What Television Will Look Like in 2025, According to Netflix

[onehandle]

In the future, Netflix will know exactly what you want to watch, even before you do. You won’t have to spend all that time browsing through endless lists of shows on your television.

That’s according to Neil Hunt, Netflix’s chief product officer. It’s just one of many predictions for the future of TV that the forward-thinking executive laid out on stage today at New York City’s Internet Week conference, and no one would be surprised if all that came to fruition. If there’s one company that knows about changing the way we watch TV shows and movies, it’s Netflix. From its humble origins as a DVD-by-mail outfit back in 1997 to its current status as a video streaming powerhouse and original content creator, Netflix has already overturned the status quo more than once.

As a slew of other tech companies, from Amazon to Yahoo, compete with Netflix to move television online–and traditional broadcasters fight to protect their old business models–Hunt has a clear vision for how the war for our attention will play out by the year 2025. Here are a few of his predictions:

You’ll Have 48 Million TV Channels

Creative Freedom Will Come to Hollywood

My favorite: The Commercial Will Finally Die

Live Sports Will Arrive on Netflix (Maybe)

Everyone Will Have a Smart TV

http://www.wired.com/2014/05/neil-hunt

Nationalize communications and make this happen faster.

[House of Roberts]

1. Is this going to work like Youtube's 'Recommended Channels'?

Because they think I want to look at The Alex Jones Channel.

[AceAcme]

2. 48 million channels and there's nothing on

[hobbit709]

3. It will be a vaster wasteland than what it is now.

[KamaAina]

4. Actually, creative freedom will come to Los Gatos.

Netflix becoming a player puts the Bay Area further into the game; we already have Disney's Pixar and Lucas Arts.

[sakabatou]

7. I thought Lucas Arts was shut down

[Brother Buzz]

5. 48 million channels and I still can't find my remote control device

[DetlefK]

6. You think, that's a GOOD idea???

1. 48 Million TV Channels and only 48 shows I want to watch right now. That's what we need: More entertainment and more consumption.

2. An entire TV channel tailor-made for you. This will surely encourage people to leave their bubble and explore new ideas.

3. Commercials will be replaced with personalized ads tailored to your financial situation (and maybe product-placement). No, nothing creepy about that.

4. Your SmartTV will tell Big Corp what you watch, when you watch it and how you watch it. No, not creepy either.

5. It will bring more creative freedom because TV-producers will magically no longer weigh production-costs vs how small and fringe their audience is.

[JHB]

8. 48 million owned by how many? Three?

How many of those channels will run through "dirt road" pipes vs "private jet" pipes?

[Orrex]

9. Bullshit

We've been on Netflix for years, and I've never watched even one second of anime, and I've gone so far as to go on netflix.com to mark them "not interested," and yet this advance service still recommends anime titles for me.

Not to mention that their search platform is slightly less efficient and useful than a fire-damaged card catalog.

Netflix, for all of its value as a provider of half-assed syndicated tv and occasional gems, has limited authority when it comes to predicting the future of media or the way the market will unfold.


Anyone remember flixster?

[War Horse]

10. This sounds pretty Orwellian

Netflix is a pretty predatory company.