1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:14,120 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:16,880 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio and 4 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:20,439 Speaker 1: How the Tech Are You? And today I got to 5 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:25,360 Speaker 1: thinking about television and actually debated about what I wanted 6 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:27,360 Speaker 1: to talk about on today's episode, because there are a 7 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:30,160 Speaker 1: couple of topics I really want to dive into. One 8 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:34,239 Speaker 1: of those is the continuing decline of the cable and 9 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:39,040 Speaker 1: satellite TV business. People have been presaging the death of 10 00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:42,520 Speaker 1: cable and satellite TV for ages. In fact, I kind 11 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:45,040 Speaker 1: of did it in an interview I did with CNN 12 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:47,320 Speaker 1: years ago. Turns out that was a dumb move on 13 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:50,840 Speaker 1: my part. Not that I was wrong. I wasn't, but 14 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:53,440 Speaker 1: at the time the company I worked for was owned 15 00:00:53,479 --> 00:00:57,240 Speaker 1: by Discovery Communications, and turns out the bosses of a 16 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:00,760 Speaker 1: cable company are not happy. If you may the observation 17 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,360 Speaker 1: that cable is in trouble. Now, I maintain it's not 18 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 1: like I caused folks to dump cable. I wasn't telling 19 00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:10,360 Speaker 1: people to get rid of their cable. It's just observing 20 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:13,200 Speaker 1: the trend. But you know, I guess if you yell 21 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:15,440 Speaker 1: out Iceberg, you get the blame for the fact that 22 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:20,000 Speaker 1: the ship hit it. Anyway, that's not this episode, so 23 00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:22,520 Speaker 1: we will look into that in the future. But this episode, 24 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:26,200 Speaker 1: I'm going to uh cover something else because if I 25 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:29,520 Speaker 1: want to talk about cable and satellite decline, I really 26 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:32,400 Speaker 1: need to sift through a lot of information, a lot 27 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:36,400 Speaker 1: of statistics before I do that, because it can actually 28 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 1: be tricky to know what numbers to trust in that field. 29 00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:44,280 Speaker 1: There's some sites out there that uh give pretty dramatic 30 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:48,680 Speaker 1: numbers for the decline in subscribers, and I'd want to 31 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:51,080 Speaker 1: verify all of that before I actually do an episode. 32 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:53,600 Speaker 1: So instead, today I thought I would talk a bit 33 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:58,160 Speaker 1: about smart television's, you know, essentially the standard kind of 34 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:00,920 Speaker 1: TV that you can buy these days. Not that every 35 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:03,120 Speaker 1: television on the market these days is a smart TV, 36 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:05,840 Speaker 1: but most of them are, like definitely the ones that 37 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: tend to get prominent uh placement in in uh in 38 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,040 Speaker 1: in places like best Buy, those are definitely smart TVs. 39 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:16,320 Speaker 1: And you know, these are the kind of televisions that 40 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:20,080 Speaker 1: come preloaded with the ability to connect to various online 41 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:24,120 Speaker 1: content providers, you know, like streaming services and whatnot. And 42 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:27,000 Speaker 1: while they are the norm Now, it was not that 43 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:30,960 Speaker 1: long ago that your typical television was just an output device, 44 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:36,120 Speaker 1: a dumb one like you would tune it to a channel, uh, 45 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:40,320 Speaker 1: you know, or perhaps connected to a media player like 46 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:45,680 Speaker 1: a VCR or laser disc or something, and you saw 47 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:48,080 Speaker 1: whatever was on that signal feed, and that was it, 48 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:51,040 Speaker 1: and and it was one way, right. You weren't sending 49 00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:54,640 Speaker 1: information back. No one knew what it was you were watching, 50 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:57,880 Speaker 1: unless you happen to be a Nielsen family, which would 51 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:00,720 Speaker 1: it require you to connect another piece of hardware to 52 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:04,480 Speaker 1: your television and that would register what it was you 53 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:07,080 Speaker 1: were watching when you were watching it for the purposes 54 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:10,800 Speaker 1: of collecting ratings. But most people, you know, they're just 55 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: watching TV, and whatever they're watching, that data has lost. 56 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:18,720 Speaker 1: Today's televisions are very different. But how did we get there? 57 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:24,200 Speaker 1: When did televisions start to turn quote unquote smart, or 58 00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:27,080 Speaker 1: if you prefer, when did our televisions start to become 59 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:33,239 Speaker 1: nefarious data gathering tools feeding into the data rich ecosystem 60 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:37,520 Speaker 1: of our modern world. Let's find out. First, let's get 61 00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:41,600 Speaker 1: into some prehistoric stuff. So for decades, televisions were dumb. 62 00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:44,600 Speaker 1: Depending upon whom you ask, they were dumb in different 63 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:47,600 Speaker 1: ways or they would make you dumb. You know, they 64 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:50,920 Speaker 1: would be the so called opiate of the masses. They 65 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:55,240 Speaker 1: were also large, they were heavy, they were clunky, you know. 66 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: The earliest TVs were essentially pieces of furniture. They depended 67 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:03,480 Speaker 1: upon cathode ray tubes, which look a little bit like lightbulbs. 68 00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:06,840 Speaker 1: These cathode ray tubes shoot a tight beam of electrons 69 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:09,480 Speaker 1: at the backside of the television screen. They scan line 70 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:12,440 Speaker 1: by line down the screen, and in the process they 71 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:15,560 Speaker 1: hit elements that would luminess and create the pictures that 72 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:18,560 Speaker 1: you would see on the other side. In the nineteen sixties, 73 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:21,640 Speaker 1: color television began to transform the industry, though it would 74 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:24,719 Speaker 1: take you know, like more than a decade for color 75 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:28,920 Speaker 1: TV tech to surpass the old, reliable, and perhaps most importantly, 76 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 1: less expensive, black and white television technology. Meanwhile, there were 77 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:36,480 Speaker 1: scientists and engineers who were creating the tech that would 78 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:40,000 Speaker 1: allow for the emergence of flat screens. Now, keep in mind, 79 00:04:40,279 --> 00:04:44,400 Speaker 1: these old CRT sets were boxing. These were the big 80 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:47,560 Speaker 1: cabinet style televisions. You could not easily mount these to 81 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:50,000 Speaker 1: a wall or anything like that. I mean, you could 82 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:52,159 Speaker 1: mount into a wall, but they'd be sticking way out 83 00:04:52,279 --> 00:04:55,560 Speaker 1: on like an arm that was mounted to a stud 84 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:57,760 Speaker 1: in the wall, otherwise they would just fall right down. 85 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:00,640 Speaker 1: But as early as the nineteen six steas, you had 86 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:03,640 Speaker 1: teams creating the tech that would allow for flat panel TVs, 87 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:06,080 Speaker 1: and it would take decades for those to come to 88 00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 1: the market. At the same time, you had other folks 89 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:12,960 Speaker 1: creating devices that would allow consumers to connect other stuff 90 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:16,320 Speaker 1: to their televisions. So in the old old days, really 91 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:18,560 Speaker 1: the only thing you could connect your TV two wasn't 92 00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 1: antenna and you would get over the air broadcasts. Later on, 93 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:25,600 Speaker 1: you'd be able to connect your television to a cable connection, 94 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:29,400 Speaker 1: either from a cable service provider or later a satellite dish. 95 00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:32,320 Speaker 1: Plus you would have connections that would let you hook 96 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:35,720 Speaker 1: up a VCR, laser disc video game system, that kind 97 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:39,520 Speaker 1: of thing to your TV. The television was gradually becoming 98 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:44,280 Speaker 1: a more versatile technology, or rather it's compatibility with other 99 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:49,680 Speaker 1: technologies would increase television's utility. The TV itself wasn't really 100 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:53,839 Speaker 1: getting that much more advanced, surprisingly, at least to me. 101 00:05:54,520 --> 00:05:58,200 Speaker 1: One predecessor to smart TVs launched as early as the 102 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:02,640 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies. Now I say surprisingly because in the nineteen seventies, 103 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:06,120 Speaker 1: you still had folks building out our panet, and our 104 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:09,279 Speaker 1: ponnet in itself was kind of a predecessor to the Internet. 