For about a decade, I’ve advocated that venture capitalists and angel investors doing a brilliant job making investments in Web and mobile start-ups do likewise for the next generation of TV content and technology. Think of how far a billion or two a year, from a community spending upwards of $30 billion annually on many industries, could go in forming new TV networks, programming, technology, video-on-demand and 3D services, interactive TV applications and such.

The problem is, VCs and angels to a great extent don’t think that way. Most continue to blow off TV proposals in their face, and make incredible excuses why they don’t get involved. What’s more, they don’t pay attention to the few VCs who do see the possibilities.

Example: VCs and angels jump into forming funds to stimulate iPhone or iPad apps, but go silent and don’t create an interactive app or Google TV app fund in the face of a smart/connected TV movement.

The same attitude seems to be taken by the wave of incubators and accelerator enterprises springing up nationwide, such as Y Combinator, TechStars, 500 Startups and NewMe. Again, sensational work raising Web and mobile prospects, not only offering seed money but valuable coaching, mentoring and oversight skills making the difference in ventures working or not. Again, blind to the idea of taking on new TV projects.

At times I imagine myself as Don Quixote diced by the windmills, a lone voice in the face of this national disgrace underway. That’s why it’s wonderful to note that last month, at least two more voices chimed in. IndieWire editor Dana Harris came first, reporting from the recent South By Southwest fest in Austin, Texas that it was high time for “a start-up incubator entirely devoted to problem-solving for the entertainment industry.” After reading Harris’ tome, former American Film Institute Digital Content Lab manager Nick DeMartino posted a blog entry which calls for development of incubators willing to work with TV and digital newbies.

“I believe that an amazing community will flock to support such a venture focused upon entertainment, providing a deeper layer of support that can help shortcut the unique challenges of navigating the entertainment ecosystem,” DeMartino elaborates. “With that, and some deep pockets, the model could be extremely powerful. Clearly there’s a gap, an unmet need, a vacuum waiting to be filled with investors and visionaries with a passion for entertainment solutions driven by technology.”

On his own, DeMartino’s advising a Toronto-based venture working in an incubator/accelerator-style manner with digital entertainment content start-ups. Content that, given TV is a digital medium last time I checked, can find a path to your TV sets. Credit DeMartino will backing up his viewpoint with actions.

Welcome to the fight, Dana and Nick, as Paul Henreid’s character says near the end of Casablanca. Nice to know others are in your corner when getting off the ground and taking another walk into the windmills of apathy towards TV investments. With more people following their lead, we can accelerate the day these windmills topple to the ground–and rise nevermore.

Until the next time, stay well and stay tuned!

***So unfortunate (and understandable) HBO pulled the plug on Luck, three episodes into filming of its second season, due to the furor over three horses injured (two first season, one two weeks ago) and euthanized. Wanted this drama to succeed so bad, because it showcased the world of horse racing in a unique way, and for the talent involved, from executive producers Michael Mann and David Milch to Dustin Hoffman and the all-star cast. Somehow, I sense that PETA, an organization often using over-the-top, shock tactics to make its case for more humane animal treatment, would never let a horse racing drama fly under any circumstance, despite the best efforts by HBO, Luck‘s production team, and the American Humane Association’s effort to take maximum precautions. What PETA doesn’t get is that horse racing, like any sport involving animals or humans, runs the risk of injury, and sad to say where horses are concerned, injuries in many cases lead to them being put humanely out of their misery. This happens often–and in the case of the third Luck horse casulty, the injury happened out of nowhere, off the track. PETA’s idea of using stock racing footage for the real thing (their suggestion to HBO) is unrealistic, and viewers would spot it in a heartbeat. All that said, Mann, Milch and company made a big mistake by not going public after the second horse was euthanized to acknowledge the situation, spell out what precautions were taken in the first place, and what would be done going forward when the second season went into production, with consultation from both PETA and AHA. Like Johnson & Johnson years ago with Tylenol, they would be better off a step ahead of the issue, instead of way behind.

