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Google expert says 'TV is
dying'
Nicole Martin
London
Telegraph
Tuesday Aug 28, 2007
One of the founding
fathers of the internet has predicted the end of traditional television.
Vint Cerf, who helped to build the internet while working as a researcher
in America, said that television was approaching its "iPod
moment" In the same way that people now download their favourite
music onto their iPod, he said that viewers would soon be downloading
most of their favourite programmes onto their computers.
"85 per cent of all video we watch is pre-recorded, so you
can set your system to download it all the time," said Mr
Cerf, who is now the vice-president of the Google, the world's
largest search engine.
"You're still going to need live television for certain
things - like news, sporting events and emergencies - but increasingly
it is going to be almost like the iPod, where you download content
to look at later."
(Article continues below)
Although television on demand has not yet become a mainstream
activity in the UK, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have all invested
vast sums of money in technology which enables viewers to watch
their favourite shows on their computers.
But some critics, including some internet service providers, have
warned that the internet will collapse under the strain of millions
of people downloading programmes at the same time.
Over the next four years, it is thought that the number of videos
watched over the internet will quadruple, with people moving from
short clips to hour-long programmes.
Broadband companies claim that the service will cause "traffic
jams", which will cost millions of pounds to sort out and
that customers will ultimately end up paying the bill.
But Mr Cerf dismissed the warnings as "scare tactics",
saying that critics had predicted 20 years ago that the net would
collapse when people all around the world started to use it en
masse.
"In the intervening 30 years it's increased a million times
over... We're far from exhausting the capacity," he said.
"It's an understandable worry when they see huge amounts
of information being moved around online."
Setting out his vision for the future of the internet, he said
he wanted it to reach as many people as possible.
"I want more internet," he said. "I want every
one of the six billion people on the planet to be able to connect
to the internet - I think they will add things to it that will
really benefit us."
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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