105 00:06:09,279 --> 00:06:12,400 Speaker 1: It's where a lot of the protocols that would later 106 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:17,760 Speaker 1: end up powering the Internet were first designed. So how 107 00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:21,080 Speaker 1: could you have a smart TV if there were no 108 00:06:21,279 --> 00:06:26,000 Speaker 1: Internet for the TV to connect to? Enter the video text? 109 00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:30,320 Speaker 1: That's V I, D, E O t X. Now, in 110 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:34,799 Speaker 1: many ways, video text was like computer bulletin board systems 111 00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:38,360 Speaker 1: or bbs is. These were things where one person could 112 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:42,320 Speaker 1: turn their computer into a host machine by running some software, 113 00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:47,159 Speaker 1: and they could allow other people to dial in using 114 00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:51,200 Speaker 1: an over the phone line modem into that PC in 115 00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:55,640 Speaker 1: order to access files, maybe save files to the machine. 116 00:06:55,760 --> 00:06:58,840 Speaker 1: They could leave messages for other bbs members, they could 117 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:01,360 Speaker 1: play the occasional game AIM that kind of thing. So 118 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:05,280 Speaker 1: it wasn't the Internet. It was contained to this one 119 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:09,600 Speaker 1: computer system, but people could dial into it. View text 120 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: was similar, but it was meant mainly for television's or 121 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:16,920 Speaker 1: dumb terminals. Now, the view text typically consisted of two 122 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:20,760 Speaker 1: pieces of hardware that you needed in addition to your television. 123 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:25,120 Speaker 1: One piece of hardware was essentially a set top box, 124 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:27,560 Speaker 1: that you would connect to your TV. The set top 125 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:31,320 Speaker 1: box would connect to your phone line as well. Later 126 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:34,239 Speaker 1: versions would be able to connect to cable TV feeds, 127 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:38,160 Speaker 1: so it would connect like a VCR to your TV 128 00:07:38,680 --> 00:07:41,960 Speaker 1: and would have an outward connection that would connect to 129 00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:46,560 Speaker 1: some specific provider that would let your television display information 130 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 1: sent over that transmission line from whatever company it was 131 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:54,440 Speaker 1: that offered the service. The other piece of hardware was 132 00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:58,200 Speaker 1: some sort of controller. Frequently it looked like a keyboard, 133 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:01,960 Speaker 1: and these would often use infrared signals like your typical 134 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:06,080 Speaker 1: remote control to send messages to the set top box, 135 00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:08,720 Speaker 1: and that made the video text. Technically, it could be 136 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:12,280 Speaker 1: a two way communications technology. Not only would you be 137 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:16,680 Speaker 1: able to view information on your TV like news articles 138 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:21,360 Speaker 1: or stock market quotes or whether information or whatever, you 139 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:25,320 Speaker 1: could potentially send information back up to the service. So 140 00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:29,320 Speaker 1: some of these would offer message boards like classified ads, 141 00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:31,440 Speaker 1: that kind of thing. You could actually leave messages on 142 00:08:31,480 --> 00:08:34,080 Speaker 1: those boards, and that became a popular service in a 143 00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:37,360 Speaker 1: few places where this tech actually took off, which was 144 00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:40,240 Speaker 1: mostly in France. Like it launched in different places around 145 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:43,040 Speaker 1: the world, but in most places it failed to get 146 00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:47,120 Speaker 1: much traction apart from France. Now one reason why it 147 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:52,400 Speaker 1: didn't get much traction is the hardware was typically pretty expensive. 148 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:55,360 Speaker 1: There were a few places that really tried to make 149 00:08:55,400 --> 00:08:58,560 Speaker 1: it work. The UK really pushed for this. Uh there. 150 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:02,880 Speaker 1: The Post Office was really promoting video text technology pretty hard. 151 00:09:03,320 --> 00:09:05,880 Speaker 1: And you might wonder why was the post Office interested 152 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:08,120 Speaker 1: in this? While the time the Post Office was in 153 00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:11,040 Speaker 1: charge of the telephone lines in the UK, and in 154 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:14,120 Speaker 1: the UK folks were charged for using the phones, even 155 00:09:14,160 --> 00:09:16,040 Speaker 1: if it was for local calls. So the more you 156 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:17,880 Speaker 1: use your phone, the more you had to pay the 157 00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:23,360 Speaker 1: post office. So why not create a service that encourages 158 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:26,400 Speaker 1: people to tie up their phone lines and generate revenue. 159 00:09:26,880 --> 00:09:30,319 Speaker 1: Except it didn't really take off in the UK. Now, 160 00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:35,960 Speaker 1: video text was fundamentally different from the Internet. Yes, you 161 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:41,000 Speaker 1: were getting information sent over transmission lines from another place 162 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:43,000 Speaker 1: and you were viewing it on a screen, but apart 163 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:45,600 Speaker 1: from that, it was very different because the Internet is 164 00:09:45,640 --> 00:09:49,360 Speaker 1: a network of computer networks, and over the Internet you 165 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:52,520 Speaker 1: can access information stored on servers that are all over 166 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:54,840 Speaker 1: the world, not just one server, but any of the 167 00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:58,800 Speaker 1: servers that are available to you to go to. Obviously, 168 00:09:58,840 --> 00:10:01,560 Speaker 1: some servers have textions in place where unless you have 169 00:10:01,679 --> 00:10:04,000 Speaker 1: the proper credentials, you don't get in, but you get 170 00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:07,320 Speaker 1: my point. Video text was more like a direct line 171 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:11,480 Speaker 1: to a specific company's service. So if you purchased a 172 00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:15,959 Speaker 1: video text system, you could only access whatever the company 173 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:19,920 Speaker 1: that offered this system had. That was it. You couldn't 174 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:23,400 Speaker 1: swap over to some other company's service unless you were 175 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:26,120 Speaker 1: to go and buy all new hardware and connect to that. 176 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:29,520 Speaker 1: So imagine for a second that you could only use 177 00:10:29,559 --> 00:10:33,000 Speaker 1: your computer to access I don't know all of Disney's material, 178 00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:35,640 Speaker 1: but nothing from anyone else. If you wanted to be 179 00:10:35,679 --> 00:10:38,360 Speaker 1: able to access I don't know Reddit, you would have 180 00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:41,480 Speaker 1: to go out and get a different computer and subscribe 181 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:45,160 Speaker 1: to a different service. It's not exactly consumer friendly. One 182 00:10:45,360 --> 00:10:48,760 Speaker 1: brilliant bit of business with the video text was that 183 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:52,400 Speaker 1: the companies that offered them could double debt in a way. 184 00:10:52,440 --> 00:10:56,960 Speaker 1: They could offer to carry information from specific providers, like 185 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:00,880 Speaker 1: content providers, like a like a prominent news paper, for example, 186 00:11:01,520 --> 00:11:04,600 Speaker 1: and they would charge a fee to the newspaper and 187 00:11:04,640 --> 00:11:09,440 Speaker 1: in return they would carry the newspapers content to users. So, 188 00:11:09,559 --> 00:11:11,600 Speaker 1: in other words, content creators would have to pay a 189 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:14,600 Speaker 1: fee to video the video text provider for the privilege 190 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:17,480 Speaker 1: of having their content sent to viewers, and I'm guessing 191 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:19,480 Speaker 1: they would do this because it was a new way 192 00:11:19,559 --> 00:11:22,320 Speaker 1: to make those viewers aware of the source of the 193 00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:25,240 Speaker 1: information and that hopefully they would go out and then 194 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:30,800 Speaker 1: subscribe directly to the periodical for example. Then the video 195 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:34,280 Speaker 1: text provider turns around and also charges a subscription fee 196 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:37,080 Speaker 1: to the user on top of all the hardware fees 197 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:39,040 Speaker 1: they had to pay in order to get the system 198 00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:41,480 Speaker 1: in the first place. So the video text company would 199 00:11:41,480 --> 00:11:45,600 Speaker 1: get paid on both ends, the content and and the consumption. Now, 200 00:11:45,640 --> 00:11:48,720 Speaker 1: this is the kind of stuff that net neutrality proponents 201 00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:51,720 Speaker 1: point at when they make their arguments that if you 202 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:55,000 Speaker 1: don't have net neutrality, you can have a situation where 203 00:11:55,480 --> 00:12:01,000 Speaker 1: Internet service providers are charging both customers to access service 204 00:12:01,559 --> 00:12:06,760 Speaker 1: and content creators to carry their content. That would fragment 205 00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:10,360 Speaker 1: the Internet experience. A person who's subscribing to I s 206 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:13,800 Speaker 1: P A could end up with a fundamentally different experience 207 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:16,920 Speaker 1: from someone subscribed to I s P B, all because 208 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:19,400 Speaker 1: the two different I s p s only offer access 209 00:12:19,440 --> 00:12:22,680 Speaker 1: to a subsection of all the stuff out on the Internet. 