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Gates Proclaims Internet to Revolutionize TV in 5 Years

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the for-some-of-us-it-already-has dept.

adamlazz writes "With an explosion of online video content on sites like YouTube and Google Video, Bill Gates believes that the Internet will revoloutionize the television within the next 5 years. 'I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had,' Gates told business leaders and politicians at the World Economic Forum. "

10 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. Oh, just what I needed... by Mikachu · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...the blue screen of death on my TV set.

    1. Re:Oh, just what I needed... by littlem · · Score: 5, Funny

      640 channels ought to be enough for anyone...

    2. Re:Oh, just what I needed... by egyptiankarim · · Score: 5, Funny

      Bill Gates makes a lot of proclamations, and personally I refuse to take anything he says seriously until I get that $100 dollars he promised to give me for sending out that Email to ten of my friends... :P

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  2. We need an obvious tag by Bullfish · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In other predictions... people will still be downloading music and movies... the RIAA will still be crying... most TV shows will still be craps and the most secure version of windows yet will be just around the corner

    1. Re:We need an obvious tag by garcia · · Score: 5, Insightful

      most TV shows will still be craps

      I don't know if you can access CurrentTV, but if you can make sure you sit down and watch a couple of pods. This is what he's talking about when he mentions that it's going to revolutionize TV. Viewer submitted content (that they're paying for) that appears on TV is amazing to watch.

      You get a first hand account of newly reported news items but without the lame over-processed and practiced "Live Eyewitness News Reporter" feel. Some of the shit on CurrentTV blows my mind and some of it is viewer submitted advertising for products that you would have probably never heard about on the mainstream media.

      Now, with archived content available online, we will finally get to see the Tubes be used for part of their potential.

  3. this from the guy who doesn't own one? by Speare · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Okay, so Gates hired dozens if not hundreds of developers in the 80s and early 90s who were very familiar with the value of the Internet, yet they missed the bandwagon in incorporating TCP/IP features and protocols until it was already commonplace in the market? And all the while, Gates was smugly declaring that he didn't own a television set and had completely disconnected from the Joe Sixpack culture of sponging in front of a boob tube like the rest of America. Yet, somehow he feels he's adequately informed to see the way that the television culture will shift to an Internet culture in a given timeframe? The only reason that this sounds at all plausible is because Apple and Sony and TiVo and Google and other companies already have been working in that direction. Welcome to the 2000s, Bill.

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  4. TV will prevail by OberonX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I believe TV, albeit in a different form, will continue to exist for a long time. What a lot people dont seem to realize is that the lack of interaction and choice with TV can be an advantage. The passivity of the watching experience is actually its best selling point, the ability to arrive home tired from work(and likely to have been in front of a computer) and just sit down and watch mindless junk for a couple of hours. TVs role will diminish but I would be doubtful if pre-programmed channels(even if over the internet) will ever disappear.

  5. Re:Spam by dvice_null · · Score: 5, Informative

    2004-01-26 he said that it would be solved in two years:
    http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.j html?articleID=17500979

  6. What would you want to watch today? by dgr73 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "and the Oscar for best picture goes to.." *BZZZTTTTT* -Your TV is not up to date. Would you like to update now? NO! -Would you like to be reminded to update later? Yes yes.. -Your Antivirus is not turned on, would you like to switch on your ant.. NO! GOD! -You have unwatched channels in your TV, click here to have unwatched channels removed from your channel listing OH FOR CHRISSAKE! *Enter crappy looking paperclip* -Hi, i'm TVBuddy! I see you've stopped viewing your program to do maintenance, so I took the liberty of saving the place for you. To continue viewing where you left off, press CTRL+WIN+TV+7+D, to just view in realtime press TV, to go off on a wild goose chase, click HELP. Finally some good news, yes! CTRL+WIN..... -TVKRNL.DLL has experienced a Fatal error, please contact your IT support with error details found in tvcrash.dmp *Windows box flies out of the window*

  7. Re:The Museum of Bill Gates Proclamations by kfg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bill does not actually make predictions. He makes press release statements. They're a form of marketing.

    He isn't telling us what he thinks will happen so much as he is telling us what he wants to happen so that he makes a lot of money. By forming it as a prediction he gets the masses to start looking in that direction and expecting what it is he is intending to sell them, thus making it easier to sell it to them, because now they think that's what they "want."

    It's similar to telling someone that their neighbor has already bought the widget you're selling; with the implication that if you don't buy one too you've missed the boat. The psychology of the herd. What are "they" going to be wearing next year? Ok, give me some of that.

    Thus you cannot embarass Bill by pointing out his failures at prognostication, because he views them as failures to manipulate.

    But here's the Gatesian twist: He blames you for it.

    KFG