Where's the home page for my TV, radio?

Jim Whitehead (ejw@ICS.uci.edu)
Thu, 24 Sep 1998 13:50:11 -0700


So, thinking more about how the Web is really a hardware/software system,
similar to a VCR in that you have to buy a piece of hardware (the VCR) to
gain access to the software (VCR tapes). While on the Web the hardware is
really a piece of software, the Web browser, and the software is a mixture
of HTML, binary images, scripting languages and Java, the hardware/software
analogy still holds.

Which makes me wonder -- why isn't there a "home station" on TVs and radios,
such that when I turn on my TV or radio, it goes to a "portal" station. If
this model makes money on the Web, it's not too great a stretch of the
imagination to think this would work in more traditional media too. It
could work for VCRs too -- since VCRs come with TV tuners these days, why
not rent a sideband or two in every major market, have the VCR automatically
scan for this signal, and present a "home page" every time you turn on the
VCR.

- Jim