210 00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:27,280 Speaker 1: But I digress. The hardware and services were so expensive 211 00:12:27,679 --> 00:12:30,600 Speaker 1: that they just never really took off in almost every 212 00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:36,800 Speaker 1: market except in France. In fact, France was really an outlier. 213 00:12:36,880 --> 00:12:40,400 Speaker 1: The relevant service in France, called Mini Tell, was popular 214 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:43,480 Speaker 1: enough that it was actually more popular than the Internet, 215 00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:47,720 Speaker 1: even as late as there were more people on France's 216 00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:51,320 Speaker 1: Mini Tell service than there were subscribers to the Internet. 217 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:54,800 Speaker 1: But even many Tell could only remain relevant for so long, 218 00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:59,960 Speaker 1: and in twenty twelve the service finally went dark. Still, Videotel, 219 00:13:00,160 --> 00:13:03,800 Speaker 1: which had lots of different proprietary names depending upon the region, 220 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:08,320 Speaker 1: acted as a as a kind of predecessor for smart television's. Granted, 221 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:11,680 Speaker 1: this technology was an add on. It was a set 222 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:13,600 Speaker 1: top box that you would connect to your TV, so 223 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:17,760 Speaker 1: it wasn't like it was directly integrated into the television 224 00:13:17,800 --> 00:13:20,959 Speaker 1: set itself. But some of the ideas relating to smart 225 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:24,679 Speaker 1: TVs were definitely showing up as early as the nineteen seventies, 226 00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:28,640 Speaker 1: using the television to access additional content and services beyond 227 00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:32,000 Speaker 1: your normal TV shows. Now, when we come back, we'll 228 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:35,320 Speaker 1: talk more about the early history of smart TVs, but 229 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:46,760 Speaker 1: first let's take a break for these messages. Another thing 230 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:51,400 Speaker 1: I need to mention is a Japanese technology, though this 231 00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:55,320 Speaker 1: one we have to have some caveats. So, according to 232 00:13:55,440 --> 00:13:59,960 Speaker 1: gen Gregory in his collection of articles, which is title 233 00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:06,000 Speaker 1: Japanese Electronics, Technology, Enterprise and Innovation, which I have to add, 234 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:08,960 Speaker 1: is not necessarily an unimpeachable source when it comes to 235 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:14,360 Speaker 1: historical data. According to him, Japanese companies developed an intelligent 236 00:14:14,559 --> 00:14:19,440 Speaker 1: television receiver his words, that would allow Japanese broadcasters to 237 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:22,600 Speaker 1: include additional information that viewers would be able to access 238 00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:25,440 Speaker 1: if they happen to have a television with one of 239 00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:30,560 Speaker 1: those receivers. But beyond this assertion, I can't find a 240 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:33,600 Speaker 1: whole lot of information about this. Doesn't mean that that 241 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:37,000 Speaker 1: he's wrong or that he's not referring to something specific. 242 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:42,200 Speaker 1: I just could not find corroborating information. However, I found 243 00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:46,960 Speaker 1: a ton of different sources that reference Gene Gregory, So 244 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:50,320 Speaker 1: they're using him as kind of the prime source for 245 00:14:50,400 --> 00:14:54,440 Speaker 1: this particular entry into the history of smart TVs. It 246 00:14:54,960 --> 00:14:58,800 Speaker 1: very well maybe true, I just can't find verification for it, 247 00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:01,840 Speaker 1: at least I it, and before the recording of this podcast, 248 00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:04,520 Speaker 1: maybe I will eventually come across some and then I 249 00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:10,840 Speaker 1: can extend extensive apologies to Geene Gregory. But the idea 250 00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:15,800 Speaker 1: was that there is unused bandwidth in a channel's range 251 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:19,040 Speaker 1: of frequencies, and that broadcasters would be able to tap 252 00:15:19,080 --> 00:15:21,320 Speaker 1: into some of that because they weren't going to be 253 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:23,440 Speaker 1: using very much of it in order to send some 254 00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:27,200 Speaker 1: additional information to viewers who happen to have these kinds 255 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:30,160 Speaker 1: of televisions. So if you do a search for the 256 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:32,560 Speaker 1: history of smart TVs, you're likely to see some mention 257 00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:35,080 Speaker 1: of this somewhere. But as far as I can tell, 258 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:38,120 Speaker 1: it all traces back to Gregory's collection of articles, and 259 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:40,400 Speaker 1: some people have said that he gets a little loosey 260 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:44,280 Speaker 1: goosey with historic facts because that wasn't really the relevant 261 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:46,560 Speaker 1: part of it. It was more of an overall view 262 00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:52,520 Speaker 1: of Japan's influence in the innovation in general, and you know, 263 00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:56,360 Speaker 1: the evolution of technology in particular. From there, things go 264 00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:59,400 Speaker 1: quiet in the smart TV space for more than a decade. 265 00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:03,880 Speaker 1: But in the mid nineties, Jean Marie Gattau and Dominique 266 00:16:03,920 --> 00:16:08,080 Speaker 1: Batrand filed for a patent titled Television system in a 267 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:11,800 Speaker 1: Digital or Analog Network. Now, the abstract for the patent 268 00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:14,680 Speaker 1: reads as follows. I'm just going to quote it directly, 269 00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:19,200 Speaker 1: quote an economic television system used in a digital or 270 00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:24,400 Speaker 1: analog network, incorporating at least one user identification device, at 271 00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:28,720 Speaker 1: least monodirectional or bidirectional connector to data systems, and at 272 00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:33,480 Speaker 1: least one image, sound, and data decompression and or compression element. 273 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:38,240 Speaker 1: This system also comprises at least one instantaneous acquisition means 274 00:16:38,680 --> 00:16:43,440 Speaker 1: application to the fields of interactive multi transactions, remote monitoring, 275 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:49,200 Speaker 1: simultaneous transaction, or other communications uses end quote and like 276 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:53,480 Speaker 1: all patents, that's pretty wordy. It's a real, real dense 277 00:16:53,520 --> 00:16:56,480 Speaker 1: with jargon. But in other words, the patent calls for 278 00:16:56,520 --> 00:16:59,000 Speaker 1: a system that allows for a connecting a television not 279 00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:03,480 Speaker 1: just to a network like a computer network, but to 280 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:07,160 Speaker 1: other components as well, including stuff like input devices such 281 00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:12,320 Speaker 1: as light pens and barcode readers, or output devices like printers. Essentially, 282 00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:15,640 Speaker 1: the patent is laying out the components needed to turn 283 00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:20,440 Speaker 1: the television from a passive display device into something more interactive. 284 00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:25,560 Speaker 1: Though the inclusion of monodirectional or bidirectional means you could 285 00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:28,679 Speaker 1: have a simplified version of this that's only output oriented, 286 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:33,720 Speaker 1: where you can't have any sort of meaningful interaction beyond consumption. 287 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:38,480 Speaker 1: So that patent dates back to Does that mean that's 288 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:42,120 Speaker 1: when we started to get smart TVs not at all. See, 289 00:17:42,119 --> 00:17:44,200 Speaker 1: when you file a patent, the patent is supposed to 290 00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:47,320 Speaker 1: describe a technology that will work. You're not supposed to 291 00:17:47,359 --> 00:17:49,639 Speaker 1: be able to file patents for stuff that can't work. 292 00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:54,040 Speaker 1: Though that gets pretty tricky in itself. Uh. And it's 293 00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:58,760 Speaker 1: supposed to work using the approach that's described within the patent. However, 294 00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:01,640 Speaker 1: there is no requirement that you actually make the ding 295 00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:04,879 Speaker 1: darn thing, so you don't have to come to the 296 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:08,040 Speaker 1: patent office with a working model. You might find out 297 00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:11,600 Speaker 1: that actually building the device ends up being more expensive 298 00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:15,240 Speaker 1: and time consuming than it would be worth. Like, you 299 00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:18,600 Speaker 1: might come up with a technology that does work, but 300 00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:20,560 Speaker 1: it turns out that if you try and make it 301 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:22,360 Speaker 1: and then sell it, you wouldn't be able to sell 302 00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:24,560 Speaker 1: any because you would have to charge such a high 303 00:18:24,560 --> 00:18:28,280 Speaker 1: price to recapture your expenses, no one would ever buy it. 304 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:31,920 Speaker 1: You might also find that you can create the hardware, 305 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:35,399 Speaker 1: but then if you don't have content to run on 306 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:38,440 Speaker 1: the hardware, the hardware is not very useful. I mean, 307 00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:42,160 Speaker 1: imagine seeing a new kind of media player, but there's 308 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:46,879 Speaker 1: no actual content available on that specific medium. That wouldn't 309 00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:48,879 Speaker 1: do you any good. It would just take up space. 