2005/06/02 22:52:00
Currently we have a limited number of TV channels, be that 30 or
so on Freeview or a 100 or so on Sky, and these are aimed at large
groups of people to bring in the largest numbers of subscribers or
advertising revenue. These channels are currently going for the
large numbers found at the start of the graph of peoples interests
against numbers. At the other end of this scale is what is called
the long tail
where there are a lot of numbers of people but all with quite
specilized interests. I can see this area changing quite a lot over
the next few years.
Small film makers and even people on the street now have access to
not only the camera technology they had before but also an adaptive
broadcast medium in the Internet. As bandwidth and codecs improve
we are going to see more virtual TV channels appear just as we have
seen the likes of blogs and wikis change the way people are
starting to get thier news and information. The real revoloution
will come when the set-top boxes get smarter and allow them to
connect directly to these new channels.
For more background on how this is going to happen then have a look
at the annodex website.
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