The Godfather of the Internet says television, as we know it, is rapidly approaching the same kind of crunch moment that the music industry faced with the arrival of the MP3 player.
“Eighty-five per cent of all video we watch is pre-recorded, so you can set your system to download it all the time,” said Vinton Cerf. “You’re still going to need live television for certain things — like news, sporting events, and emergencies—but increasingly it is going to be almost like the iPod, where you download content to look at later.
“People would soon be watching the majority of television programmes through the Internet. And that revolution could herald the death of the traditional broadcast TV channel in favour of new interactive services.
“In Japan you can already download an hour’s worth of video in 16 seconds. And we’re starting to see ways of mixing information together… imagine if you could pause a TV programme and use your mouse to click on different items on the screen and find out more about them.”
Read the full story: Coming: Television’s iPod moment