***So disappointed with The Rosie Show getting the ax at Oprah Winfrey Network five months into its  run. When you introduce a live talk/variety hour at 7 p.m., the same hour as Wheel Of Fortune, Jeopardy! and entertainment news series, chances were it would take a long while for people to drop their long-standing viewing habits and come over. Rosie gave it a fair try, and couldn’t work things out. At the same time, perhaps what audience the program did have and lost week-by-week communicated that in their eyes, fair or not, Rosie O’Donnell couldn’t go back home to being TV’s “Queen Of Nice” again.

***So excited about Comcast finally on square one with its independent/diversity network project, announcing the first quartet of networks selected, and BabyFirst Americas, the first of that quartet, launching April 1. Great move on Comcast’s part to bring all of the nets together in public so soon for a Washington D.C. ceremony, attended by more than 950 people. Love to see a repeat here in New York for the press and advertiser crowds before Aspire, Magic Johnson’s venture, is up next,  turning the switch this summer.

***So frustrated another worthwhile event doesn’t pay attention to the calendar and risks losing valuable audience in return. TechCrunch’s two-year-old Disrupt conference, always good to find startups with interactive TV applications, and another place to make the case for greater participation by venture capitalists, angel investors and incubator/accelerator involvement in TV investments, is up against The Cable Show in Boston that week. This follows Internet Week NY’s horrendous upgrade from early June to mid-May, smack into a super-crowded TV upfront period. Still don’t get why IW, having a great time period to stage its expanding carnival of attractions, couldn’t stay put. As for TechCrunch, all of those startups with TV prospects could have used that mid-May time to exhibit at The Cable Show, or participate in that event’s Imagine Park showcase. Great opportunity gone to pot.

***So blown away by Discovery Channel’s Frozen Planet, which started its limited run last Sunday night. The production team behind such Discovery miniseries as Planet Earth, Blue Planet and Life have done it spectacularly again. If one minute you watch doesn’t put the breath on hold, the next minute will. Jet let your eyes and soul follow the journey, while the producers make room on their mantlepieces for well-deserved Emmy and Peabody awards.

Until the next time, stay well and stay tuned!

Remember the game show 1 vs. 100, where one contestant played against 100 people for a cash jackpot? As the lone contestant built up his/her end of the jackpot (through incredibly inane multiple-choice questions) host Bob Saget (later Carrie Ann Inaba) would call for a decision to play on with this question: Do you want the money, or do you want the mob?

You go money, keep the cash and leave. You want the mob, play on and take your chances on super payday. One or the other, your call.

For people desiring a break into the TV series world, the answer may be going both ways together–money and mob. If so, they may thank Mobcaster, a new Web site that in just nearly three months of existence, has a track record for giving proposed series a proverbial foot in the door. Going further, Mobcaster represents the latest example of what’s becoming one of this year’s big TV developments, the establishment of an independent television movement where programs outside major studios and production companies, often cutting-edge and ambitious, get a following.

The long-running New York Television Festival was the first step in setting this movement off, giving producers a local platform to make pilots seen simultaneously among network executives and the general public. Now there’s Netflix, Hulu, possibly Amazon, Just The Story and Wisecast Television, all alternative directions producers can take to get their series (TV networks in Wisecast’s case) on the air.

Enter Mobcaster, co-founded by former HBO digital media executive Aubrey Levy. The game plan: producers offer pilot pitches or scripts, or completed pilots in some cases, for public funding. Viewers have two, three months max to donate how much money they want to a project. If the target funding goal is reached or exceeded when time’s up, the project goes forward. If the pilot goes to series, Mobcaster presents a six-episode run on its site and gets a cut of the revenues off ad sales. Mobcaster has no say in the production of any series, and the producers are free to sell their creation to a TV network after the initial run.

Levy and his co-founders acknowledge that their effort is modeled after Kickstarter, the popular Web attraction that in a short time, has engaged people in funding a wide variety of creative ventures, including a few online video series. However, Mobcaster is the first Web effort of its kind with a pure TV focus.

