A new world of personalized — and mobile — news and entertainment is upon us. Digital TV and mobile devices will mean the end of mass programming, the empowerment of viewers, and a shift in the nature of public discourse.

by David Celdran

	Illustration by Klaro de Asis

THE FUTURE of television is here. At least, its prototype is. Today we use our mobile phones for more than just communicating. We use them to take pictures, play games, share music, and download news and celebrity gossip. More and more, we turn to our phones to kill time when stuck in traffic, while waiting in line, or in the presence of boring company. Nokia, the global leader in wireless telecommunications, has spotted the trend. "Be entertained anywhere" is its new tagline, a radical departure from its roots as a mobile-handset manufacturer.

Communication is out and entertainment is in. The buzz in the industry these days is all about Mobile TV.

By 2015, mobile devices, much like cell phones and personal digital assistants, will take the place of our television sets. This will happen because advances in digital technology will continue bring down the cost of pushing content such as movies and television programs into the hands — literally — of consumers.

When I take a look at my I-Pod, I see the future staring back at me. Of course, tomorrow's device will have larger high-resolution color screens, a Wi-Fi antenna, built-in speakers, and enough storage space to fit a week's worth of programs. This is hardly science fiction. Gadgets like these could find themselves on the shelves before the end of the decade.

What makes all this possible is the increasing efficiency of digital compression technology that allows rich media like video to be broken down into ever smaller bits of information, which can then be downloaded to faster and smaller storage devices. Forget dialup access and think high bandwidth connections and you get a clearer picture of how all this content is going to find itself into your mobile entertainment center. Say goodbye to single-use gizmos like digital diaries, cameras, MP3 players, and mobile phones that eat up scarce real estate in your bag. Tomorrow's gadget will centralize all communication and entertainment functions in one portable device. These mobile television sets will allow you to view more than just what's on air at any given time; you'll also be able to download videos, documents, pictures, music — anything that can be digitized and stored in a hard disk anywhere in the world.

In the mood for a movie? Just Google it. You can search any database on the planet — from Filipino film classics to documentaries about the Fiji islands. Any piece of entertainment out there is yours to access for free or a fee. Net Heads are already doing this with music and low-resolution video files, but imagine DVD-quality programs streaming via wireless connection to your screens or downloaded to your disk while you were in the shower. Again, this is hardly science fiction. It's happening.

Surely there are practical limitations. Unless we humans develop microscopic eyesight and telescopic hearing (like eagles), watching your favorite sitcom on a five-inch flat screen is just about as entertaining as in-flight viewing in economy class-without the headphones, that is. Acceptable maybe, but hardly enjoyable. Which is why the mobile entertainment center of the future will also be dockable, just like most I-Pod and MP3 players already are. Using a digital cable to connect the device with existing home entertainment systems and giant LCD screens, you can pump up the volume and get larger-than-life images that simulate the theatrical experience. Sedentary consumers who have no use for mobile entertainment may opt for computer set-top boxes hooked up to digital screens and never have to worry about battery life or storage space running out.

OF COURSE, whether this technology will actually take off will boil down to cost. And cost, naturally, will depend largely on consumer demand. Early adopters may not mind paying a premium for new and still untested technology like mobile TV, but will Juan de la Cruz be able to afford tomorrow's version of today's P10,000-21-inch color TV set? Just like cellular phone handsets, a comfortable price-point can be reached, but only if the dropping cost of production intersects with rising consumer demand for applications and experiences they simply cannot do without. Put another way, will the information, news and entertainment — the content flowing through the digital networks — be compelling enough to abandon cheap analog television sets carrying free VHF channels? This will all depend on how successful digital television can transform the passive viewing habits of today into a more compelling, more enjoyable, more liberating, and above all, more interactive audio and visual experience tomorrow.

The answer lies in our current generation of kids, teenagers, and the early twenty-somethings as well. Let's call them the screenagers — those kids that grew up in front of television, computer, and arcade screens. By 2015, they, and those after them, will make up the bulk of the consumer market. Right now, they are the quickest to adapt to new technology and spend the most on personal entertainment. If the interactive television technology of the next decade sounds a bit too daunting for people born before the 1970s, for screenagers, streaming video and interactive entertainment are already part of the daily routine.

Screenagers burn money, time, and energy downloading music, texting, chatting, and gaming online, with most of these experiences taking place on the screens of their computer and mobile communication devices. Tomorrow's television set is only a more evolved form of the often-clumsy technology they make do with today. Digital video recorders like TiVo are a taste of things to come, but next-generation TV will offer even more choices, more control, and faster access than anything we've seen today.

Analog TV won't disappear. It just won't be as popular with the new generation of viewers who want to control what they watch, when they watch, and where they watch. Only digitally compressed media stored away in mega servers or streaming live over the network can give the next generation audiences this kind of freedom and control.

In 10 years or less, you and I will not only be able to choose from hundreds of thousands of titles we can call up from the network, but we will also be able to download it on a local device for future viewing and instant replay. Search engines just like Google will give us access to all sorts of content — from Hollywood blockbusters to high-resolution home videos. And that's the easy part. It really gets exciting when you begin to imagine the boom in programs ushered in by simpler and more affordable digital production tools and the boundless network space available for content.

Big-budget productions with their huge publicity machines will continue to have greater mindshare in the network, but what's to stop independent filmmakers and celebrity wannabe's from streaming their movies to the curious and just plain voyeuristic? In fact, tomorrow's television will have the option of built-in digital cameras for person-to-person broadcast or — who knows? Our very own reality TV specials? We'll still get the news, but at anytime we want it, and with links to sources for deeper analysis, related blog sites, and news-oriented chat rooms. Anyone hooked up to the network can even play news correspondent and file live reports.

David Celdran is director of current affairs and television production of the ABS-CBN News Channel. A member of the board of the PCIJ, he writes frequently on media and popular culture.

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