 Broadband and Media Convergence  Projected platform and appliance preferences for broadband content  Short to mid-term  Technology companies and content providers need to examine this trend closely in order to adapt their offerings to these two emerging markets |
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 Major Points Convergence of Internet and TV culture will happen on several levels/carriers. Internet and TV have completely different sets of strong points. While considerable overlap between the two is likely, nothing at present indicates that they will merge to the extent initially anticipated. In other words, there will be PC/Internet-based broadband and TV-based broadband. These environments will share information and to some extent assets, but they will not become one indistinct medium in the short to mid-term Analysis The year 2000 marks the official debut of broadband culture. After a purely experimental phase, all of the major content-providers are getting ready to roll out their first broadband offerings. This poses some very basic questions for the mid-term: What will the preferred platform for broadband/convergence content be? Are we headed for a shoot-out between the PC and the TV set? What broadband platform will the Internet be running on? Is there ever going to be just one unified platform? The answers to these questions are rather complex: one does not design content in the same way for an interlaced TV screen as one does for a computer monitor. Even more importantly, we do not use or relate to TV and Internet in the same way: TV draws on passive enjoyment, Internet on active curiosity. Both ways of accessing information are fundamental; neither can replace the other. The implications of these often overlooked differences are enormous and need to be examined by everyone concerned by the evolution of media. The basic message is that a unified platform for broadband content in the near future is unlikely. Exit convergence? Certainly not, but it does mean that things will be a good bit more complex and varied than initially imagined. 18Apr2000 ©2000 Pfeiffer Consulting |
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