If CTV, CBC and Global want to survive they need to create one website Canadians can visit to watch anything they can normally get on cable – or [...]]]>

If Canadian Television networks have any desire to survive the next decade they have to do something very radical – join together.

If CTV, CBC and Global want to survive they need to create one website Canadians can visit to watch anything they can normally get on cable – or else sites like YouTube will bury them alive.

Why?

Because I, joe consumer have zero patients to learn 5 different url’s, interfaces, etc.  I want all video content from all television networks laid you 100% the same from site to site to site.

I want to visit one site, and be able to view, search and browse content regardless of network host as equally easy as I can on YouTube.  I don’t want to visit micro-site after micro-site to chase down (try to remember) what shows I want to watch.  Don’t make me visit Comedy Network to watch John Stewart, CBC.ca to watch the National or CTV to see an episode of the Amazing Race.

And if I don’t want to do it, I’m not going to do it.  I’m going to exclude and bypass Canadian networks outright finding the path of least resistance.

Oh the networks won’t go for this.  But all it takes is to set up a Beer Store style consortium where all parties are represented.  Revenue sharing models are created.  And in show commercials are still owned and managed by the host network.

Now go to various Canadian network sites and see how easy it is to quickly find and watch TV shows you’d watch on TV.

Here go try to watch:  John Stewart,  Survivor, The National, CTV Toronto local news.  GO!

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• Canadian broadcasters lost money in 2009 (cbc.ca)

Sure smart phones have started the march down the path of always [...]]]>

So everyone is bitching today that the iPad is a bit of a disappointment, that they expected something ‘ground breaking’ or ‘revolutionary’.   Well, you have.  What the iPad will accomplish in it’s first year is it will start to make digital data ambiguous.

Sure smart phones have started the march down the path of always on, always available data.  But iPad will push it to a whole new standard – to the point where it’s culture changing.

See smart phones are singular – an entity for one, a laptop is designed for one and a desktop PC is designed only to be used by  one.  But the iPad goes somewhere else: it’s a collective device.  It’s not easy to share onscreen information on any of these devices with others unless your under ideal conditions.  The iPad changes this, you can hold it up to show people the screen, slide it across a boardroom table, flip it around, pass it back and forth, put it down, pick it up.  The interface is fluid – quick, easy and efficient – therefore your not interfering with the flow of the conversation, the exchange of ideas – in and out data – no waiting for the laptop to boot, connecting to a network, getting the mouse to work, navigating a complex (attention required) interface – clicks and concentration required – and ultimately that’s the difference.

iPhones and all other computer devices to date are singular – iPads are collaborative and that makes it a culture changer.

Part II will look at how always on digital will change our society.

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