Set-top Boxes Losing TV Home Page Race, nScreenMedia Analyst Says

Streaming media players, at least in the near term, have the best shot of being the universal TV home page, given their cheapness and depth of content catalog, though it's not clear if any particular player will be the overall category winner, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Monday. Longer term, smart TVs likely will prevail, though for that to happen there needs to be standardized technical and user experience requirements for putting internet video on TV, and that standardization "could take a very long time," he said. The pay-TV set-top box is the first place the majority of viewers go for TV watching, but subscription-video operators "are not leveraging such a huge advantage" by integrating more online video services, while the set-tops also aren't connected to the internet, Dixon said.