The current fretting over who will win the battle between cable and over-the-top on the internet (“OTT”) reminds me of the battle between Blu-Ray and DVDs; it was a battle between dinosaurs just before extinction, in the case of dinosaurs by a giant asteroid, and in the case of Blu-Ray and DVDs, by the emergence of VOD (and its sub-variants, like SVOD). While media stock ticker prices teeter on the perceived victor between cable and OTT TV platforms, a challenger is coming that will knock them both out of the ring, and that is virtual reality, since it can’t be delivered by either medium.
There will be two types of virtual reality, one relatively well known and the other less so. The better known one involves wearing a headset that transports you to anywhere you want to go. You can do it on your own time and in your own home. So not only will you be able to watch something “when and where you want to” (the mantra of OTT), but now you will be able to be when and where you want to. Want to be on Mars ? Want to race at the Indianapolis 500? Want to be at the battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC? No problem; you will think you are actually there. You will have a choice of watching yet another version of some show on cable or OTT, or you can decide to enter a fantasy world and become part of the plot. Which one would you choose?
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