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Monday, May 4, 2009

Canoe Shouldn't Recreate The Web; It Should Utilize It

Interesting argument in this article by Diffusion Group analyst Colin Dixon who thinks that the Cable Operators, through Canoe Ventures, are going at it the wrong way. He suggests that they are not building a better mouse trap than the web and should instead work with the web's successful structure. "Canoe’s products — voting, e-commerce, interactive ads — would be simpler and better if delivered via a web browser, he writes."

Intuitively, it makes more sense to build an application for TV that integrates with other apps on the web. Consumers have gotten increasingly more comfortable with web-based apps and are incorporating them in the above list (voting, e-commerce, et al) as well as social networking like Twitter and Facebook on their pc and mobile devices.

If the cable set top device doesn't interact well with these applications and instead tries to run in its own vacuum, it may be that the viewer will shun the set top all together for web based entertainment. Or rely on other boxes like Roku or PS3 to bring video to the TV. That is all ready slowly happening as younger audiences are not buying cable subscription and using the web for their video entertainment.

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