Microsoft’s CEO Ballmer “LOST” on the Internet?
Article by Fiana de Guzman published on June 10, 2008 and filed unter News, Online Trends by using the tags Ballmer, internet content, Lost, Microsoft, online tv, Washington Post.
The whole world of media, communications and advertising are going to be turned upside down, said Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer in an interview with The Washington Post on how he expects the media to change in the next 10 years. In this respect, he addresses interesting ideas and problems everyone might have already thought about themselves.
Ballmer starts off stating, that at some point in the future, there will be no media consumption that is not delivered over an IP network. Interestingly enough, he even expects magazines and newspapers to be only available in electronic form leaving their original paper form behind. A change that sounds quite sci-fi - at least to me – and is hardly going to happen in the near future, but rather in the next 20 years or so.
Another very important aspect Ballmer addresses is the one of ‘Social Interaction.’ He argues that, in order to make TV more interactive, it would have to be delivered over an IP network:
I mean, it’s sort of funny today. My son will stay up all night basically playing Xbox Live with friends that are in various parts of the world, and yet I can’t sit there in front of the TV and have the same kind of a social interaction around my favorite basketball game or golf match. It’s just because one of these things is delivered over an IP network and the other is not. . . .
Furthermore, Ballmer predicts the existence of far more producers of content than there are today – a phenomenon that can already be observed in the online world. He underlines this thought by bringing up his favorite case: Why can’t I sit in front of my television and watch the Country Day [his old High School] basketball game when I know darn well it’s being video-recorded at all times?
To the question whether internet content will be available for free, with ad support, in contrast to fees and subscriptions, Ballmer reveals that he already watches his favorite TV program “LOST” on the internet instead of buying it on iTunes even though he has to put up ads. He therefore thinks that subscriptions will be the exception in the future.
Why? Because it’s free. . . . I have to admit that I’m annoyed by the four 20 seconds [of ads], but not annoyed enough to pay a buck . . . I think at the end of the day most people say, “Heck, if I can get something that’s pretty good that’s ad-funded and the ads don’t kill me, I’ll take that over the thing I gotta pay for.”
True, isn’t?!
