HTML5 will continue to be a “core” technology...
HTML5 will continue to be a “core” technology powering LG Electronics’ Smart TVs “for a long time,” despite the company’s purchase of webOS open source software early this year, Matthew Durgin, director-Smart TV content, told us at the Streaming Media…
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East conference in New York Tuesday. In buying webOS from Hewlett-Packard, LG said the software would help enhance its Smart TV platform and that it would make the software available to its fellow Smart TV Alliance members, including Panasonic and Toshiba. Whether the software will be made available to the other manufacturers in the form of a license was still not clear Tuesday. LG remains committed to the Smart TV Alliance, said Durgin. It has no plans to use Android’s operating system on its Smart TVs, he told the conference, saying its own operating system provides “strong differentiation” for its TVs. Android devices remain too “fragmented” across the many devices that use that operating system, said Joe Inzerillo, MLB.com senior vice president. It’s “very unlikely” that the Android OS can be ported entirely to a new device such as a TV, he said. One of the “biggest obstacles” for “TV Everywhere” viewing across multiple screens remains “standardization” across devices, said Eric Hybertson, Time Warner Cable director-rendering devices, during another Streaming Media East panel. The WatchESPN app will be made available on a growing number of devices “over time,” said Damon Phillips, vice president-WatchESPN and ESPN3 in a keynote. It’s only available on Xbox Live, iOS and Android devices now. ESPN is “looking for new platforms,” but the size of a device’s installed base and strategic factors are the criteria that it uses to decide what platforms to be on, he told us. The ESPN app is available on eight of the top 10 U.S. TV service providers and “it’s a process” to get a deal with each one, he said. “More people” have access to the app than don’t have access to it now, he said. There is “more content available today than ever before,” and there is growing demand from consumers for content, he said. Sports is one of the few remaining types of programs that is “DVR-proof” because most people want to view sports live, he said. “Content is not king anymore,” he said. Rather, “live,” “exclusive” and “relative” content is what’s “king,” he said.