Thursday, January 03, 2013

Youtube Remote Gives Reason to Buy a Smart TV?

Interesting. Google is making your smartphone or tablet into a remote control for YouTube videos, which can then be pushed onto your smart TV. This works right now if you have a Google TV, but will available for many of the 'smart TV' manufacturers after the CES conference later this month.

You can even create a queue of videos, or line up your subscriptions; delivering full control over your evening entertainment. See it in action:



A lot of people will gloss over this; seeing as playing YouTube videos on your TV has been possible for quite some time. For me, I see this as an interesting connector between how TV is evolving, and how mobile tech will interface with it. The word seemless comes to mind -- It's a very 'Apple' announcement for Google.

Similar to how web-technology lowered the personal publishing threshold, home-created or quasi-professional online video will be pushed further into mainstream consumption. Watching niche online video channels will be even easier. And it wasn't that hard before.

Let's also remember how much entertainment has changed in recent years. Individuals have generated huge viewership numbers based on recording themselves playing a video game. And little more. Pop on a head-set, mix the video and commentary, and a star is born. Really? Yes. That's entertainment for many under-30.
 
And what of syndicated cable programming? Seems to be still going strong with big audiences for now; but as the population ages, there's going to be more variety and competition than ever before.

The YouTube remote is a solid stepping stone in that direction.

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