

The TV Apps Economy Will Be A $14 Billion Business - bgamido
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelwolf/2013/06/20/heres-why-the-tv-apps-economy-will-be-a-14-billion-business/

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KaiserPro
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)

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aaronbrethorst
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?

~~~
wilfra
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.

~~~
thirdsun
I never understood why those hardware companies like Samsung won't bring in
some talented or established external design team to work on the UI and
general behavior of their software. I mean those guys have to realize that
while software can be THE selling point of their devices, it will always fall
short as long as it's just an afterthought.

~~~
wilfra
Because they are designing by committee. Samsung surely already has World-
class designers on their team. However those designers don't have dictatorial
power to make hard decisions and tell entire divisions of the company that
they are SOL. But that is what would be required for them to put out something
great.

That is why it is so much easier for startups to innovate than big companies.

~~~
thirdsun
Well, I see that point, however it's just hard for me to grasp - clearly
Samsung (like many other hardware manufacturers) have to acknowledge that
their bottleneck often is design and UX. Yet they have all the resources to
change that readily available.

On the other hand, the longer I think about it the more I come to the
conclusion that pleasing and intuitive design just isn't a major focus for
those brands, and maybe not even for their customers: After all it's not
something you can put as a bullet point or spec on the back of the packaging.

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drawkbox
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.

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nwhitehead
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](http://www.roku.com/developer)

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josephlord
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.

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joshuaellinger
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
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.

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ippisl
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.