Mobcaster heads into this week three for four on projects going forward, admirable when you consider this site has only done grassroots campaigns on the fly so far, and has yet to do a big promotional or public relations effort. Just last week alone, Mobcaster broke into the national media spotlight with an item in Techcrunch, the popular technology Web destination, and Levy coming on my Tomorrow Will Be Televised program (the result of meeting him by chance when we sat next to each other at a Social Media Week New York event last month).

The top success: raising almost $74,000 for series production of The Weatherman, a sitcom pilot from Australia entered at the NY Television Festival last fall. Six episodes will be produced and appear on Mobcaster later this year. Back To Your Senses and On The Campaign Trail, a pair of documentary series, attracted $15,205 and $2,545 respectively, taking them into pilot production. On the other hand, Chemistry, a mystery drama, only received $772 in a pitch for $8,000. Chalk that a miss. Next up: sketch comedy hopeful The Matt & Theo Show, seeking $3,000.

Whatever you may make of Mobcaster now, or the whole idea of people coming forward to fund TV in a community manner, you can’t bypass the reality that producers now have a variety of independent ways to realize their fortunes in TV. They didn’t have this last year. The foundation for this movement is grounded, a remarkable accomplishment in so quick a timespan. It’s early to conclude how big and impactful this movement gets. It’s enough to declare it an important trend of TV 2012, and the kind you can’t help but enjoy step by step.

Until the next time, stay well and stay tuned!

There’s a lot of people out there out to create the next generation of television, a fair chunk of them through new TV networks. Witness the more than 100 channel proposals Comcast worked through to come up with four, all independently-owned and operated by people or organizations of color, going on their cable systems between next month and early 2014.

Channel capacity on cable and satellite systems remains the big wall preventing new services from reaching the public, even with all the space-expanding technology and analog reclaimation in play. If you’re a new network, you need space for both standard and high-definition versions. You’re also fighting against expanded carriage for video-on-demand, interactive and–if the marketplace develops for it–3D services.

Any way multichannel distributors can crack open some space for new players, the better. If they don’t, they run the risk of losing those players, and perhaps customers, to the fast-growing universe of connected TV sets. Or whatever alternative avenues (like Roku) take root.

Here’s one quick way to open capacity up: reduce the number of supplemental premium channels coming from HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc. By supplemental, linear services like HBO2, HBO Signature and HBO Zone, both in SD and HD.

These are services that offer no original programming that encourages you to watch. Or enough differentiated content from mothership HBO by genres like comedy or Spanish-language that’s worth watching. This is just from HBO alone, and all these SD/HD networks are on Time Warner Cable in my corner of the U.S.

Drop these networks and presto, new room for new services. If you want to go further, try Cinemax’s supplements MoreMax, OuterMax and WMax. Or Showtime’s Beyond, Extreme, Next, Showcase and Too. Or The Movie Channel’s Xtra feed. And speaking of feeds, take out the Spanish-language transmission of all these channels, and you have room to replace them with Spanish or bilingual nets featuring first-run programming.

This way is going to ruffle feathers at HBO, Showtime et al, unhappy over the prospect of losing cable and satellite real estate. However, better perhaps from them to take a space hit now, than seeing their affiliates lose customers later, when they can find new services they’re excited about watching elsewhere.

Putting supplemental pay nets that clearly do not attract a crowd to permanent pasture isn’t the only way to solve the channel capacity issue. Nor should it be. Nevertheless, it’s a way to pursue for the near haul, and the time to make a call on it is now.

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Observations from the passing parade:

• My Tomorrow Will Be Televised interview last Friday with Comcast executive David Jensen yielded some big takeaways. First, several of the new independent/diversity channels that didn’t make the cut announced two weeks ago will go forward and ramp up–announcements ahead. Second, there’s a fair chance Comcast will carry some of these services, or others, apart from their indie/diversity plan, either on linear or video-on-demand. Third, watch other multichannel distributors for signs they may conduct their own indie/diversity service projects. Finally, it’s likely Comcast will launch more than 10 diginets by 2018 under its indie/diversity banner. Jensen sees 10 as “a floor” to build on, not the ultimate outcome. Hear Jensen’s commentary for yourself at www.blogtalkradio.com/simonapple04, or download the podcast at ITunes.com.
• Amid the ongoing press barrage of Oprah Winfrey Network woes, few are checking out activity at The Hub, OWN co-parent Discovery Communications’ venture with Hasbro that replaced Discovery Kids in fall 2010. Ratings are at all-time best levels and climbing, Dan Vs., The Haunting Hour and Family Game Night are hitting stride both creatively and in ratings, and there’s some promising new series ahead this fall. One quibble: with such low press coverage, why didn’t The Hub invite journalists to its New York upfront dinner last week, content with issuing a pre-dinner press release? A good opportunity to make some public headway out the door.
• The Academy Award audience needle didn’t move much last Sunday night for ABC–just over 1.6 million viewers–even with Billy Crystal’s return. Didn’t move the needle much on reviews of the show, mostly negative. Memo to the Academy: if you want the best shot at a big audience, no matter what movies are up for your honors, do two things. Start the show at 8 p.m. Eastern time, ditto what every other major awards program does. And limit the technical awards given out live to cinematography, film editing and visual effects. Hand the rest out earlier and do a five-minute recap on the show, again standard practice for other award programs. Then use the time saved to create a ceremony that lives up to the visual medium you showcase.

Until the next time, stay well and stay tuned!

The journey to the outcome went longer than anticipated, but at last, Comcast has chosen the first players in its new assortment of independently-owned channels cleared among cable affiliates nationwide.

The lucky quartet selected for national carriage, in order of their launch dates: BabyFirst Americas, a Latino-centric and managed adaptation of BabyFirst TV, the first service directed at the toddler community (April 1); Aspire, Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s service for African-Americans (June); Revolt, Sean Combs’ multicultural music/pop culture network (early 2013) and El Rey, indie filmmaker Robert Rodriguez’ service mixing English and bilingual content for Latinos (fall 2013-January 2014 at the latest). All four services will be placed on Comcast’s digital basic tier, reaching up to 20 million households at launch.

All four owe their shot of existence to the pledge Comcast made en route to acquiring NBC Universal last January. Via agreements with a number of multicultural advocacy institutions, Comcast set aside at least 10 channels for new indie networks to premiere between 2012 and the end of 2018, all of which Comcast would not take equity in, and eight would originate from people or organization of color (four African-American/four Latino). The first three would be selected from a group of proposals submitted last spring. More than 100 proposals ultimately came in, with notables from Tyler Perry and Russell Simmons to Bill Cosby and Emilio Estefan reportedly in contention.

Comcast originally wanted to name those first three winners by the end of last summer. Didn’t happen, and you can chalk that up to two factors. First, the sheer volume of proposals was more than Comcast bargained for, apparently quite a number worthy of national carriage. That alone can push a timetable back. The second factor, according to post-announcement reporting: some diversity organizations were invited to scrutinze the proposals as they worked their way to final consideration at Comcast. As lengthy as that course went, frustrating for some anticipating that summer 2012 call, give props to Comcast for having the process be inclusive.

As a result, Comcast announced four channels instead of three, and all but one will premiere over the next 12 months. Three of the four have behind-the-scenes star power for financial backing, and all four promise to give new African-American and Latino production talent a big break with their ventures.

What’s important to keep top of mind is that placement on Comcast, while an accomplishment and nothing to blow over when you get up to 20 million homes in a single bound, is a single bound, emphasis on single. Now comes the process to win over as much national carriage as possible from Time Warner, Charter, Cox, Suddenlink, other multi-system operators, DirecTV, Dish, FiOS TV and U-Verse. Now comes producing programs that move viewers to watch and moves the medium forward. Now comes attracting national advertisers with the argument that you add value to TV, not copy what’s already on. Now comes building networks that last. Let’s see how this star power, considerable as it is and new to the experience of TV network creation, moves ahead.

