In the second half of the last century, great television breakthroughs started to become more frequent; nevertheless, the major changes took up to a decade between them. Throughout the years, technology in general began advancing at a fast pace and in the next half of this decade (2015-2020) one of the most exciting and innovating periods in the history of television is expected with the Internet and mobile technology play the key roles.
Ericsson made a prediction about these television changes and compiled in the Media Vision 2020 report.
The study starts by comparing the grand opening of the London Olympics in 1948 and 2012, where the first counted 100 thousand TV sets in the UK while the latter surpassed 900 million views in several platforms.
In spite of the obviousness of such evolution, they state they depend on country, operator, audience’s demography, some unique characteristics and… human nature! The truth is that the study emphasizes the “what”, “when” and “how” as being the factors that most power any evolution.
The first great revolution will be with the Internet’s critical and decisive role in the television industry. It is estimated that by 2020 worldwide mobile broadband will have exceeded 8 billion signatures and fixed broadband will have exceeded 1 billion signatures, thus representing 75% of all digital television sets.
Moreover, according to this report worldwide-facilitated Internet access will exceed 90%, i.e. via smartphones, tablets, computers or smart TVs; which means four times the Internet in 2020.
Mobile document transfer is estimated to increase around 45% (2013-2019) and ten times as much until the end of 2020.
What creates this frightening number is the increase in smartphone subscriptions in which video is the most shared type of file. 50% will be on-demand, compared to live or linear TV.
Anyway, the content sharing services and TV paid services will have to come to some sort of arrangement so as to provide their customers with the best experience possible. At this time, these customers will be divided in new ready-to-be-explored niches.
Ericsson considers that the motto content is king will endure and this may go from live streaming in a 4K ultra HD screen in your living-room to an episode from an old series in a 7’’ tablet on board a train.
Truth be told, these not-so-far-away predictions, aren’t that impossible when we look at the world around us and check on a daily basis the new technologies on the news.