Wired Magazine predicts ‘The end of TV as we know it’ in an article on internet protocol television.

Digital packets deliver other types of data, so why not television? That’s a question that cable giants like Comcast and Time Warner, as well as baby Bells like SBC and Verizon have been asking, and competition between them and from satellite television is a powerful stimulus.

With channels streamed on demand, the article argues, “the system will be able to track viewing habits as effectively as Amazon tracks its customers, so ads will be targeted with scary precision. Put it all together and you’ve got television that’s as intensely personalized as 20th-century broadcasting was generic”.

However, there’s a caution that it could be the end of the decade before the cable customers get their individually addressable set-top boxes.

www.wired.com