As promised here is a post on how the watching television experience should be?

So for the starters, I think it should be all IP and no cable. There is no need to have clunky set top box. If we look at the hardware, it should have wifi inbuilt. Remote Control should have a way to input text (like a keyboard or voice input). And if it must have 3D, it has to be glasses free, headache free and viewable from all angles.

Now let’s talk about the software on the TV. It should be intuitive and responsive. When the user turns on the TV, it directly should bring them to a dashboard where all categories (like sports, news, movies etc) are displayed. User can pick a category to watch and all available channels should be displayed.

Now let’s talk about the content. How that would be delivered to your TV. Here is where the cable company comes in to picture. The user goes to cable company and buy a package or the list of channels he/she wants to view. Once subscribed the cable company gives them credentials which can be used on the TV to login. This setup is done when you first time buy the TV. After logging in, the TV software is designed is such a way that it goes to your cable provider, get’s the list of channels and files them under appropriate category.

As a user, you have a liberty to install application on your TV. So for example, there is  a channel called XYZ and they are providing their application free of cost. User installs the application and it’s filed under “Movies” section because of it’s content. Now, That application can be used by the user as a channel. Please note that these are the application which displays video only and nothing else. Users hate any add-ons when they are viewing their content.

And this interface that we are using on the Television can be used from iPad, iPhone and any other device with a screen and internet connectivity. Because essentially TV should be everywhere. No matter where you are. I’ll explain how the DVR functionality can be added to the TV in another post.