310 00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:51,360 Speaker 1: It would either take up physical space if it were 311 00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:53,480 Speaker 1: something like, you know, kind of like a VCR, or 312 00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:56,240 Speaker 1: it would take up digital storage space if it were 313 00:18:56,280 --> 00:19:00,320 Speaker 1: talking about more of a virtual media player. And this 314 00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:02,560 Speaker 1: is a big issue we see for video game consoles. 315 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:06,080 Speaker 1: They have to have compelling games available at launch, or 316 00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:09,480 Speaker 1: else there's no reason to buy them. Well, the patented 317 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:13,280 Speaker 1: idea would lay dormant for another decade plus some change, 318 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:16,040 Speaker 1: but that didn't mean you didn't have companies thinking about 319 00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:20,480 Speaker 1: how to deliver Internet content televisions. Let's talk about another 320 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:23,439 Speaker 1: initiative that launched not too long after Jean Marie and 321 00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:29,200 Speaker 1: Dominique filed that patent in nine talking about web TV. 322 00:19:30,119 --> 00:19:33,399 Speaker 1: I actually knew a guy who had web TV. I 323 00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:35,560 Speaker 1: only saw it in action a little bit. I thought 324 00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:39,920 Speaker 1: it was charming and odd and slow. But web tv 325 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:42,480 Speaker 1: was a startup company and it was co founded by 326 00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:45,720 Speaker 1: a former Apple engineer, the guy who actually developed the 327 00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:50,760 Speaker 1: QuickTime technology, Steve Perlman. He unveiled this idea in nineteen 328 00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:54,320 Speaker 1: nineties six and I would say the web TV concept 329 00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:58,320 Speaker 1: was kind of like video texts from two decades earlier, 330 00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:01,280 Speaker 1: but it had been updated for the Internet age. So 331 00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:03,320 Speaker 1: instead of a set top box that would connect to 332 00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:07,920 Speaker 1: a specific company's services, this was a set top box 333 00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:10,919 Speaker 1: that would let you use your television to browse the 334 00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:16,320 Speaker 1: World Wide Web. So why even do that? Well, we're 335 00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:21,440 Speaker 1: gonna jump into some stereotypes for a moment. One stereotype 336 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:27,399 Speaker 1: is that older people have trouble grasping younger technology. And 337 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:31,480 Speaker 1: as a rapidly older person myself, I can at least 338 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:34,359 Speaker 1: anecdotally vouch for this. You should see the look on 339 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:36,920 Speaker 1: my face when I have to dive into our project 340 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:41,080 Speaker 1: management tools. Tar knows. We've emailed about it. It's not 341 00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:44,439 Speaker 1: that the tools are bad, it's just I'm old and 342 00:20:44,520 --> 00:20:47,000 Speaker 1: I do not learn new things very well, which is 343 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:49,680 Speaker 1: a good thing that I run a tech podcast. Huh well, 344 00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:54,520 Speaker 1: self deprecating humor aside, there was this perceived untapped market 345 00:20:55,119 --> 00:21:02,200 Speaker 1: of older television owners, uh that weren't owners of computers. 346 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:06,000 Speaker 1: That these are people that we could access if we 347 00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:09,120 Speaker 1: could find a way to get them online. So these 348 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:12,040 Speaker 1: were users who were less inclined to purchase a computer 349 00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:15,040 Speaker 1: for the purposes of going online, simply because that was 350 00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:19,679 Speaker 1: a big expense. It was unfamiliar technology, so there was 351 00:21:20,119 --> 00:21:24,120 Speaker 1: there were barriers to entry. So why television's well, everyone 352 00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:27,439 Speaker 1: knows how to work at television. They've been around for decades. 353 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:30,600 Speaker 1: So selling a device that you could just hook up 354 00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:33,520 Speaker 1: to your television, like a VCR, which was another technology 355 00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:35,479 Speaker 1: that had been around for a couple of decades, that 356 00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:38,080 Speaker 1: was an easier sell, at least so it was thought 357 00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:40,960 Speaker 1: at the time. Web TV was positioned as a technology 358 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:43,360 Speaker 1: that could bring the world of the web to your 359 00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:46,040 Speaker 1: living room and it wouldn't require anyone to learn how 360 00:21:46,119 --> 00:21:49,119 Speaker 1: to operate one of those gosh darn computers. But the 361 00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:52,199 Speaker 1: challenge of bringing online content like web pages to a 362 00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:57,399 Speaker 1: television spanned beyond the technical While the technology needed to 363 00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:02,159 Speaker 1: do that was relatively straightforward, essentially meant building a purpose 364 00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:05,359 Speaker 1: built computer that was a set top box and it 365 00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:07,800 Speaker 1: had a built in modem that could send signals to 366 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:12,520 Speaker 1: the television, getting it to be a good experience was 367 00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:15,879 Speaker 1: more challenging. The Web was not designed to be viewed 368 00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:20,040 Speaker 1: from a distance. The assumption every web designer was making 369 00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:23,040 Speaker 1: in the nineties is that their visitors were going to 370 00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:26,320 Speaker 1: be sitting at a computer they might be at most 371 00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:31,000 Speaker 1: two feet away from the screen. All the layouts and fonts, 372 00:22:31,119 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 1: everything that was in web design was aimed at that experience, 373 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:39,919 Speaker 1: the assumption that the person who was consuming the website 374 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:43,360 Speaker 1: was on a computer not far from a screen. If 375 00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:46,240 Speaker 1: you're sitting on your living room couch and your several 376 00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:50,080 Speaker 1: feet away from your TV screen, that experience isn't going 377 00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:52,320 Speaker 1: to work for you. You won't be able to read anything. 378 00:22:52,359 --> 00:22:54,760 Speaker 1: The print would be way too small, and it would 379 00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:56,880 Speaker 1: be difficult to navigate the pages. It would be hard 380 00:22:56,920 --> 00:22:59,159 Speaker 1: to click on links because you wouldn't be able to 381 00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:02,760 Speaker 1: see which link to what. So Perlman and his team 382 00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:05,879 Speaker 1: focus not just on the technical requirements to make this 383 00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:10,639 Speaker 1: connectivity possible, but also on the user experience and the 384 00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:13,960 Speaker 1: display settings so that once you were online, you could 385 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:16,640 Speaker 1: actually see what you were doing. That would mean doing 386 00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:20,120 Speaker 1: stuff like having to increase font sizes and figuring out 387 00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:23,520 Speaker 1: how to get around the layouts of web designers and stuff. 388 00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:26,680 Speaker 1: And the font size thing was a relatively straightforward solution, 389 00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:30,000 Speaker 1: but navigating pages what ended up being slow and cumbersome. 