Netflix is killing it right now, so I’d be inclined to believe founder and CEO Reed Hastings when he chips in with his thoughts on the future of TV.
And, wouldn’t you know it, when he gave a speech about that very subject last week in Berlin, what he described as television’s future sounded a whole lot like what Apple is reported to be unveiling this year.
Speaking at the Re:publica conference, Hastings predicted that, “We will come to see that linear TV declines every year for the next 20 years.” During that time, Internet TV will continue to rise with forward-thinking companies looking to hop on the bandwagon.
While Hastings didn’t mention Apple by name, he did describe the television set of the future as something that “will look like a large iPad,” bolstered by a range of apps.
Apple, for its part, hasn’t yet revealed what its next incarnation of streaming service Apple TV will be, but we’ve heard that it will be based around both Siri and the App Store, and that it will feature an innovative user interface based around a magic wand-style remote for previously-unimaginable levels of interactivity.
To date, Apple has never been as successful with streaming TV as it has with other areas like music downloads, but if Reed Hastings does turn out to be correct with his predictions then Apple could have a good two decades of dominance ahead of it before everyone else catches up.
Watch his speech in full below:
