In Today's WSJ: Marrying the TV and Internet
Interesting article today in the WSJ by Nick Wingfield on the blurring line between Internet and TV. He breaks down what he sees as the five primary barriers to consumers merging their Internet connections and their tv's to - voila! - watch video from the Internet on their tv. It's worth reading the article, but I am curious why he uses a data point (see graphic in middle of print article) from Forrester Research dated 3Q of 2006 (80% of consumers aren't interested in Internet video on their tv) - it sure seems like video on the Net has come a long way over the last year, and all of the most recent statistics and surveys point to rapidly rising demand (see my post on the Parks Associates report in September).
I'd agree with a lot of Nick's points, but I think the groundswell of demand is perhaps higher than you might take away from the article. One data point from the article - NBC alone streamed more than 50 million shows from its web site in October.
At the end of the day, a significant percentage of consumers just don't - and won't - move quickly on new technologies. Witness the adoption of DVR's. I don't know anyone who doesn't have one, but I live in the Bay Area, and DVR penetration across the US still stands at around 17%.
