Streaming devices such as Google’s Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV Stick won’t exist by 2023, Twitter Chief Operating Officer Anthony Noto said last week while speaking at Turner Sports’ CES 2018 panel. The entrepreneur expects such gadgets to go extinct over the course of the next half a decade as consumer technologies continue converging and smartphones become even more capable, consequently turning into not just the best casting devices but the only ones that are actually needed. The transition to a more streamlined casting model won’t just make dedicated streaming solutions obsolete but will also see smartphones start communicating directly with Internet of Things offerings such as TVs and smart speakers instead of relying on Wi-Fi, Mr. Noto believes.
Twitter’s executive expressed similar sentiments on multiple occasions in the past and presented them as an important part of the reason why the microblogging platform is presently committing significant resources to enabling and encouraging live streaming on its social media service, having signed a number of valuable deals with everyone from Bloomberg to NFL. Twitter’s endgame is moving that kind of content to one’s living room by providing users with a simple method for casting its broadcasts to a TV, as suggested by Mr. Noto’s stances. The company’s biggest obstacle to that goal will be convincing consumers it’s a viable streaming alternative, according to many industry watchers. Should its existing mobile users embrace its video offerings, encouraging them to cast such content to their TVs wouldn’t be a major challenge, Mr. Noto suggested.
Twitter’s video push has been ongoing for over a year now and is the latest in its long string of attempts to embrace a fully defined identity in order to turn a profit after 12 years. While not all investors are convinced by that approach, the majority of them appear to be, with Twitter’s stock consistently rising in the last six months. It’s presently unclear how Twitter intends to go about competing for advertising dollars with native streaming platforms like Android TV even if its vision of future smartphone casting comes true half a decade from now. The company that was on the verge of a sale in early 2017 is now expected to continue operating on its own going forward.