CES Panel Debates Prospects of ‘Smart’ TVs

Tempering the hype at CES for Internet-connected “smart” TVs and app-based home entertainment, a panel of Hollywood digital gurus agreed that device manufacturers and digital content distributors have yet to earn mass-market appeal for such devices.

Today’s smart TVs are “clearly not ready for primetime,” said Lionsgate’s Curt Marvis (via paidContent). Marvis was critical in his review of one anonymous device: “Other than Netflix and Qriocity [Sony’s streaming video-on-demand service], there was nothing on there that worked very well at all. It reminded me of the old CD-ROM days.”

Meanwhile, Fox Broadcasting’s Hardie Tankersley dismissed Google TV’s web-browsing as a “lame” experience that “nobody wants.”

Other panelists saw promise beyond the first generation of “smart” TVs and devices. “The app environment,” said Steve Canepa of IBM’s media and entertainment unit, “allows for authentication, it allows for a business model that gets a much better share for the content creator.”

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