• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 26, 2013

Netflix and Amazon continue to offer the future of television. Netflix's Chief Executive Reed Hastings believes every TV content creator will have an app of its own. Amazon may lead us to believe that every TV distributor will have its own set-top box (reports suggest Amazon is looking to get into the in-home TV device business).

Technology has led the way in entertainment and media. TV content providers then fill up those devices, electronic pipes and broadband airwaves.

What follows after that? Promotion and marketing of the content.

Still, not a whole lot has changed when it comes to promoting new and existing TV shows -- even considering the growth of the Internet and that it’s been well over a decade since DVR, time-shifting technology made big incursions.

Due to the fractionalization of media, those big network and national TV promoters and marketers have to work much harder, with varying degrees of success.  Fox's "American Idol" came into being in summer 2002, and CBS' "Survivor" started in summer 2000 -- both trailblazers of their own. Those shows are still around with way lower ratings.

In the future -- maybe ten years from now -- with little to no linear TV, no boosts from lead-in promotion of other more established shows, more social media content, and little in the way of TV promos, we will be left with a new TV promo model.

Reading some futurists, it would seem I'll have to depend on the vagaries of friends, acquaintances and business associates to figure out what exact TV fare I want.  Also, smart program guides and set-top box data will store my own "cookies" from the shows I have seen.

Netflix’s Hastings says every TV show creator and network will not only need a good app but a good ISP or multi-channel video distribution partner to go with that app --- such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, AT&T or Verizon, to name a few.

Promos for TV shows in the year 2023? My friends and associates -- and even algorithmic-working program guides or set-top boxes -- better be clued into exactly what I want. Otherwise -- as with mediocre TV promos and movie trailers -- I'm going to be disappointed in the messenger.