TV: From convergence to smart

 　In 2011, “Convergence of communication/broadcast” policy and legal system was enacted.  This allows us to use the same frequency for both communication and broadcast.  This was, even from an international standard, a groundbreaking deregulation.  Digitalization of terrestrial television took about 20 years and was completed in 2011.  High-speed Internet became available all around the country.  A merged digital network for both broadcast and communication was established.  Japan was blessed with a highly sophisticated environment.
　20 years ago, convergence of communication/broadband and digital broadcast were a taboo.  The broadcast industry, which had a lot of political power, was not up for it.  I was the first one in the Japanese government to take charge of convergence policies.  I had a very difficult time to say the least.
　But when NHK started NHK on demand in the end of 2008, other TV stations started to work on distribution of digital contents, broadcast for mobile devices, and collaboration with SNS.  The Internet business started to turn profits, and production firms followed the trend.

　But it’s still pretty slow.  On January of 2006, Apple, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft released their video distribution businesses in the U.S.  Firms in the broadcast industry such as CBS and NBS quickly established partnerships with IT firms and started distributing contents.  At the same time in Europe, national/public broadcasters like BBC, France TV, and Germany ZDF started to lead the merger movement.   Japan was 3 years behind.
　Events such as acquisition of Dow Jones by News Corp, or acquisition of Motorola-mobile by Google indicate that this goes beyond the boundary of “communication/broadcast”.  Today, on a global basis, every kind of media is involved including newspapers, publishers, computers, and other media forms.   

　Furthermore, as broadcasters in Japan began to accelerate their movement towards the Internet, the global playground saw a change.  “Smart-TVs”.  In the past 2-3 years, smartphones and tablet devices spread quickly, and in result, TV has been swallowed by the “Smart” trend as well.
　While IT firms like Google and Apple are seeking to take over TV screens, broadcast firms like Time Warner or Comcast see this trend as an opportunity as well.  Communication firms like AT&T or Verizon are very aggressive too.  In Europe, firms are reforming their structure as we saw in the partnership between BBC and BT.  
　Smart-TV goes beyond looking at the Internet on TV.  It’s a new service that combines multi-screen, cloud network, and social services.  Better yet, it’s a borderless business field with the entire world in play.  No firms have yet established a clear business model yet.
　Japan’s already behind.  Do you think we still have a shot?