Bill Gates Predicts TV Broadcasting Will Be ‘Irrelevant’
Bill Gates, head of the world’s largest software company, Microsoft, predicts a future for the entertainment industry in which traditional broadcast television is rendered irrelevant.
A host of new technology entering the market, such as personal video recorders and digital video recorders are changing the way that viewers watch television. They now have more control than ever before over what and when they watch.
Speaking of this, Gates told The Hollywood Reporter: “It’s a positive vision, however, because new and better business models made possible by technology are emerging.”
He added: “Broadcast TV is under a challenge. That’s news to no one. The idea of just having that one linear [schedule] thing – you don’t change your channel, so the local news leads to the whole lineup getting this great popularity – that’s on its way out, but slowly.”
Gates said that what viewers really want is content on the internet, which they can have a direct relationship with. He said: “That model for low-volume content is the future.”
Among his predictions he said, technology such as internet protocol television will change the model of television advertising and enable personalised and targeted advertising in to every home.
However, Gates knows this will have a knock-on effect to broadcasters advertising revenues. He said: “You really affect things when you change their economic source. So you’ve really got to think about advertising to know how the value of these franchises will change.”
During the interview Gates admitted that Microsoft is working more closely than ever with studios and distributors, taking such steps as creating a Media/Entertainment and Technology Convergence Group.
Microsoft is also looking beyond the DVD generation and hope to produce something that’s not as ‘vulnerable’ as the DVD turned out to be.
Microsoft: 0870 60 10 100 www.microsoft.com/uk
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