Buckle up: Traditional TV is in for a heck of a ride

It is now widely accepted by the major industry stakeholders, content owners, cable operators, consumer electronics manufacturers and new startups that the following trends are unavoidable:

• Consumers will demand linear and on demand, short-form and user generated videos, to be viewed anytime, anywhere and on multiple devices. I believe that companies that build models to meet that demand will win. Those that deny it will go on life support.
• TV rooms in homes will have multiple screens running simultaneously, presenting a much better form factor to interface with the TV set than the traditional remote control. Most new TV-viewing devices will be Internet connected in 10 years.
• A substantial percentage of programming will have on demand, time shifted and interactive capabilities. New formats of programming with embedded interactive applications will emerge, and social TV will take off.
• Advertising will be targeted and personalized, at the individual and household levels, using legacy data from the settop box as well as ongoing rich data being generated every day, unless regulators step in to over restrict that. Smart marketers are already challenging the convention of TV time buying by demanding the same accountability that they are getting in their online buys.

This is going to be a much tougher fight than the last round of disruption, and here’s why:

• The stakes are enormous.
• Content owners are positioned to benefit.
• Cable operators are frienemies.
• TV Manufacturers See Opportunity with Embedded Software.
• New Entrants Ignition for the Entire Disruption.

[Kairouz is a managing partner of Rho Capital Partners and Rho Ventures]