I was interested by this report that anointed the Sony PlayStation as the “most connected” game console.

Not being much of a games player myself, I was quite late to the realization that they had become a sort of specialized “set-top-box”: being, as they are, connected both to the widescreen TV and to the Internet.  The Xbox, PlayStation, and (in my house) the Wii have become part of the Over-the-Top TV experience for many households.

In the UK, the BBC iPlayer has been a big deal in the last 2 years, opening many people’s minds to the concept of catch-up TV over the Internet.  Certainly the BBC’s competitors were quick to invest in their own ‘player’ technology, so that they could broadcast programmes in the same way, i.e. via the browser to a PC.   But so far the BBC’s vision has been the most complete, with versions of the iPlayer not just for PCs, but for the games consoles, and also for mobile phones.  I have watched BBC TV programmes using the Nokia and Apple phones, and I can really see how this can bring a TV experience to a new market:  most especially perhaps the elusive teen market, who (to the frustration of advertisers) seem to watch a lot less TV these days.  At the NAB show recently, I saw that Microsoft has more than one iron in the fire, with not just the connected XBox, but also Silverlight “smooth streaming” to deliver TV, again to everything from 3D/HD TV to mobile handsets.

If you think about it, games consoles have a lot in common with mobiles, as both devices use embedded browser technologies, and increasingly they use the same technology (like CPUs) and SDKs.  For example, look at the unstoppable new Apple iPad, which uses a common SDK with the already successful iPod Touch and iPhone.

Games consoles are allowing Internet catch-up TV via the most traditional screen in the house,  the shared TV, but in general there is an explosion of different delivery systems and techniques  that will revolutionize IPTV and VoD, using almost everything that has a screen or can be connected to one.  This is an exciting time to be working in video.