story and visuals. Machinarium is one example, and i heard good thing about the walking dead story wise.

But there would be a need to finding all those games and marketing them to TV viewers.

2. Israeli TV production houses seem on some disruptive path. For example hatufim, the TV series homeland was based on, cost $50k per episode, vs $2.5 million per homeland episode. Those financial limits make israeli producers focus on good stories, which is the reason Hollywood does lots of deals with israeli companies.

On the other hand, such cost structure makes it much easier to try new things: releasing all episodes at once(really helps to be absorbed with content), new finance models,new ads tech,new ways to access global audiences, new kinds of stories.

And TV as apps could make it easier to build such models.

The TV Apps Economy Will Be A $14 Billion Business

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