For Comcast, the new channels they opened their cable systems for last week represents a leap for diversity in television. Again, a single leap. There’s still four more channels of color to pick, and two “wild card” independent selections that could easily be directed at people of color. From this vantage point, it would be great to have one of these wild cards played by Asian-Americans, and the other work for Native Americans. Numerous attempts to serve the latter population with a TV network have collapsed over the years, and it’s way overdue for such a channel to come through the diversity pipeline.

Let’s also see if Comcast goes beyond their 10 indies promise, while other multichannel distributors institute their own similar, substantial efforts at expanding TV diversity. All of this would be a lasting milestone to a nation on track to reach a multicultural majority far sooner than imagined just a year or so ago.

I’m chomping at the bit to monitor the journey from here.

Until the next time, stay well and stay tuned!

FYI: David Jensen, the executive overseeing Comcast’s indie channel/diversity project, will be Simon Applebaum’s guest this Friday on Tomorrow Will Be Televised, the Internet radio program all about the TV scene. Hear this episode live at 3 p.m. Eastern time/noon Pacific time on BlogTalk Radio, on replay at www.blogtalkradio.com/simonapple04, and on podcast via iTunes.com and other Web podcast sites arranged by Sonibyte.

At some point growing up, many kids heard this advice from one or both parents: “Now ____, be on your best behavior.”

Quite soon, we TV viewers may have to heed that advice, when dealing with our relationship to TV sets. There’s a huge disrupt ahead for that relationship, and thank Ralph Santana for the early alert.

Santana is Samsung’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, and the leadoff speaker at last week’s Association of National Advertisers TV conference last week in New York. His presentation came more than a month after Samsung and its TV set competitors showcased their latest round of connected (aka smart) models at the International CES in Las Vegas. Like earlier editions, these connected sets carry TV networks, the Web and original interactive TV applications. Unlike them, consumers can manipulate what they view and how they view it by voice, touch or body movement, beyond the capabilities of remotes, smartphones and tablets. Samsung’s CES-highlighted sets include the ability to recognize faces en route to viewing choices.

That latter function potentially carries some baggage over privacy, as in the consequences from information generated by facial features leaking out by accident, ending in another’s set. Debatable as that can be, that pales by comparison with what Santana suggested in a few sentences in the midst of his ANA talk. “Techonology is liberating content, thanks to third-party apps and cloud-based platforms,” he told the crowd. “With TV, you can control with voice commands, face and gestures. Soon, TVs will be biometric.”

Biometric…as in recognizing people based on one or more intristic physical or behavorial traits, according to Wikipedia and other reference sources. Those traits range from DNA, odor or scent to how fast you walk across a room or type words on a computer screen. All it takes is one trait. Lo and behold, you’ve added biofuel to your set.

Santana moved on to his next topic without critical elaboration for anyone in the crowd who may have sensed a bomb dropping. Especially people at CES or tracked the news from there who didn’t hear a peep from anyone about biometric functionality. The questions coming to my mind: Is Santana introducing this in public because his company’s ready to put a biometrics set in stores? What biometric traits will be monitored? What’s the ethical and privacy concerns? If Samsung’s ready with such a set, will Vizio, LG, Sharp, Sony, etc. follow in quick order? How will consumers react when anyone launches this kind of set?

Santana had an opportunity to address these questions at ANA and didn’t take it. He backed out of a scheduled question-and-answer period on late notice. He also evaded efforts by journalists in the house for more detail.

My guess, and only my guess, is that if Santana got the OK from his superiors to raise the subject, Samsung will demonstrate the biometric elements of its next-gen smart set pretty soon. Maybe a matter of weeks.

When that happens, pay attention. Get the key details on your radar screen. Then make room for a big debate over what good biometrics can bring to the viewing experience, versus what harm. Could be as important a debate as any over the consequences this next, interactive generation of TV has on our lives and our future. Let’s be on our best behavior with it.

Until the next time, stay well and stay tuned!

