Google Chromecast, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and other streaming devices won’t be around in five years.
That’s the prediction Twitter COO Anthony Noto made last week at CES on a panel hosted by Turner Sports about the evolving content consumption and distribution ecosystem.
Noto said that content will flow directly from your smartphone to a TV, removing the need for today’s popular streaming devices that let people watch live TV, shows, and movies via WiFi.
“Over the next five years, we’ll see a melding of distribution devices,” he explained. “Today, you walk into your house and your cell phone attaches to your WiFi instantly. Over the next five years when you walk into your house, your cell phone will automatically connect to the television. There will be no device. There will be no Apple TV, no Chromecast, no Amazon Fire, [no] Microsoft Xbox.”
Having the ability to put anything on your phone onto a large, high-definition TV screen will change how certain content is valued, Noto said.
“All the rights on my phone that I thought were worth ‘X’ are now worth much more than ‘X’ — that’s a better viewing experience and a more valuable advertising platform,” Noto said of content going from your phone to the TV. “People that have aggregated audiences on the phone start to compete with distributors — cable operators and satellite operators — for distribution to linear TV type of content.”
One thing to keep in mind is the fact that more and more new TVs have streaming content platforms like Roku or Android TV built-in.
Noto’s prediction would certainly be nice for Twitter, which has turned into a live streaming platform of sorts over the past few years, inking deals with content creators ranging from the NFL to Bloomberg. Twitter differentiates itself as it also serves home to live commentary — user-generated tweets — that appear alongside a live stream.
“We’ve really tried to position ourselves as a company that makes other brands and their content better,” Noto said.
Twitter said in October that it expected to turn a profit by the end of 2017. The company will post its quarterly earnings on Feb. 8. Shares have increased steadily since August of last year.