April 7th, 2009
5 Things I'd Like To See From My (Or Any) Cable Operator
Just back from the 2009 Cable Show and wishing for a few (seemingly) simple services to appear on my screen — or in my hands.
1. ‘Friend’ alerts. Hey, I can see who’s calling on my telephone while I’m watching “How The Earth Was Made” on History. Why can’t I see what my friends are up to? Give me their tweets, Facebook updates and MySpace comments. Let me know what they’re up to. And they’ll probably recommend a TV show or two along the way that I’ll want to watch, while it’s on. Sure, I’ll want to toggle this on and off. But that shouldn’t be too hard.
2. A “free” netbook — with some video juice. Build me a level of service that I can get my cable TV service (a la Sling) anywhere I go on any device, via wifi. Authenticate who I am (a la BBC iPlayer). And, here’s the good part, build the cost of a netbook that acts as my mobile cable TV, phone and internet box into the subscription.
3. Search. Why is it I have to go to my browser to find what’s on TV? Still waiting to see useful search show up in my channel and on-demand TV guide. This has been demonstrated at past Cable Shows. But I’d like to see it at home.
4. More movies. More? Cable was built on the pay movie business. Yes, more on demand. Comcast is working on Project Infinity, with 10,000 on-demand movies and 100,000 total choices. Bring it on. Meanwhile, I’m still hunting and pecking to find a decent movie once a week from my operator. A Netflix box starts to look appealing.
5. Simple remote control. Where is my free-motion remote control? You know the one where all I have to do is click, like a mouse. It can be done. In fact, Logitech even has one version, called the Air Mouse. This is another way to solve #3, by using the medium you control, in a richer way.
That medium? The visual one. The TV.
Image Source: The Grass Is Greener, sagi.typepad.com
Tom Steinert-Threlkeld is editor-in-chief of Securities Industry News, as well as a long-time media, technology and business journalist. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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