Ballmer predice que a la prensa escrita le quedan diez años de vida

Existen diversas predicciones sobre el futuro de los medios y, más en concreto, sobre la desaparición de la prensa escrita. La última, bastante radical, la acaba de realizar el consejero delegado de Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, durante una conversación con periodistas y editores del diario The Washington Post.

Según Ballmer, a la prensa escrita le queda una década de vida, año arriba año abajo, ya que dentro de una década todos el consumo de medios se realizará a través de internet.

Este es un fragmento de la conversación:

"In the next 10 years, the whole world of media, communications and advertising are going to be turned upside down -- my opinion.

Here are the premises I have. Number one, there will be no media consumption left in 10 years that is not delivered over an IP network. There will be no newspapers, no magazines that are delivered in paper form. Everything gets delivered in an electronic form.

- 10 years?

Yeah. If it's 14 or if it's 8, it's immaterial to my fundamental point. . . If we want TV to be more interactive, you'll deliver it over an IP network. I mean, it's sort of funny today. My son will stay up all night basically playing Xbox Live with friends that are in various parts of the world, and yet I can't sit there in front of the TV and have the same kind of a social interaction around my favorite basketball game or golf match. It's just because one of these things is delivered over an IP network and the other is not. . .

Also in the world of 10 years from now, there are going to be far more producers of content than exist today. We've already started to see that certainly in the online world, but we've just scratched the surface. . . I always take my favorite case: I grew up in Detroit. I went to a place called Detroit Country Day School. They've got a great basketball team. Why can't I sit in front of my television and watch the Country Day basketball game when I know darn well it's being video-recorded at all times? It's there. It's just not easy to navigate to."

Y aquí las declaraciones en vídeo:





Por otra parte, Steve Ballmer considera que la mayor parte de contenidos estarán disponibles en internet de forma gratuita, financiados básicamente con publicidad. Los servicios de pago serán "más la excepción que la regla".