THE NEXT CHALLENGE: TV DIRECT FROM THE WEB

I’ve been saying for a long while that you don’t really have to worry about Web video until they figure out how to hook up TV sets directly to the Internet.

Well, you can start worrying now.

Two companies may have found the missing link—set-top boxes that will allow folks to pull TV shows and movies from the Web and watch them on their big-screen TVs, sometimes in full high-def, with minimal hassle and at reasonable prices.

Earlier this week, at Macworld in San Francisco, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled before thousands of his followers the new Apple TV, the Web equivalent of a DVR. Retail price: $229.

You plug one wire into the TV and another into your broadband Internet connection. Then, you can go to town, buying or renting movies and TV shows from iTunes. No computer necessary.

Movies like Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End can be rented for $3.99, older ones like Napoleon Dynamite for $2.99. Add a dollar for HD.

You can also buy movies and TV shows just as you always have for your iPods and iPhones. Movies can be $9.99 or more, depending on their vintage. TV shows go for $1.99.

If you buy, you can keep the movie forever on your Apple TV hard drive.

Rented movies erase themselves after 30 days. Plus, once you start watching a rented movie you have just 24 hours to finish watching or rewatching before it disappears.

Hot on the heels of Apple is Netflix, best known for renting DVDs by mail for flat monthly fees to seven million members.

It and LG Electronics are developing a set-top functionally similar to Apple’s that they hope to bring to market by the end of this year.

Netflix already has an online service with 6,000 titles, but you need a computer to access and watch them.

The Netflix online library includes NBC Universal shows. You can get episodes of Heroes the day after they air on the network.

In marketing its online service, Netflix has already one-upped Apple. The day before the Apple TV announcement, it said it is including access to the online programming as part of its monthly pricing plans, which range from $4.99 to $16.99.

Keep an eye on this new breed of set tops. If they work as advertised, they represent yet another threat to the media status quo.

Suddenly, Americans will be able to sit down for an evening of TV with a remote control, sort through thousands of movies and TV shows and impulsively select what they want to watch—without engaging broadcasting, cable or satellite TV or hassling with DVDs.

How successful the boxes are will depend of several factors, including how much programming is available through them. The more titles, the more compelling the service.

Apple and Netflix already have deals with all the major studios in place and as time goes on (and the box penetration grows) their online offerings will no doubt becomes richer and richer.

AppleTV has also wisely included YouTube on its user interface so that viewers can tap into the wealth of video there.

You’re right. Those YouTube videos will look lousy on the big screen right now, but they won’t always. The images will get better and better.

Watching live sports through such boxes is also not out of the question. I’ve paid to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates on mlb.com, and will again, especially if I know I can watch on my big screen rather than at my desk.

Some consumer electronics mavens say that Apple TV will miss the mass market because most consumers don’t want to deal with another set top.

Perhaps they’re right. But I don’t see the boxes as much trouble. The new TV sets have all kind of inputs and because there are no computers or other boxes involved, it’s a simple linear hookup—net to box to TV.

And I trust Apple at least to make boxes that are easy to use. That’s what the company is famous for.

In any case, I wouldn’t take much comfort in the notion that Web TV will collapse because consumer don’t want to deal with another set top.

Some believe that Apple will introduce a TV set with a built-in Internet interface and hard drive, possibly this summer, eliminating the set top altogether.

Then, it becomes a matter of hooking up just one wire to bypass all the traditional TV media.

Could it be any easier—or more worrisome?

Harry A. Jessell is the editor of TVNEWSDAY. If you would like to comment on this column, write to him at hajessell@tvnewsday.com.