WiFi in TVs is a Revolution

WiFi in TVs is a Revolution

Today at the All Things Digital Conference, Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, said "WiFi TV is a Revolution."  Watch the video below and fast forward to 6:55 into the video to hear the visionary statement.  This statement struck a chord with me and if you have not been enlightened to the benefits of having a networked enabled TV, then you are missing out!

All HDTV's today have the capability to connect to your router WiFi or Ethernet cable to download movies or stream content from companies like Netflix and Pandora.  Its a tremendous innovation that cable companies have been resisting for years because it disintermediates their programming agendas and control of what your eyeballs watch.  The only hope for cable companies to survive in the content business is to maintain their monopoly licensees on live sports programming.  Personalized content is the next big thing on the web and Pandora and Netflix are driving it.

There are many technical benefits to having a WiFi enabled TV, which include software upgrades and access to any content anywhere on the web.  Boxee, Google TV, and Apple TV have been early pioneers at helping you aggregate and watch content through specialized boxes.  However, the reality is TV manufacturers like Samsung are leading the way to home-viewing innovation.  It took almost a decade for IPTV to arrive thanks to an innovative company from Korea called Samsung which is paving the way to the future.

One snafu that Netflix is starting to deal with is the broadband carriers starting to impose data caps on customers in order to protect their expensive cable programming subscriptions the consumers are starting to bypass.  In order to help avoid breaking bandwidth caps starting to get imposed by broadband ISPs, Netflix is letting U.S. customers adjust their bit rate and video streaming quality settings.  Netflix is already allowing customers to manage the bit rate in Canada.

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