A year ago I published a post about widgets coming to the television. A year later I have widgets on my TV. Now that I have experienced the widgets first hand, there is not much change to my feelings about the basics of the previous post.
There is still no bridge between the cable content coming over the wire and the widgets on screen. Widget content cannot be populated by on-screen cable content. This leaves out advertising tie-ins and related content that would be automatically populated.
There are however widgets for pulling video content from online. This enables the content to interact with additional features. The main downside to the online content is the timeliness of the content in comparison to traditional counterparts. There is very little to no live television content being delivered through the widget interface, or anywhere online. Any online movie rentals or purchases are delayed by at least a month compared to in-store movies.
HD is another problem area for online content. There are allot of bits to move for HD content and until broadband infrastructure is in place to handle the content, a coaxial cable is the only option.
Online content delivery still needs time to develop and find a viable business model. Timely content will not be allowed to move to an online market unless it promises not to threaten the more profitable traditional models, and until timely content is delivered people will still want cable/satellite and physical dvd rental.