390 00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:32,520 Speaker 1: It wasn't bad if you just need to check on 391 00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:34,959 Speaker 1: a page for a moment, like maybe just check your email, 392 00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:37,360 Speaker 1: but it was not a satisfying experience if you really 393 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:42,119 Speaker 1: wanted to and pardon my oldness here, Surf the web, 394 00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:45,640 Speaker 1: as we used to say, web TV didn't get enough 395 00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:50,000 Speaker 1: consumer support to really get the initiative or to get 396 00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:54,040 Speaker 1: any real leverage. And that's interesting because a decade later 397 00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:57,960 Speaker 1: we would see a transformation in the way people consumed 398 00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:02,400 Speaker 1: web content that did force web designers to change how 399 00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:06,359 Speaker 1: they worked. Web TV failed, right, web TV was not 400 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:10,160 Speaker 1: popular enough. If it had become popular, then there would 401 00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:13,159 Speaker 1: have been an incentive for web designers to create at 402 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,080 Speaker 1: least a version of their sites that was optimized for 403 00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:19,760 Speaker 1: the web TV experience. That would have made browsing on 404 00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:23,280 Speaker 1: web TV much better. But with such a small target 405 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:26,520 Speaker 1: audience because not a lot of people were adopting web TV, 406 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:29,760 Speaker 1: there was no real reason to put forth that kind 407 00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:34,680 Speaker 1: of effort. But a decade later, smartphones would succeed where 408 00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:38,080 Speaker 1: web TV failed, and that the trend of people relying 409 00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:42,160 Speaker 1: more on their smartphone to access websites and services meant 410 00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:46,040 Speaker 1: that web designers were compelled to respond or else risk 411 00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:51,159 Speaker 1: becoming irrelevant. Smartphones forced a change in how web designers 412 00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:54,840 Speaker 1: approached their work. I should know, because I was very 413 00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:58,200 Speaker 1: well aware of that working at a website like there 414 00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:00,480 Speaker 1: was a lot of work done to figure out how 415 00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:05,080 Speaker 1: to optimize how stuff works for the mobile experience, because 416 00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:07,560 Speaker 1: as more and more people were switching to using their 417 00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:11,960 Speaker 1: phones to casually access the internet, that's where our audience 418 00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:14,640 Speaker 1: was going. We had to respond or else we wouldn't 419 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:17,720 Speaker 1: have an audience anymore. But web tv never had enough 420 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:21,640 Speaker 1: customers to follow that same path, so it just kind 421 00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:27,440 Speaker 1: of floundered and obscurity. Now, oddly enough, Microsoft actually went 422 00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:30,960 Speaker 1: on to acquire web tv for a whopping four five 423 00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:34,919 Speaker 1: million dollars when the little startups service had only been 424 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:38,640 Speaker 1: active for like eight months, so less than a year 425 00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:41,719 Speaker 1: in action, Microsoft swoops in and buys this company. So 426 00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:44,080 Speaker 1: you might ask, well, why were the folks at Microsoft 427 00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:47,560 Speaker 1: thinking that this was a good idea. I don't know 428 00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:49,960 Speaker 1: the answer to that, But then we're also talking about 429 00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:52,960 Speaker 1: a company that had a lot of missteps in this era, 430 00:25:53,119 --> 00:25:57,040 Speaker 1: leading up to and including the company's failure with Windows Mobile. 431 00:25:57,240 --> 00:25:59,320 Speaker 1: I'll have to do a full episode about Windows Mobile 432 00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:02,240 Speaker 1: at some point to now. Just to close out the 433 00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:06,520 Speaker 1: web Tv part of this story, Microsoft would continue to 434 00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:11,600 Speaker 1: support the service until two thousand thirteen, although in order 435 00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:13,320 Speaker 1: to do that it did have to send out some 436 00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:18,040 Speaker 1: updates because as equipment gets older, it can't necessarily keep 437 00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:21,840 Speaker 1: up with the changes that are happening on the software side. 438 00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:25,480 Speaker 1: That's actually is a really big problem with smart TVs 439 00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:29,120 Speaker 1: in general. The Web evolves at a rapid pace and 440 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:32,520 Speaker 1: services evolve at a rapid pace as well, and in 441 00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:35,160 Speaker 1: the case of web TV, the hardware couldn't accommodate all 442 00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:38,480 Speaker 1: the changes, and so the hardware would become obsolete over time. 443 00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:42,880 Speaker 1: Plus it would cost money to continue to support that service. 444 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:46,720 Speaker 1: Microsoft had to invest in order to keep that service going, 445 00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:49,760 Speaker 1: and as we see, that's a combin issue with smart 446 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:54,520 Speaker 1: TVs today in general. The required ongoing support means that 447 00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:57,679 Speaker 1: there's an ongoing expense for companies that eventually tend to 448 00:26:57,720 --> 00:27:00,439 Speaker 1: decide to pull the plug on that support, and that 449 00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:03,439 Speaker 1: leaves customers with what who own that particular kind of 450 00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:06,600 Speaker 1: hardware kind of up the creek, But we'll come back 451 00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:09,440 Speaker 1: to that anyway. Microsoft would redirect a lot of its 452 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,679 Speaker 1: web TV efforts to its video game console division. The 453 00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:16,159 Speaker 1: Xbox three sixty would include many of the features that 454 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:19,000 Speaker 1: could trace their lineage back to the web TV days. 455 00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:23,480 Speaker 1: Uh and it's set top box. Actually, really, the video 456 00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:29,160 Speaker 1: game consoles kind of became front and center in this world. Briefly, 457 00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:34,560 Speaker 1: you might remember when Microsoft was promoting Xbox One. The 458 00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:37,639 Speaker 1: idea was that the Xbox One was going to be 459 00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:42,960 Speaker 1: the center for your media entertainment system, and it would 460 00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:49,800 Speaker 1: allow all sorts of access to streaming content, to live TV, UH, 461 00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:53,159 Speaker 1: it would open up gesture controls, all this kind of stuff, 462 00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:56,800 Speaker 1: and actually ended up alienating a lot of Xbox fans 463 00:27:56,840 --> 00:28:01,199 Speaker 1: because they were just interested or primarily interested in games. 464 00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:05,400 Speaker 1: But Microsoft was kind of shifting its promotion to say 465 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:08,400 Speaker 1: that this is more than a games console, and meanwhile 466 00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:11,560 Speaker 1: the fans were saying, okay, but tell me more about 467 00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:14,760 Speaker 1: the games part of it. Anyway, we're gonna get back 468 00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:19,720 Speaker 1: to the actual emergence of smart TVs. Just as web 469 00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:22,399 Speaker 1: TV was starting to become a thing, we started to 470 00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:26,200 Speaker 1: see the first consumer flat panel televisions and flat panel 471 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:29,239 Speaker 1: TVs and smart TVs. Obviously, those are not the same thing. 472 00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:33,280 Speaker 1: These are two different technologies that just happened to converge 473 00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:37,120 Speaker 1: into the current form factor for television's UH. And at 474 00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:40,160 Speaker 1: this point in the late ninety nineties, when flat panel 475 00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:44,480 Speaker 1: TVs first became a consumer technology, the tech was very 476 00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:48,400 Speaker 1: very young and very very expensive. Like if you wanted 477 00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:54,160 Speaker 1: one of the first consumer flat panel televisions, you had 478 00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:57,400 Speaker 1: to be willing to shell out like fifteen thousand dollars 479 00:28:57,440 --> 00:29:00,920 Speaker 1: for the privilege. And obviously, as moreties began to produce 480 00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:04,520 Speaker 1: flat models and improve manufacturing processes, we saw prices come 481 00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:06,720 Speaker 1: down to a point where you didn't have to choose 482 00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:09,960 Speaker 1: between buying a new flat TV or buying a car. 483 00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:13,640 Speaker 1: And the same thing would be true with smart television's. 484 00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:18,000 Speaker 1: Early smart TVs because they had this additional capability, would 485 00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:20,680 Speaker 1: be marketed at a much higher price, but then it 486 00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:24,920 Speaker 1: became the norm and prices would come down. Okay, we're 487 00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:27,640 Speaker 1: gonna take another quick break. When we come back, we'll 488 00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:31,760 Speaker 1: start talking about what are arguably the first true smart 489 00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:44,240 Speaker 1: televisions and where they came from the first another break. Okay, 490 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,680 Speaker 1: we were in the nine nineties before the break, and 491 00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:50,840 Speaker 1: we're gonna skip ahead a bunch of years because while 492 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:54,480 Speaker 1: we started to see set top streaming services, we weren't 493 00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:58,760 Speaker 1: really seeing much movement of incorporating those directly into televisions. Now, 494 00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:02,520 Speaker 1: there would be attempts to bring some streaming capabilities and 495 00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:06,200 Speaker 1: digital offerings to TVs. Once we get into the mid 496 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:09,560 Speaker 1: two thousand's, a guy named Anthony Would created the earliest 497 00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:12,920 Speaker 1: digital video recorder or DVR in the late ninety nineties. 498 00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:15,160 Speaker 1: That would set the stage for companies like ti Vo 499 00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:18,480 Speaker 1: to have a brief but impactful run in the industry. 