Hi, I’m Miranda MacDonald and I’m here with Shelly Palmer TV Veteran and industry specialist, to talk about the future of video entertainment. We’ll talk about what’s happening in the industry right now, and what it all means for Canadians.

Miranda: Hi Shelly

Shelly: Hey

M: Let’s talk about what’s happening in the industry right now. What sorts of things are you seeing right now that have the potential to be game changers?

S: I think the thing that’s most important (is) that there’s going to be in a very short time only two kinds of people, those that are connected people and those who aren’t connected; and what I mean by that is people who walk around with their television sets now in a way they never had before. They are walking around with mobile devices that really have the capability of bridging two worlds. They’re both computers and they’re also entertainment platforms, and we just haven’t seen that before in scale. In a real short order you will have people who are connected who can do all kinds of stuff, and people who are not connected. I can’t imagine the world going any other way. The trend ins obvious, you know, and it’s kind of an exciting time.

M: So that’s right now, let’s take a look at the future, can you paint of picture of what 1-3 years will look like?

S: Well between now and lets say the holidays you are going to have 30-40 competitors for the iPad. So you’re going to have a whole class of people who don’t need computers anymore. That’s going to be interesting 3 years out. At some point even up here in Canada 4G is going to hit, because 4G is kind of important. So you’re going to have a much faster level of connectivity that will be a big behavior changer. People’s behavior will change as they go from 3G to 4G. And, I think lastly, the breadth of content that becomes available at scale is going to change the way people consume. So I think the transactional nature of the business will become much more important than the subscription bases. People will be able to buy stuff at will all the time, and you’ll have enough speed in your hand to make that a behavior you would exhibit.

M: It sounds what you’re talking about is anywhere anytime entertainment? Are we really on the verge of that?

S: I think we’re way past that. This idea of, we, we, we, what I want, where I want, when I want, that’s the consumer thing. Consumers are driving so they’re going to vote with their cheque books, whenever you see someone talk about its’ what I want when I want or anytime, anyplace, anywhere, yeah heard that been there done that, the question is are they connected? And if they are connected do we have a system in place that allows us to serve them the entertainment and the content they want and most importantly take some value back in the form of, ah let me think, Money. If we can get paid it’s going to work.

M: So you’ve talked about a lot of things, so what does this all mean for Canadians?

S: What it means for Canadians is that the world is the most exciting world you’ve ever lived in from an entertainment standpoint. You have world wide about 4 billion cell phones, you’ve got about a billion computers, it’s an interesting time we are going to see hundreds of millions of more devices in people’s hands, you’re going to see wonderful experiences with home entertainment that we haven’t seen before. From an on demand what I want when I want in my house kind of experience, and most importantly what I think is that everyone’s behaviors is going to change. We’re going to act as Canadians or as Americans we’re going to act differently because of the computer power we have, also our ability to communicate with each other at scale which we really haven’t had before, when you start doing things with your hand held, when you start texting people, and when you start using face book on your hand held, and twitter on your hand held, and Linked in on your hand held, You fill in your social network as you like you’re a broadcaster. That behavior is going to change the world for all of us, Canada the United States, Kulallampour, you’re holding a hand held, your life is different.

M: So you’ve talked about where we’ve been in the past, where we are now and into the future. What’s Rogers doing that really excites you?

S: I think Rogers is becoming a contact provider in a way that we haven’t seen before, I think the idea of a quadruple play, that I can start watching in my living room continue watching on my hand held and then go back and watch on my pc. That level of connivance I believe is the future, People love that, they don’t know they love that until they try it and then once you try it you don’t know how you ever going to go back away from it. When your entertainment can follow you, when your content, when your news, when the things that you passionately care about can follow you then that’s really, really, special and its unique now but it should be ubiquitous. And I think Rogers is at the forefront of making that happen

M: Shelly thanks for your insight. We’d love to hear what you think about the future of video and entertainment, and as always if you ideas for RedBoard videos you’d like to see you can find me on twitter I’m at @rogersmiranda.