Mark Cuban, owner of Dallas Mavericks and general rich guy, and Avner Ronen of Boxee duked it out on this panel about Pay TV vs. the Internet. The conversation started out contentious and stayed that way throughout, even with a break for a fire alarm (luckily it was false).
Cuban’s position was that the Internet would never be the primary delivery channel for video and Ronen disagreed. Ronen’s point was that the Internet is an open platform, which will provide the opportunity for more innovation. Cuban interrupted throughout, asking Ronen to provide current examples of successful business models. My feeling is that this idea of forcing the business model issue at this point is very premature. There are many examples of emerging models that do not put the burden of profitability (or even revenue) at the early stages.
I was intrigued by the fact that Cuban had been on a SXSW panel two years ago with Michael Eisner. At that time, he was representing the new guard. Now the roles have changed, and he seems to be married to the old cable TV model, no doubt driven by his launch of HDNEt.
The clip below is a sample of the conversation:
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This is a shaky subject for me. I cannot say that I disagree that the internet will never be the primary delivery source for video but I think that if it does ever happen it will be a long time from now. What has happened is just the beginning stages.
The next stage is internet content being embedded into televisions eliminating the need to hook up your computer to your TV. I work in retail and people are consistently coming in looking for the cable to hook up their computer to their TV. Watching it on their little screen is just not enough.
Now services like netflix, pandora, and vudu are embedded into blu-ray players and TV’s. With millions of homes having wireless networks in their homes they can now access this online content on their TV’s without a hitch.
TV manufacturers have not yet built in web browsers to their TV’s however. Now of course you can get a web browser on your TV if you hook up a computer but that’s not the point here. In my opinion even devices like Boxee will be obsolete. One day everything you need will be embedded in your TV. Sometimes all it takes is a simple firmware update and voila. The technology is already built-in, it’s just a matter of when they will unleash it to the masses.