500 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:23,800 Speaker 1: DVR tech saw some stiff opposition from the cable television world. Uh, 501 00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:27,520 Speaker 1: this is typical. Whenever there's a technology that allows users 502 00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:32,720 Speaker 1: to make a copy of something, you often see established 503 00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:35,360 Speaker 1: industries really put up a fuss about this. So in 504 00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:38,480 Speaker 1: this case, cable companies didn't like the idea of folks 505 00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:42,120 Speaker 1: being able to digitally record content and then, horror of horrors, 506 00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:46,280 Speaker 1: skip commercials when the commercials popped up bad news. Folks 507 00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:48,959 Speaker 1: were already doing that with older tech like VCRs, but 508 00:30:49,520 --> 00:30:52,400 Speaker 1: that opposition slowed down the growth of the DVR business 509 00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:55,720 Speaker 1: until the early two thousand's. In two thousand two, Would 510 00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:59,000 Speaker 1: would go on to found a new company called Roku, 511 00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:02,440 Speaker 1: but it would be several years before a Roku streaming 512 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:05,920 Speaker 1: device would be available for consumers, and even longer for 513 00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:10,560 Speaker 1: Roku capabilities to be built directly into television sets. The 514 00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:13,880 Speaker 1: first Roku device was also the first one capable of 515 00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:18,960 Speaker 1: bringing Netflix is streaming service to television's Originally, Netflix was 516 00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:22,360 Speaker 1: going to produce its own hardware, but then Read Hastings, 517 00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:25,480 Speaker 1: who at that time was the soul CEO of Netflix. 518 00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:29,760 Speaker 1: Today he is co CEO along with Ted Surrenders. He 519 00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:33,240 Speaker 1: figured that if Netflix started to make its own hardware, 520 00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:38,120 Speaker 1: that would potentially scuttle future partnerships with other hardware manufacturers 521 00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:42,000 Speaker 1: because they would view Netflix as a competitor. So he 522 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:44,400 Speaker 1: thought it would be better to not get into the 523 00:31:44,440 --> 00:31:47,560 Speaker 1: hardware business instead just be the entity that provides the 524 00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:51,760 Speaker 1: streaming service and partner with hardware manufacturers to bring that 525 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:56,400 Speaker 1: streaming service to customers. Roku was then handed the chance 526 00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,200 Speaker 1: to make a name for itself by being the first 527 00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:03,440 Speaker 1: product that let Netflix customers stream shows directly to their 528 00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:07,240 Speaker 1: television's The company produced its first Roku player in two 529 00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:11,560 Speaker 1: thousand eight. One year earlier, in two thousand seven, HP 530 00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:16,160 Speaker 1: introduced the Media Smart TV. This television would connect to 531 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:19,960 Speaker 1: your home network, so it required a PC a computer 532 00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:24,000 Speaker 1: in order to stream content from the computer to the television. 533 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:28,400 Speaker 1: If you wanted to access online content so that capability 534 00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:31,440 Speaker 1: wasn't native to the television itself, you had to have 535 00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:33,720 Speaker 1: a computer that would act as kind of like a 536 00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:36,800 Speaker 1: set top box. Sort of like the Roku player, and 537 00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:39,320 Speaker 1: some people refer to the Media Smart TV as the 538 00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:42,880 Speaker 1: first smart TV, which would put the origin for smart 539 00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:46,000 Speaker 1: TVs at two thousand seven. But the Media Smart Well 540 00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:51,080 Speaker 1: innovative wasn't a huge hit. Samsung would create a quote 541 00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:54,440 Speaker 1: unquote smart TV in two thousand eight that would only 542 00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:57,960 Speaker 1: be available in South Korea. It was the p A 543 00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:03,880 Speaker 1: VV borda T the seven fifty or have bordou. It 544 00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:07,720 Speaker 1: allowed customers to watch YouTube videos, they could scan news 545 00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:10,200 Speaker 1: and weather, and they could do a few other Internet 546 00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:14,000 Speaker 1: related activities. This television didn't need a set top box, 547 00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:17,160 Speaker 1: didn't need a PC in order to access these features. 548 00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:20,760 Speaker 1: The TV itself had an Ethernet port. It also had 549 00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:23,040 Speaker 1: a USB port if you wanted to connect it to 550 00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:27,200 Speaker 1: a network via a USB adapter. It also came with 551 00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:31,920 Speaker 1: a gigabyte of content preloaded on the television itself. It 552 00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:34,920 Speaker 1: did not have writeable storage, so you couldn't use the 553 00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:38,920 Speaker 1: television like a DVR, but you could access online content, 554 00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:42,440 Speaker 1: you know, in the form of stuff like YouTube videos. Okay, 555 00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:45,120 Speaker 1: so a lot of other stuff was going on around 556 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:47,840 Speaker 1: this time that would really push the evolution of smart TV. 557 00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:50,760 Speaker 1: So here in the United States. The country was in 558 00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:54,840 Speaker 1: the midst of a digital transformation in which all broadcasts 559 00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:58,840 Speaker 1: were going to switch from analog to digital. There was 560 00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:01,240 Speaker 1: a lot of digital broadcast sting already, but now it 561 00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:02,800 Speaker 1: was going to be a requirement. You were going to 562 00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:08,799 Speaker 1: abandon analog transmissions for over the air broadcasts. Now this 563 00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:11,640 Speaker 1: was when we first launched the tech Stuff podcast. We've 564 00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:13,680 Speaker 1: gotten to the point where tech Stuff is a thing 565 00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:16,560 Speaker 1: at this point, and one of our early episodes explained 566 00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:20,719 Speaker 1: why some people would need a digital to analog converter, 567 00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:25,279 Speaker 1: so it would accept digital signals converted to analog and 568 00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:28,600 Speaker 1: then send the analog signal to the television. But they 569 00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:32,200 Speaker 1: would only be needed for over the air broadcasts, and 570 00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:34,520 Speaker 1: it would be only for people who are actually using 571 00:34:34,560 --> 00:34:38,040 Speaker 1: antennas to pick up their their television signals. This whole 572 00:34:38,239 --> 00:34:41,759 Speaker 1: digital transformation had people in the United States confused. There 573 00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:43,879 Speaker 1: were a lot of efforts to try and clear out 574 00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:46,880 Speaker 1: that confusion, some of which were met with, you know, 575 00:34:47,239 --> 00:34:49,879 Speaker 1: differing amounts of success. There were a lot of people 576 00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:52,480 Speaker 1: who are ordering these converters, and it turned out they 577 00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:54,759 Speaker 1: didn't actually need the converters because they were getting their 578 00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:57,400 Speaker 1: feed from like a cable box or something, but they 579 00:34:57,400 --> 00:35:01,160 Speaker 1: didn't know because it wasn't terribly well communicated early on. 580 00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:04,600 Speaker 1: This also, however, meant that the country was committing fully 581 00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:08,279 Speaker 1: to digital transmissions and that would incentivize more innovation in 582 00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:13,520 Speaker 1: the digital TV space. Another big development was that more 583 00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:17,520 Speaker 1: households in the United States were gaining access to broadband connections. 