Apple TV to 'end TV'?

Media hubs such as the Apple TV are the end of the way we currently watch television, Digg.com's CEO said during a discussion panel at the South by Southwest music and technology festival. Jay Adelson, who also helps manage the Internet TV firm Revision3, told his audience that the ability to deliver TV through the Internet to the living room would render the conventional notions of specialty cable and satellite channels obsolete. Content providers are coming to understand that they can't limit content to a particular TV network or medium, Adelson added.

The opinion was widely shared by a large cross-section of the Digg co-founder's audience, many of whom host specialty Internet TV stations. They argued that the explosion of media center hubs, spurred on by the Apple TV, would force advertisers to latch on to the medium now that everyday TV viewers could enjoy the content as readily as those in front of their computers.

Some anaylysts are skeptical however, noting a public desire for simple pricing and technology. Traditional TV producers have also been reluctant to adopt the Internet, often insisting that video clips and other files stream only through their own websites, such as CBS' Innertube. Viacom recently drew criticism from the online community for backpedaling on its deal with YouTube for hosting videos.

"If your content becomes successful, it's going to exceed your grasp," AOL creative development director Nicole Carrico said of Viacom and similar traditionalists. "They're going to have to relax their death grip."

by MacNN Staff