Coming soon to TV land: The Internet, actually

The Internet is making the leap from the den to the living room, fueled by the rise of digital televisions.
The New York Times

The story "Coming soon to TV land: The Internet, actually" published January 8, 2006 at 12:35 PM is no longer available on CNET News.

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The concept

The concept of TV or Internet will disappear in the future. you will have 1 device that does it all music, news, movies etc etc

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[Rolndubbs]

One major problem

The reason over the air broadcasting channels are free, and cable/satellite are (somewhat) reasonably priced is do to advertising revenue. Having shows available directly to your PMP, PC or tivo like set top box is going to cause problems, since we can simply fast forward past any unwanted content. So this causes a problem for content providers. Advertisers aren't going to want to pay for add space if people will simply skip right past it. Obviously this is not an issue for live broadcasts, but sitcoms/dramas on demand would have to deal with this.
So where is the revenue going to come from? Unless I am wrong, which I really hope I am, I think direct access to programs at any time will simply lead to higher cost per episodes, and also lead to less variety and niche programming. The idea is great, but until it is demonstrated in a cost effective manner, I will stick with my Tivo and media center pc.