584 00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:24,200 Speaker 1: Without broadband, streaming content is not good. It's kind of allowsy, 585 00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:27,360 Speaker 1: particularly if you want to stream content at a size 586 00:35:27,360 --> 00:35:30,840 Speaker 1: and resolution that would work well on a television. But 587 00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:34,239 Speaker 1: this was when we started seeing an improvement in broadband 588 00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:37,600 Speaker 1: accessibility in the United States. Of course, we are nowhere 589 00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:40,759 Speaker 1: near done with that phase. There's still plenty of communities 590 00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:43,880 Speaker 1: in the US that have little to no broadband access, 591 00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:47,600 Speaker 1: so it is not mission accomplished by any stretch of 592 00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:51,080 Speaker 1: the imagination. The introduction of television is like the media 593 00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:55,040 Speaker 1: smart and the p a VV sent the message that 594 00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:57,120 Speaker 1: this is going to be the future of television, or 595 00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:00,239 Speaker 1: at least a future of television. If not the future, 596 00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:02,240 Speaker 1: I mean, you had companies that were hedging their bets, 597 00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:07,200 Speaker 1: but it was definitely seen as a potential future. Another 598 00:36:07,239 --> 00:36:09,200 Speaker 1: big one that was being debated at the time was 599 00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:15,120 Speaker 1: three D TV which ultimately went nowhere that that that 600 00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:18,400 Speaker 1: branch of the timeline ended in a dead end. Then 601 00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:23,960 Speaker 1: we entered into the era of widgets. Widgets. You know, 602 00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:26,120 Speaker 1: these days we would just call them apps, but at 603 00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:30,320 Speaker 1: the time we called them widgets. And some widgets were 604 00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:33,880 Speaker 1: very very simple, like it might just give you a 605 00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:38,480 Speaker 1: quick weather report to you know, highlight and choose that widget, 606 00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:42,920 Speaker 1: or maybe a stock market read out or a list 607 00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:47,080 Speaker 1: of headlines. Some ended up getting more complicated, like you 608 00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:49,240 Speaker 1: could have a widget that would allow users to launch 609 00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:53,720 Speaker 1: a service like Netflix or YouTube. These days, you're likely 610 00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:56,680 Speaker 1: to find smart TVs that have built in interfaces for 611 00:36:57,040 --> 00:37:02,200 Speaker 1: numerous streaming services, although with more arriving all the time, uh, 612 00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:04,759 Speaker 1: you're not guaranteed to have access to all of them 613 00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:09,000 Speaker 1: natively through the television and there were some drawbacks right so. 614 00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:12,680 Speaker 1: A big one was that these televisions frequently need ongoing 615 00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:16,400 Speaker 1: support from the manufacturers to ensure that those features remain usable. 616 00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:20,080 Speaker 1: This gets to that issue where new streaming services launch, 617 00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:24,400 Speaker 1: and unless the company that makes your smart TV is 618 00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:27,799 Speaker 1: able to patch out and update where they're able to 619 00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:32,920 Speaker 1: include an app that lets you access this new streaming service, 620 00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:35,160 Speaker 1: you might find that you can't do it unless you 621 00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:38,239 Speaker 1: have some additional piece of hardware connected to your TV. 622 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:41,440 Speaker 1: And just as we saw with the rapid evolution of 623 00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:44,760 Speaker 1: the web, which ultimately left web TV in the lurch, 624 00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:48,360 Speaker 1: we see streaming services change as well, and the behind 625 00:37:48,360 --> 00:37:51,920 Speaker 1: the scenes changes of these streaming services might not be 626 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:55,520 Speaker 1: immediately noticeable to the average person, right like the changes 627 00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:59,480 Speaker 1: could be done in codex and transmission and compression and 628 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:02,280 Speaker 1: decompress and all these kind of things might be changing 629 00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:05,279 Speaker 1: behind the scenes, and ideally as a user, you don't 630 00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:07,239 Speaker 1: even know about it. You don't need to know about it. 631 00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:10,720 Speaker 1: The technology handles it. But in some cases these changes 632 00:38:10,719 --> 00:38:14,960 Speaker 1: can make a service incompatible with older hardware, Like there 633 00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:18,440 Speaker 1: can come a point where the service has requirements that 634 00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:22,680 Speaker 1: the older hardware simply is unable to meet. Now, if 635 00:38:22,719 --> 00:38:26,480 Speaker 1: you are lucky, your hardware will be resilient enough so 636 00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:31,000 Speaker 1: that your TV's manufacturer can hatch it repeatedly send up 637 00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:33,839 Speaker 1: out updates to the equipment so that way you can 638 00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:38,440 Speaker 1: continue to access the services and it keeps your television relevant. 639 00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:42,319 Speaker 1: But in some cases that's just not a possibility, or 640 00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:46,960 Speaker 1: the company just chooses not to support it anymore, and 641 00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:52,040 Speaker 1: that means over time, those TVs lose functionality, right, Like, 642 00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:54,960 Speaker 1: you might have an icon that says you can connect 643 00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:57,960 Speaker 1: to YouTube, but it doesn't work because YouTube itself has 644 00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:01,759 Speaker 1: changed and evolved and is no longer compatible with the 645 00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:05,080 Speaker 1: old hardware of your TV, and so now it's just 646 00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:07,800 Speaker 1: a widget that doesn't do anything except take up space 647 00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:11,520 Speaker 1: on your screen. And this was a problem, particularly for 648 00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:15,720 Speaker 1: the first couple of generations of smart TVs, where because 649 00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:19,560 Speaker 1: of changes that were not in the control of the manufacturers, 650 00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:26,399 Speaker 1: the functions would lose relevance pretty quickly. So, yeah, that's 651 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:28,440 Speaker 1: a problem if you don't want to have to replace 652 00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:31,200 Speaker 1: your television every couple of years. Right. You know, the 653 00:39:31,239 --> 00:39:34,680 Speaker 1: price of TVs has fallen dramatically over time, but you 654 00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:37,440 Speaker 1: probably still don't want to have to trade out your 655 00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:40,920 Speaker 1: television over and over. So one big downside of smart 656 00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:44,960 Speaker 1: TV technology is there's no guarantee that all the features 657 00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:48,400 Speaker 1: on the TV, the stuff that is meant to sell 658 00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:52,239 Speaker 1: that television, there's no guarantee that those will remain relevant 659 00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:56,200 Speaker 1: for the lifetime of your TV, or at least the 660 00:39:56,239 --> 00:40:00,479 Speaker 1: amount of time you expect to own and use that TV. Sure, 661 00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:04,520 Speaker 1: you know it should continue to serve as an actual television, right, 662 00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:06,759 Speaker 1: It's not like all functionality is going to go out. 663 00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:09,680 Speaker 1: In most cases, I assume would be a terrible idea 664 00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:14,120 Speaker 1: to have a hardware that would completely shut down the 665 00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:18,279 Speaker 1: television entirely once it got irrelevant. But you know, if 666 00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:19,919 Speaker 1: you want to do all the other stuff, you'd be stuck. 667 00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:22,880 Speaker 1: You would have to find a set top box solution 668 00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:26,200 Speaker 1: to give you more functionality. But you have to remember 669 00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:28,799 Speaker 1: set top boxes have the same kind of limitations that 670 00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:33,520 Speaker 1: smart TVs do. That services can evolve beyond the capability 671 00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:38,319 Speaker 1: of the hardware to present those services. So that's one 672 00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:42,680 Speaker 1: big issue is just obsolescence. These devices can go obsolete 673 00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:45,759 Speaker 1: faster than you would prefer. Because if you're buying a TV, 674 00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:49,040 Speaker 1: chances are you plan on using that TV for a while. 675 00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:52,200 Speaker 1: I don't know about all of you, but like the 676 00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:55,239 Speaker 1: television I have in my living room, I've owned that 677 00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:58,560 Speaker 1: for I don't know, maybe a decade at this point 678 00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:02,279 Speaker 1: somewhere along there, and it works fine. It's not a 679 00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:05,320 Speaker 1: four case set either. It's I have thought about upgrading 680 00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:08,000 Speaker 1: to a four K, but I haven't, and it's fine, 681 00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:11,040 Speaker 1: especially since I don't watch much television at all. There's 682 00:41:11,080 --> 00:41:15,240 Speaker 1: no reason for me to upgrade. Well, you don't want 683 00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:20,920 Speaker 1: to have basic feature servior television become defunct and require 684 00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:22,640 Speaker 1: you to upgrade every couple of years. That would be 685 00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:27,239 Speaker 1: very frustrating. Another big issue, and a growing issue with 686 00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:31,799 Speaker 1: modern televisions is privacy. So in June of this year, 687 00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:34,960 Speaker 1: this year being twenty two for any of y'all listening 688 00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:39,600 Speaker 1: from the future, Roku and Walmart announced a new partnership 689 00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:43,240 Speaker 1: and the plan is for Walmart to enable viewers the chance, 690 00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:48,160 Speaker 1: the opportunity, if you will, to purchase featured products directly 691 00:41:48,239 --> 00:41:51,719 Speaker 1: through their Roku streaming service. So, in other words, you 692 00:41:51,760 --> 00:41:55,160 Speaker 1: can imagine a situation where maybe you're watching a particular 693 00:41:55,239 --> 00:41:59,680 Speaker 1: show and there's some product that's prominently featured on the show. 694 00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:02,960 Speaker 1: You know, I see this all the time with laptops, 695 00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:05,200 Speaker 1: Like if you watch certain movies, you can tell what 696 00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:09,560 Speaker 1: year they were made based upon the incredibly prominent logos 697 00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:12,040 Speaker 1: that are on display from all the different laptops that 698 00:42:12,040 --> 00:42:15,920 Speaker 1: are open on different tables and stuff. Well, in this case, 699 00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:20,160 Speaker 1: there's a chance that Walmart can leverage that and then 700 00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:22,840 Speaker 1: shoot you an AD to give you the chance to 701 00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:26,640 Speaker 1: buy the product you've just seen on screen through Walmart, 702 00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:29,040 Speaker 1: just by pressing a button on your Roku remote more 703 00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:34,000 Speaker 1: than that, because smart TVs are essentially data gathering machines. 