Not so long ago, if I wanted to watch my favorite TV show (it was Battlestar Galactica, for the record) I had to make sure I was home in time to catch it live on SyFy. And if I missed it, I had to cross my fingers that there would be a re-run before the next episode began. For a serial show like Battlestar, skipping an episode was a serious problem. Missing a big plot point threw the whole narrative off and with no way to get back on course, I had to piece together what I missed through a mix of spoiler sites and friends. And then one day, I didn’t have to do that anymore. DVR’s became ubiquitous. Video on demand became a standard. Things got a lot easier and I could watch Battlestar whenever I was ready. I could even watch it twice! But I still had to be home to watch.
And again, seemingly overnight I didn’t have to be at home to watch anymore either. Today I watch my favorite shows wherever I am, whenever I want, on almost any of my devices. With an app, I access my TV subscriptions or my DVR and watch on my smartphone. It’s incredible and frankly inevitable once we all started walking around with high-def supercomputers in our pockets.
It seems obvious, but it still needs to be said: the future of TV is apps. They’re easy to use, they work almost everywhere, and they turn the dozens of devices we already own into the perfect TV. Check out this video we made that shows just how great TV has become thanks to apps:
This blog also appeared in CTAM SmartBrief.