Two genres ruled the primetime roost on broadcast networks as I grew up. One was the Western, the other was anthology series. Both dominated lineups throughout the 1950s and into the late 1960s. Then primetime largely went the way of police, lawyer and medical series, burying Westerns and anthologies with them.

Now that the Western has new life in a new millennium, thanks to the success of AMC’s Hell On Wheels and the number of series pilots under consideration for this fall on broadcast and cable, it’s time to raise our voices for a new generation of anthology programs.

When the first anthology generation was in bloom, it gave sight to a wonderful variety of new writing, producing and directing talents, from Rod Serling and Paddy Chayefsky to John Frankenheimer and, Sidney Lumet, Week after week, Playhouse 90, Studio One, General Electric Theater, Philco/Goodyear TV Playhouse and Kraft Television Theater offered original material and literary classic adaptations with the best actors from Broadway and Hollywood.

Anthologies also gave actresses like Loretta Young, Jane Wyman, Barbara Stanwyck and June Allyson the opportunity to stretch their role-playing prowess on a weekly basis. Ditto for actors like Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Ronald Reagan, Fred Astaire and Lloyd Bridges. Plus audiences could learn a rich supply of history in entertaining fashion on such programs as Death Valley Days, Calvacade of America, Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater, Armstrong Circle Theater, The Great Adventure and Profiles In Courage.

And fans of speculative and suspenseful fiction could get a weekly fill from Tales Of Tomorrow, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Science Fiction Theater, The Twlight Zone, Thriller and The Outer Limits.

All the elements are there to mount an anthology comeback–independent writers/producers/directors looking for a steady outlet, less-costly production techniques from computer graphics to hand-held and micro cameras, and acting talent galore. The only thing needed now is broadcast and cable network programming executives willing to give this long-dormant medium life again, willing to raise audience appetites for these showcases.

How about it? Your move.

Until the next time, stay well and stay tuned!

I know it’s early to make declarations over what 2012 will be remembered for, but you get the impression that we may, yes may, look back at the week of International CES in Las Vegas as the beginning of the “controllable” TV era. By controllable, manipulating your TV set and what you watch off it with your hands, fingers, face, arms and legs along with, or instead of, your remote, smartphone or tablet. Every major TV set maker upped their smart TV models with at least one application of body control. They believe the public will like this alternative to devices you press or tap, a la Kinect. Now let’s watch what the public does.

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We also may look back at next month as the launch of scripted TV’s new place to make big– streaming hybrid PC/smart set transmission. Hulu and Netflix will premiere new series in February over their respective infrastructures, available simultaneously on the computer and TV set. Netflix comes to the table with quirky crime thriller Lilyhammer; Hulu with politics-focused workplace dramedy Battleground. Netflix has more scripted originals lined up for later this year and early 2013, while Hulu executives hint their pipeline will fill up with additional entries soon. Two immediate thoughts: independent producers unable to break into broadcast and cable networks have their long-desired nirvana mechanism if this works out, and et tu, Amazon.com?

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Google TV finally got their International CES coming-out party this month, a year behind original expectations. Three big set players in their corner at last, namely LG, Samsung and Vizio. Two new chip-making affiliates, opening doors for more sets to intro Google TV later this year. What made it possible? Google TV’s producers realizing that their product is at the core, an open platform for interactive TV applications and enhanced, attractive Web sites, and coming up with version 2.0 to be exactly that. Those 200,000-plus Android application developers now have a shot to adapt their smartphone material to TV and fire up imaginative ITV services. Original ITV apps are turning on–150 so far–and people are warming up to them. Keep an eye on OnLive, the cloud-centric games venture launching over the next few weeks. Could be a major Google TV viewer magnet.

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What’s with the heap of post-CES punditry suggesting this event is heading over a cliff? Did a lot of reporters drink the Las Vegas water, then conclude it’s all downhill because Microsoft and CEO Steve Ballmer won’t be there anymore with a big exhibit or pre-event keynote? Get a reality check. International CES, in a still meandering economy with 8.5 percent unemployment, drew 13,000 more people and 400 more exhibitors than 2011. Didn’t see much reporting on what Microsoft offered on the show floor, or in Ballmer’s presentation. You better believe CES is one healthy animal with good prospects for 2013 and beyond. One thing that would make CES even better and healthier–more female keynote speakers. They’re out there, waiting to participate in a big way.

