While the eyes of the tech world were watching the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week to catch a glimpse of what exactly a smart television was, Google may have answered that question before the event even started.
Google’s Vice President for Global Content Partnerships Robert Kyncl delivered a keynote address in the closing minutes of CES Thursday, he revealed the future of intelligent television doesn't involve a lot of hand-waving, talking to a box or even Apple.
According to Kyncl, the future of television is YouTube.
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In a tech conference that otherwise lacked a lot of sizzle and saw the exit of one of the last tech giants to attend the show, Kyncl delivered perhaps the most interesting news of the four-day seminar.
Kyncl laid out the future of YouTube and said that it plans to offer more channels on the Google-owned, video-sharing site.
He said by 2020, Google believes that 75 percent of all channels that are being watched will be online. That number includes television channels.
Kyncl said the change in video consumption has the potential to attract an audience that television has failed to draw to this point.
He compared the future expansion of Internet television and its potential impact on content development and what we are watching in the future.
Google of course has positioned itself perfectly for this future vision of television. The Mountain View-based search company unveiled its latest iteration of GoogleTV this week at CES.