A lot has changed since Super Bowl VII (green shag carpet, only three TV channels), but a lot hasn’t changed. The Super Bowl is still an enormously social event. I’ve already had employees request next Monday off as a vacation day. “Social” today, however, has taken on a whole new meaning. Harris Interactive recently found that 47% of smart phone users plan to use their phones during the game (Mobile Use To Soar During Super Bowl). I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that these people won’t be checking in with Grandma on Sunday. They are socializing with their friends and possibly using some new social app to do so. The question is: will these new social or second screen apps launch a true paradigm shift in television consumption and advertising or are they merely this year’s party game?

Let the debates begin!

Debate 1: Can any new social or second screen TV app unseat Facebook or Twitter in the race for our eyeballs whilst we watch TV? I say “nope”, especially if an app is simply a means to sell more advertising or in the end is really just distracting us from the big game.

Debate 2:  Assuming we do take the bait and try a new second screen app, what impact will that have on the advertisers who are spending millions on :30 spots? I say “who knows”. This is not to say that Nielsen doesn’t already have some formula in hand to calculate the speculated impact of some number times some other number that may tell us that people dinking around with their smart devices may not be paying attention to the big game but that doesn’t necessarily mean advertisers shouldn’t pay more for next year’s :30 second spot. Okay, “what?”. Reason tells us that viewers who are not watching TV are not watching TV and that consumers who are interacting with advertisers will likely buy more stuff. So, if advertisers sell more Doritos or trucks on Monday and can base that increase on real internet metrics they should feel pretty good.  Advertisers will drive innovation in this case and only those second screen apps that are truely unique and or hook into Facebook or Twitter will live to see next year.

Debate 3: Should we just take TV over-the-top of the Internet? Ah, “yes, Jack” – you may be saying – NBC is airing the game OTT. But given the network affiliate model here in the U.S., this is only the beginning of a protracted debate over who should reach all devices. In the end, the consumer is going to win. Sunday, at least in the OTT space, the local advertiser AND the local NBC affiliate are going to lose. My guess is that that won’t happen twice. 2012 is sure to be the year many of the lingering rights issues, from the Super Bowl to syndicated programming like “Ellen” gets sorted out. It’ll be the year when innovation drives negotiation and that the line between content creation and consumption becomes a little straighter.

Debate 4: Who’s going to win on Sunday?  Lots of people:  consumers, Facebook and Twitter, the advertiser who demands all screens (though maybe not until next year) and, of course, the NFL. That, I’m sure will never change.

Photo by: Carl Van Rooy Photography

When I contrast NATPE 2012 with my first NATPE in 1997 the evolutionary change is remarkable. Hollywood has awakened to the fact that content is created to be consumed over and over again, not put a shelf for admiration.  And, based on the presence of technology at NATPE, Hollywood has also figured out how to make money on their content. In a word, it’s the internet.

Here’s the new rub: SOPA/PIPA. Rights-holders need protection. Law abiding websites need protection. Legislation that protects all law abiding parties in this internet entertainment ecosystem is likely needed. I think Congress will figure it out, just the way Hollywood has figured it out.

The collision course between Hollywood and technology has been coming for awhile. I remember testifying before Congress with Jack Valenti, then head of the Motion Picture Association of America. It was clear to us then that Hollywood was preparing for change.

Of course, as you can guess, I’m all for content getting consumed over and over on the internet. We all make money. I also strongly believe in using technology to protect things that are mine or rights that I have been granted. Hollywood and Syncbak are going to work on this together, right now, in fact, at NATPE, as soon as I put my shoes back on.

Photo by: jodimarr

Tonight the countdown to CES 2013 begins. The future of TV beckons…

Your days start early and then, when all is said and done and the last person has left your booth, you get to go eat. Because many trade shows are in Vegas, you have to spend a little time paying your respects to the gambling gods. If you’re lucky, you get to your room with more than a ChapStick in your pocket. This year we are in “Eureka Park” which is part of my friend, CEA CEO Gary Shapiro’s, push to nurture innovation in America. It is all startups, most you’ve never heard of and likely never will. Still, the CEA’s focus on innovation is a good thing.

