The Battle for the Future of TV Sets SXSWi On Fire

This debate alone was reason enough that I wish I could have gone to the SXSW show this year! I was hoping a video of the debate would leak out at some point….but for now here’s a pretty good summary of DirecTV proponent Mark Cuban going up against Boxee’s Avner Ronen on how TV should evolve.

IFC

In the end, the crowd (and many of those commenting along on Twitter under the hashtag #battleforyourtv) thought Cuban had won the debate, but that he was a dinosaur in a medium that’s changing whether he likes it or not. However, some were willing to concede that if the next generation cable services Cuban described can actually deliver on the promise of real choice and customization of content, the delivery model won’t matter. People don’t really care if they’re getting their content via cable or internet, they just don’t want to keep paying extravagantly for 70% of television programs they never wanted to begin with.