These slides (and comments) accompanied my talk to the 2011 Faculty Seminar at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences on 11/10/11. The talk is structured around ten questions

1. TRACKING
TOMORROW’S
TELEVISION TODAY
Presentation by Nick DeMartino
ATAS Faculty Seminar Fellows. November 10, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
I hate the future because it’s always wrong.And yet, perhaps foolishly, I’m going to talk about
the future of television.Some of the trends we’ll explore are here already, at least for some
people, but how they evolve for the mass audience is a question. Others are perhaps ten
years out, which means, maybe never.

2. WHAT I DO:
Strategy for the Digital Era
Thursday, November 10, 2011
18 months ago I launched a consulting business to help companies navigate the digital era.
Most of my work is in content and distribution. For 20 years I was Senior Vice President of the
AFI in charge of media and technology. I launched programs like the Digital Content Lab that
brought together Hwd. & SV.

3. TEN QUESTIONS
• What is a channel? • How do you share?
• What is a remote? • Where do you watch?
• What is a screen? • How do you create?
• What is an ad? • How do you participate?
• How do you watch? • What is reality?
Thursday, November 10, 2011
I’ve formulated ten questions about the future of TV that can help us examine trends. My
thinking has been aided by a survey of industry leaders shared with me by William Gerhardt
and his colleagues at Cisco. I will be on a panel with him next week at Georgia Tech. http://
www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/sp/sptl.html

4. WHAT IS A CHANNEL?
• Internet: always on
• Video on-demand:
downloads &
streams
• OTT: websites are
networks
• Time- and place-
shifted
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The days are numbered for the channel as a fundamental organizing principle for content.
This concept, and the business rules behind it, was a necessity in order to use the
electromagnetic spectrum efficiently, and it was carried over into cable TV.

5. WHAT IS A REMOTE?
• Keyboard
• Second Screen (touch)
• Gestural interfaces
• Voice command
• Facial recognition
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The remote control was a revolutionary device because it allowed users much greater control
of content consumption. But it’s a primitive and often very annoying interface that is being
replaced.

6. WHAT IS A SCREEN?
• TV is an application, not a
device
• Screens are everywhere
• Screens get huge
• Screens in our pocket
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The invention of the cathode ray tube paralleled the growth of the content and advertising
networks that filled those early screens. Over time, of course, we’ve used screens to display
all sorts of content, to the point where television content is simply another application.

7. WHAT IS AN AD?
• Personalized, targeted
• The Virtual Self
• Interactive
• T-commerce, M-commerce
• Content as brand, brand as
content
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Corporate advertising and sponsorship has been financed much of television, up until the rise
of subscription television. With the rise of the Internet, and its ability to target individuals
based upon data, the form of ads will change again.

8. HOW DO YOU WATCH?
• Watch with friends (real &
virtual)
• Motion capture, telepresence
& holograms
• Interact w/content &
characters
• Viewing becomes persistent &
immersive (transmedia)
Thursday, November 10, 2011
TV viewing is sometimes lonely, sometimes social, often simply ambient -- based upon
circumstances within each household. In the future, other factors outside our physical reality
will help change the viewing envirnoment.

9. HOW DO YOU SHARE?
• Social graph integrated at
every level
• Content discovery is social
• Sharing reflected in content
formats
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The social web is the web for most people, and with IP connected TVs, second screens, etc.,
the conventions of the social web will naturally extend to the TV experience. It’s happening
already.

10. WHERE DO YOU WATCH?
• Screens are pervasive
• Vivid portable screens
• Content (TV) follows you
• Cloud storage
• Stop & start all day
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Content consumption left the living room a long time ago. We will view anytime, anywhere.

11. HOW DO YOU CREATE?
• UGC as an emergent form
• Faster, better, cheaper tools
• Crowd-sourced production
• Proliferation of outlets
• The rise of the fan/producer
Thursday, November 10, 2011
A great story well told, that’s what we want from our media providers, along with
information, education, escape. It was a miracle in the 50s, and it remains so, to my mind.
But the advent of powerful inexpensive production tools and ubiquitous distribution via
YouTube has created an amazing revolution of content production that is competing for
eyeballs and redefining what we think of as Television.

12. HOW DO YOU PARTICIPATE?
• Merger of story forms
(linear, games, distributed)
• Rise of collaborative
narratives
• Integration of big data
• Fan voting for more than
just stars
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The audience is becoming used to being in the picture -- certainly as surrogates, in the
triumph of reality and competition formats -- but also directly in terms of interactive forms.
Games are a big factor here. We will see story forms merge, new formats created, greater
involvement and immersion.

13. WHAT IS REALITY?
• Multi-sensory experience
• Perfected 3D
• Holographic video
• Olfactory and tactile
• Multiple POVs and camera
angles
Thursday, November 10, 2011
McLuhan used the word synesthetic in describing television’s exploitation of multiple senses.
We will see additions to the sensory, particularly spatial elements, that bring increasingly
realistic experiences to life inside the home.

14. TELEVISION TODAY
• IP-enabled TVs/screens • Pervasive social graph
• Content in the cloud • TV shows expand
• Over-the-top networks • Browsers & search
across delivery systems
• Apps (TVs, mobile)
• The virtual self: Content
• Powerful mobile devices follows people
• Voice command • 2010 IMPG
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Some of the companies that are relevant: Roku, Apple TV, Google TV, Samsung, LG, Sony,
Panasonic, Miso, Get Glue, IntoNow, Zeebox, Sidebar, Siri, iPhone, Android, Facebook,
MediaSynch, Shazam, cookies, Locker Project.

15. YOUR STUDENTS?
Thursday, November 10, 2011
What kind of jobs should your incoming freshman look for in 4 years, or 7 if they go to grad
school? That’s a lifetime. Content creation and storytelling. Transmedia. Software. Data
mining. Interface design. Marketing. Entrepreneurship. Theory. For institutions, the need for
rapid prototyping of curriculum and learning experiences butts heads with traditions
(including tenure) which can slow down change.

16. NICK DEMARTINO
• TWITTER: • WEBSITE:
@nickdemartino www.nickdemartino.net
• SLIDESHARE: • BLOG(and newsletter):
www.slideshare.net/ www.nickdemartino.net/
nickdemartino blog
• EMAIL: • DELICIOUS:
nrdemartino@gmail.com www.delicious.com/
afinickd/ott
Thursday, November 10, 2011

17. Thank You Very Much
Thursday, November 10, 2011