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Bill Gates says Internet will revolutionize TV

27 January 2007 18:03 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 11 comments

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates believes that the Internet is set to revolutionize television within five years, thanks to the explosion of video content available online and devices that bridge the gap between PC equipment and CE devices. "I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had," he told business leaders and politicians at the World Economic Forum.

The rise in high-speed Internet connections and the success of video sites, especially Google Inc.'s YouTube, has already led to a noticeable decline in the time younger viewers spend in front of TV sets. Gates says that more and more people will give up the fixed program slots and advertisement interruptions offered by the conventional broadcast television and move toward the increasing flexibility available online.

"Certain things like elections or the Olympics really point out how TV is terrible. You have to wait for the guy to talk about the thing you care about or you miss the event and want to go back and see it," he said. "Internet presentation of these things is vastly superior."

Source:
Reuters

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Discuss this article!
webe123 (Inactive) 27 January 2007 18:10
Yep, the olympics and elections are NOT the top of my agenda and I believe that they are not on most people's agendas. What is more likely with the net is programs YOU want to see....not what some stupid executive programmer at some TV station says you should watch. [ + quote]
trigga71 (Member) 27 January 2007 18:14
Did anyone notic that Bill is spelled wrong? i thought Tivo revolutionized TV? [ + quote]
Dela (Staff Member) 27 January 2007 18:22
Gave Bill his proper name back [ + quote]
f2307 (Newbie) 27 January 2007 21:36
I pay dar�. Rogers cable a pandel every month belive me my TV never on to Bill gate I thank you and we love you too even if you are m blll�. [ + quote]
xhardc0re (Inactive) 28 January 2007 3:19
Bill Gate$$$ totally missed the boat on the Internet about 10 years ago. Seeing that "Mr visionary" couldn't see 2 feet beyond his speckled glasses, it's fit to say that he could be 100% wrong about this Internet/TV idea of his. Personally, he's a SOD & i don't care what he has to say. ever. I like YouTube & user content in many ways, but TV does carry a certain vibe. I wouldn't want TV to just go away, because there's more credibility in the news & less chance for someone to spoof something with a fake news/sports sites vs. a legitimate TV station or cable channel. On TV, things have to be verified before airing them. On teh Internutt, i'm afraid that facts almost always take a back door to being first (first to publish something). [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 28 January 2007 17:39
Quote: Microsoft chairman Bill Gates believes that the Internet is set to revolutionize television within five years, This is already hapening because of torrent sites. People don't like the crap that is shown of free to air and even pay TV now so they get it off the net for free and its even better cause its add free. Go figure. Billy is not mentioning anything out of the ordinary. [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 30 January 2007 6:46
Heres my ieda of net TV you select the channels you want and just pay a small fee for them so you can enjoy what lil you watch and not be double charged for it like cable or sat do. [ + quote]
xhardc0re (Inactive) 1 February 2007 1:43
here's a quote i heard somewhere about the relationship between TV & Internet. TV- we sell you stupid s**t ever 5-10 minutes, like right before the good parts. Internet- you can block our ads, but our cookies will always pwn you. We'd rather make a few pennies than nothing at all. If you change the channel, we'll still make $$ on you. TV- they spend $20,000+ to make 1 commercial & run it by a few focus groups so it doesn't suck (too bad, just a little). they hope you will watch it. Internet- Five different people could see 5 variations of the same ad, to see if one has a higher click thru than others. If the ads don't get any clickthrough, we'll fire the guys who made it & replace them :) TV- forced to watch your favorite shows on a certain schedule, or tape them for later. Internet- forced (by DRM) to watch your favorite shows on a certain website in a certain player. YouTube/Google/Metacafe will let you download a video & watch it later. [ + quote]
Steve83 (Member) 4 February 2007 8:07
10 years ago, a nice 27" TV cost ~$400, a decent VCR was ~$60, cable service was ~$30/mo, & we rented maybe $20 of VHS each month. That was it - your total cost for all the video entertainment you could stand. 10 years from now, a 46" LCD HD TV with no speakers will be ~$500; the home theater system to go with it ~$1000; cable ~$50/mo; IP TV ~$50/mo; HD DVD/BluRay/the other player ~$100; each disk ~$30; on-demand movies ~$5ea; on-demand TV ~$2/show. ...and we'll have LESS time to actually watch any of it because we'll have to work so much more to pay for it all. At some point, these media companies are going to HAVE TO realize that, as the market expands, they'll each be getting LESS money per customer - not MORE. [ + quote]
Mofomac (Newbie) 4 February 2007 17:09
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates believes that the Internet is set to revolutionize television within five years, Apple has already come out with the Apple TV, iTV.. whatever you wanna call it. Bill is a little slow..... [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 4 February 2007 17:32
Cable TV is going up Sat TV is stagnating the only thing going down bit by bit is the internet,least until 3 or 4 corporations own it all then they can start raising prices all they want like with Cable TV No competition low regulation = they can jack with the prices all they want. When it comes to corperatins and government we need more and less on the people,when the people step out of lien they have courts and the police to deal with the coverment dose not have anyone watching what it is doing most of the time... [ + quote]