SMPTE 2012: Anthony Wood Predicts the Future of TV Will Be Streaming

In his keynote address, Roku's founder and CEO forecasts that the DVR is going to go away: "That is a stepping stone."

Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood on Tuesday asserted that the future of television is streaming during a keynote at the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers' annual conference at Loews Hollywood Hotel.

He characterized the disruptive current state of the industry as offering both opportunity and uncertainty, but he said, “The end point is where any piece of video is available in any language, anywhere [via streaming]. That is the world we are heading to.”

Wood related that game consoles are currently the dominant platform for delivering streaming content, but he predicted that this would change as the console market is flat. He believes streaming players and Smart TVs will become the dominant platforms, which is where Roku is focused.

The exec also predicted the demise of the DVR, saying, “It is going to go away. That is a stepping stone.” He believes the capabilities of the DVR will next go to the cloud and then simply become an element of the on-demand world.

During his address, Wood also highlighted Roku’s latest development, the new $100 Roku Streaming Stick, which is a tiny wireless streaming player that is roughly the size of a USB flash drive. Customers can plug the Streaming Stick into select devices to access the Roku platform.