I am today, as most days, in the booth by 7AM. Other than the occasional security guard walking by, it is eerily quiet. I like that. It gives me time to think. I also tend to walk around and look for booth ideas. There are very few good booths, especially with smaller companies. I notice a lot of them don’t spend enough time thinking about messaging because I have no idea what they do. I have one simple rule of thumb. Virtually every person at a trade show will ask you the same question, “What do you do?” So, to really nail it at a trade show you need to cheat. Answer that question before they ask it. No matter how small or large your booth, make damn certain the messaging answers that question before it is asked. That way your conversations get off to a fast start.

Yesterday we had visits from a lot of potential strategic partners, which, along with generating press coverage, is why we are here. Interestingly, we had visitors from both CableLabs and Comcast so our messaging must be spot on. We are an Internet Television Company.

We’re over at the Sands Convention Center, booth 73108. If you’re here in Vegas and want to experience LIVE mobile OTT, you can see that in our booth. If you’d like to see our authentication technology and social networking hooks cranking away, you can see all that, too.

For Syncbak, this year’s CES will mark the time we went from building, deploying and testing our technology to the time we made it commercially available. Over the coming weeks users in several markets will experience LIVE mobile OTT. I was only asked once yesterday what the “value proposition” was and, as it turns out, that guy was only in our booth to get a free mint.

TV belongs on all devices and in consumers’ hands. Even Time magazine says so (see “Control Freaks”, Harry McCracken, January 9, 2012) and that means mainstream America is thinking about TV on all devices, not just the early adopters.

Here’s my big prediction for 2012: mobile OTT is going to follow the same trajectory as cable and satellite did once they started carrying broadcast televison. Adoption exploded. Mobile DTV is another important step in making sure each new platform “extends the reach of broadcast” television. I see our mobile OTT mission as much the same…a way to make sure free TV is available on all devices.

On to day 2.

My bedroom TV meant freedom. No longer was I constrained to watching TV in the Living Room with my parents. While I was no longer Master of the neighborhood, my TV made me Master of my visual entertainment.

I think about that old TV fondly; wished I never gave it to my girlfriend’s sister when she went off to Law School at Michigan. Today I have a better TV, though. That TV is in my pocket right now; it is my Apple iPhone with the Syncbak app. When I’m done writing this I’m heading down to a casino, where I’ll take my TV. Then I’ll head to the Las Vegas Convention Center, where I’ll take my TV. From there, I don’t know where I’ll head, but I’ll have my TV.

2012, while long thought to be “the end of the world” is really a new beginning at least for TV. Broadcasters should be giddy with anticipation about the future of television. Their viewers will never be without a TV. Let’s give them something to watch folks. If it’s the end of the world, so be it. However, I think it’s just the beginning.

At the time I was absolutely certain about two things. First, I was convinced that consumers needed a single point of navigation for all their entertainment needs. Second, as cool as TiVo was, it seemed to me a technology which would very quickly become obsolete. Even in the nascent days of the Internet, it was clear to me that a consumer would eventually never actually come into contact with their digital assets. With offerings like Hulu, Netflix and the emerging SilverLight, that prediction appears spot on. Not sure where TiVo goes from here…

I also learned over time it is more important to deliver content than it is to simply show someone what’s on. Therein lies the opportunity for over-the-top. Syncbak, while tiny and mighty, has figured out one thing very well. That is, search is a two way street. While everyone else, including Google, has focused on making it easy for consumers to search for content, we’ve focused our efforts on making it easy for content to search for consumers.

Think about it. For OTT to really become OTT, companies need to look more like Match.com and less like Google, Hulu and others. Syncbak, I think, does that. I’m excited to start unveiling that vision at CES 2012.

If you’ll be there, stop by our Syncbak booth or set up a meeting with us by emailing info@syncbak.com.

You may have noticed that I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from the blogosphere. But this past Monday night, over a burrito and a beer with my high school buddy, Jarl Brey, I decided to re-engage.

Jarl and I were having a summit, a burrito summit, at our hangout from 30 years ago called the Beltline Bar. Cool place; timeless treasure. Jarl is in the early stages of a venture he calls “Zip the Grand,” a kind of urban renewal, invigoration and extreme sports play in our hometown of Grand Rapids, MI. Jarl’s out in front on this one and I told him that’s the best place to be: “if you want to win, get there first.”