704 00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:37,719 Speaker 1: Remember old TVs, it was output only, like no one 705 00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:39,799 Speaker 1: knew what it was you were watching. They didn't know, 706 00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:43,000 Speaker 1: you know, if you were paying attention to something that 707 00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:45,160 Speaker 1: had a lot of product placement in it. But with 708 00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:48,399 Speaker 1: smart TVs that data goes both ways, and while you're 709 00:42:48,440 --> 00:42:53,160 Speaker 1: watching that can all be sent back to the streaming 710 00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:56,880 Speaker 1: service provider or the manufacturer, whatever it may be. That 711 00:42:56,960 --> 00:43:01,440 Speaker 1: means data is being gathered as you watch different programs 712 00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:04,279 Speaker 1: and when you watch, and how much you watch, all 713 00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:06,279 Speaker 1: of those kind of things. Well, that would mean that 714 00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:09,600 Speaker 1: Walmart could actually start to target ads to you based 715 00:43:09,680 --> 00:43:14,360 Speaker 1: upon your behavior. Walmart and Roku can analyze what you 716 00:43:14,480 --> 00:43:17,520 Speaker 1: do and come up with the most ideal way to 717 00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:20,359 Speaker 1: present ads to you that are most likely to get 718 00:43:20,400 --> 00:43:23,160 Speaker 1: a positive response from you. So, in other words, your 719 00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:26,480 Speaker 1: TV watches you. You're not watching the TV as much 720 00:43:26,480 --> 00:43:29,360 Speaker 1: as the TV is watching you as measuring your behaviors 721 00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:31,680 Speaker 1: in an effort to sell you more stuff and to 722 00:43:31,719 --> 00:43:35,279 Speaker 1: do it more effectively. And that it's possible that the 723 00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:38,480 Speaker 1: ads you encounter as you navigate through the user experience 724 00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:41,920 Speaker 1: are going to be based off that analysis of your behavior. 725 00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:46,439 Speaker 1: So you could see this extending beyond this kind of 726 00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:53,040 Speaker 1: implementation that I'm describing. Imagine that you have streaming services 727 00:43:53,239 --> 00:43:57,759 Speaker 1: that are switching to add supported tears of service, presumably 728 00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:00,560 Speaker 1: at a lower cost for subscribers, so that people who 729 00:44:00,600 --> 00:44:03,680 Speaker 1: don't want to pay full price to subscribe to whatever 730 00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:09,560 Speaker 1: can pay us a lower fee for ads supported access. Well, 731 00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:13,959 Speaker 1: you can imagine those streaming services paying attention to what 732 00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:17,319 Speaker 1: people are watching and how they watch it, and then 733 00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:23,080 Speaker 1: presenting ads that are customized based upon that user behavior. 734 00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:26,560 Speaker 1: It's very easy to imagine you have five different households 735 00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:29,279 Speaker 1: sitting down to watch the exact same program on the 736 00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:34,040 Speaker 1: exact same streaming services, but they all get different ads 737 00:44:34,080 --> 00:44:38,359 Speaker 1: based upon the behaviors within that individual household. In order 738 00:44:38,360 --> 00:44:41,200 Speaker 1: for that to work, that means your television is constantly 739 00:44:41,239 --> 00:44:44,200 Speaker 1: paying attention to what you're doing on the TV, just 740 00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:48,920 Speaker 1: as we've seen with computers and smartphones and other smart devices. 741 00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:52,680 Speaker 1: So in a way, this is nothing new. It's not like, oh, 742 00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:56,120 Speaker 1: this new specter of surveillance is upon us. We've been 743 00:44:56,200 --> 00:44:59,520 Speaker 1: under that for a long time, but now we've got 744 00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:03,239 Speaker 1: another a piece of technology that is participating in that 745 00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:07,000 Speaker 1: surveillance in an effort to make money off of your information, 746 00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:11,000 Speaker 1: either by using your information to target ads to you 747 00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:14,759 Speaker 1: more effectively, or maybe even to sell your information to 748 00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:18,680 Speaker 1: some other third party, depending upon the user agreement for 749 00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:22,359 Speaker 1: that particular streaming service in that particular hardware. There are 750 00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:26,239 Speaker 1: definitely privacy concerns with that kind of approach, but we're 751 00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:29,640 Speaker 1: likely to see several instances in which people's privacy tends 752 00:45:29,680 --> 00:45:32,680 Speaker 1: to be compromised before we start to see corrections to 753 00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:35,760 Speaker 1: prevent similar issues in the future, just because that's typically 754 00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:39,560 Speaker 1: how it works fun times, and it's not likely to change. 755 00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:41,600 Speaker 1: If anything, I expect we're going to see a lot 756 00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:45,920 Speaker 1: more integration of programming matched with user behavior that is 757 00:45:46,560 --> 00:45:50,920 Speaker 1: fueled by things like the smart television technology. According to 758 00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:55,719 Speaker 1: Hub Entertainment Research, fifty seven percent of all televisions are 759 00:45:55,760 --> 00:45:59,359 Speaker 1: now smart sets, so that means they now effectively they 760 00:45:59,440 --> 00:46:03,480 Speaker 1: out and borthy non smart or dumb TVs. The television 761 00:46:03,560 --> 00:46:05,360 Speaker 1: I mentioned, the one that I have upstairs, is a 762 00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:07,440 Speaker 1: dumb TV. It's not a smart TV. It doesn't have 763 00:46:07,480 --> 00:46:11,800 Speaker 1: any native ABS in it. I can't access anything unless 764 00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:15,359 Speaker 1: I have another piece of hardware connected to the TV, 765 00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:17,480 Speaker 1: like my Xbox. I can do it through there, but 766 00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:20,560 Speaker 1: the TV itself is a dumb TV. It is now 767 00:46:21,080 --> 00:46:23,880 Speaker 1: in the minority of televisions that are out there in 768 00:46:23,920 --> 00:46:27,960 Speaker 1: the United States of households with a television have a 769 00:46:28,040 --> 00:46:30,920 Speaker 1: smart TV. That trend is also playing a part in 770 00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:34,560 Speaker 1: the death of cable and satellite TV, as people access 771 00:46:34,680 --> 00:46:39,360 Speaker 1: more streaming content and less traditional cable and satellite content, 772 00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:42,920 Speaker 1: which leads people to say, why do I need a 773 00:46:42,960 --> 00:46:46,880 Speaker 1: cable TV subscription? I never watch cable TV, so I'm 774 00:46:46,920 --> 00:46:48,400 Speaker 1: sure I'm going to come back to that if I 775 00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:51,799 Speaker 1: do a full episode about the decline of cable and 776 00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:55,319 Speaker 1: satellite TV, or when I do an episode, because I'm 777 00:46:55,360 --> 00:46:56,879 Speaker 1: sure I will. I just don't know when I will 778 00:46:56,920 --> 00:47:00,800 Speaker 1: do it yet. But yeah, that's kind of how smart 779 00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:05,439 Speaker 1: TVs came into being, and it's I'm actually surprised that 780 00:47:05,480 --> 00:47:11,120 Speaker 1: we haven't seen more leveraging of smart TVs in order 781 00:47:11,160 --> 00:47:15,320 Speaker 1: to gather more data and to advertise more directly to 782 00:47:15,600 --> 00:47:19,120 Speaker 1: two users. There have been instances of that before this 783 00:47:19,239 --> 00:47:23,440 Speaker 1: Roku Walmart deal, but generally speaking, it's been kind of 784 00:47:23,480 --> 00:47:26,200 Speaker 1: on the d L. It hasn't been that big of 785 00:47:26,320 --> 00:47:28,840 Speaker 1: a trend. Uh not as big as I would have 786 00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:30,640 Speaker 1: expected it to be, but it seems like that is 787 00:47:30,719 --> 00:47:32,719 Speaker 1: changing now, and I think maybe the reason for that 788 00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:38,719 Speaker 1: is that there is this noticeable shift away from the 789 00:47:38,760 --> 00:47:42,480 Speaker 1: traditional media sources for television, that being like cable and 790 00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:48,080 Speaker 1: satellite and over the air, toward the online streaming services, 791 00:47:48,120 --> 00:47:52,239 Speaker 1: and therefore the opportunities to gather that information and to 792 00:47:52,280 --> 00:47:55,919 Speaker 1: make use of it have increased. So maybe that's why 793 00:47:56,040 --> 00:47:58,760 Speaker 1: we're starting to see it now. If you have topics 794 00:47:58,800 --> 00:48:00,440 Speaker 1: you would like me to cover in future episodes of 795 00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:02,600 Speaker 1: tech Stuff, reach out to me and let me know 796 00:48:02,640 --> 00:48:04,680 Speaker 1: what those are. One way to do that is to 797 00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:07,560 Speaker 1: download the I Heart Radio app, navigate over to the 798 00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:10,480 Speaker 1: text stuff page, and use the little microphone icon to 799 00:48:10,560 --> 00:48:12,560 Speaker 1: leave a voice message. It can be up to thirty 800 00:48:12,560 --> 00:48:15,120 Speaker 1: seconds in lengths. The other way is to reach out 801 00:48:15,160 --> 00:48:17,920 Speaker 1: on Twitter to handle for the show is tech stuff 802 00:48:18,160 --> 00:48:22,399 Speaker 1: H s W and I'll talk to you again really soon. 803 00:48:28,760 --> 00:48:31,799 Speaker 1: Tech Stuff is an I heart Radio production. For more 804 00:48:31,880 --> 00:48:35,240 Speaker 1: podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, 805 00:48:35,400 --> 00:48:38,560 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.