I didn’t tell Jarl about the downside of being first, though: the arrows in your back. I only recently heard it described this way by a broadcaster who congratulated me for being the guy with “all the arrows in his back” with my company, Syncbak. He said that’s what happens to market leaders.

Guys with arrows in their backs don’t hear often enough that they are making a difference. Not that it would make a difference, really. Succeeding at anything new requires good vision and bad hearing so the “it can’t be dones” don’t get through.

I wish my friend, Jarl, all the luck in the world getting his venture off the ground.  But he already has the most important thing – passion. He won’t know he’s close to success, though, until he’s got a few arrows in his back.

Catch up with us at CES 2012 (at Eureka Park, Booth #73108) to see just how close to success we are.  We’re on the verge of taking TV over-the-top.

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting on a luncheon keynote panel about the future of television with co-panelists: John Hane, a top notch regulatory & copyright attorney, Tara Mantra, SVP at TiVo, and Professor Greenwald, Ph.D. from Columbia University. While the topic was the future of television, the undercurrent, from an investor point of view, was to discern whether or not to be bullish on cable.

Cablevision, DISH, Charter, DirecTV, Mediacom, and, yes Comcast, will be providing content to you for many years to come. They aren’t going anywhere. In fact, they’ve committed to bringing you TV Everywhere.

But, if cable is going to thrive for the foreseeable future, that means internet television can’t possibly make it, right?

In a word? Wrong.

Take a moment to connect the dots. How many devices capable of reaching the internet do you use on a daily basis? Likely the answer is at least two, but perhaps three or more. Every day you impact your life with swipes and clicks. Right this moment you can use your smart phone to entertain yourself…likely for hours. Has that caused you to cut the cord? Not likely….at least not yet.

My job, as I see it, isn’t to think about ways for you to cut the cord. My job is to build a platform that brings you the promise of 1:1 television.  Whether or not you cut the cord is entirely up to you. Done right, you’ll watch internet TV whether you subscribe to cable or not.

A few truths to consider…

Advertisers want to reach you, regardless of what you are watching.

None of the abovementioned companies from Cable Town to the Gateway City have anything close to a monopoly on local ad dollars. Not even Google, LivingSocial, Facebook or Groupon can make that claim. Advertisers vote with how they allocate their budgets. How they vote is about to change. When it comes to internet TV, they want in. The guys mentioned earlier in this paragraph don’t have the means to take local advertisers there…at least not yet.

For our part, we’ve stacked the deck. Our partners in all of this have been calling on the local advertiser for 40, maybe 50 years. Syncbak.TV, at launch, will bring you the live and on-demand content, to the more devices, and from anyplace as close to free as humanly possible.

Content is created to be watched over and over and over and over and over…

Buried deep within the DNA of any content creator is to create something that appeals to as many people as possible and to have those people want to watch that creation over and over. It is in the content creators best interest to partner with as many players as possible to get their content seen as much as possible at the highest possible return on investment possible.

Content lives forever. If it is relevant to you, because of internet TV, it’ll eventually find you. This paradigm shift will happen with or without the blessing of the cable-powers-that-be.

When does it (cable as we know it) come to an end?

Did cable kill broadcast TV? No. Did satellite kill cable TV or broadcast TV? No, and no.

What will happen is that cable will soon learn that TV Everywhere is not for everyone. Given that viewing can go from roughly 3 hours per day in the living room to 10+ hours of viewing regardless of time, device or place, the disruptors will get the attention of Cable Town.

My daughters, 21 and 24 years old, are split. One subscribes. The other is 100% FREE over-the-air, plus Hulu, Netflix and etc. My son is 10. Will he ever subscribe to cable, at least cable as we know it today? Not likely.

TV in the future, your TV, will be the result of a collision between broadcast television, advertising, content and the internet. Does that collision care whether or not you cut the cord?

In a word? Hardly.

As a young tech guy in the late 80s and early 90s, Steve Jobs was the guy you aspired to be like. Why? Simple. He had vision. He was a visionary. Whether we knew it at the time or not, Steve Jobs gave many of us the courage to go after our vision, to realize that to succeed you have to risk failing. He also made us realize that failure is not the end of the road; it is a mere step along the way to success, sometimes stratospheric success.

To a job well done!