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Internet Week New York, one of the best annual festivals displaying the convergence of the Web, TV and mobile, shot itself in the foot last year thanks to awful PR execution that limited the amount of coverage the event received. Don’t look now, but unless the dates get rearranged in a hurry, another shot will go off. IW’s 2012 schedule runs from May 14-21, opposite the jam-packed week of broadcast and cable upfront ceremonies. And the closing IW day (May 21), with the Webby Awards, also conflicts with the start of The Cable Show in Boston. Unless IW blinks and moves back to June, where this festival has successfully existed all along, get ready for another reporter revolt.

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Food Network, can we please put an end to your nightly mini-marathons devote to one show, which seems to be the policy the last month or so? Know there’s a lot of hungry fans for Chopped, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Restaurant: Impossible, but don’t you think they want a touch more variety in their lineup, especially when exposed to three Chopped hours or six Diners half-hours in a row? In Diners’ case, six in a row Mondays and Fridays?

Until the next time, stay well and stay tuned!

Sorry, but I’m not into best of/worst of TV lists as many of my fellow journalists are, as one year completes and next year draws close. Trends and mileposts that develop over a year, impacting times ahead, are more my cup of tea.

Early on, I noted in different places that what transpires in 2011 would set up the rest of this decade. We sure got a lot of transpiring this year all over the TV world. Here’s the big things I’ll take away from TV 2011 that will shape 2012 and beyond.

Our cup–make that many cups–runneth over with original programming. More channels presented more original series than ever, and a few networks, including Cinemax, VH1 and ReelzChannel, successfully entered the scripted series field. Every cable channel has the biggest development/pilot agenda in their history running next year, while the broadcast nets are producing the most pilots in recent memory. Series creation is no longer just in the hands of broadcast or cable nets. It’s in DirecTV’s hands, Netflix’s hands, and not so down the road, perhaps in Amazon or Hulu’s hands. The new network movement continues, and YouTube’s effort to launch as many as 100 services over the next year on both TV and PC may intensify things further.

Diversity in TV must shape up in the coming year or two–or else. Developments in this area were a mixed bag this year. Accentuating some of the positive:  Univision became a major nightly TV force, BET scored a greater-than-anticipated audience for The Game revival; VH1 had a winner in Single Ladies, M-net’s a rising prospect for the Asian-American crowd and All-American Muslim was a cause celebre for TLC, despite the Lowe’s/Kayak ad pullout controversy. Accentuating the negative: not one new fall scripted series on CBS, NBC, Fox and The CW had a lead actor of color; only 12 percent of 2010-11 scripted series episodes on broadcast/cable combined were directed by people of color, 12 percent by women and 1 percent by women of color (according to a Directors Guild of America survey). In the middle: Comcast’s network diversity plan (launching 10 indie services nationwide over its cable systems by 2018, eight from people/organizations of color), where over 100 proposals were submitted for the first three channels (to be launched by end of January 2013), and as of this writing, no news on the winning entrants.

We now know about 40 percent of this nation’s citizens are people of color. Sooner than we all believe, thanks to the 2010 Census data coming out this spring, the multicultural majority will happen. If series and networks don’t reflect the state of this nation consistently, TV runs the risk of a massive tune-out by a surging multicultural population. It’s easy to play blame game on this. Let’s take energy wasted on that and organize diversity-accelerating efforts on every level–series, network, production company, studio, executive suite.

Connected TVs are hot and the interactive TV movement fires up with them. Every TV set maker has models on the market offering Internet sites, interactive application stores, or both. If they don’t now, they will on display in Las Vegas early next month at International CES. Connected sales are up, despite overall TV buying way down. One early signal to watch for: how many of those set makers adopt Google TV, now that their second go allows the 200,000-plus Android application developers the ability to create new TV services while adapting what they’ve already produced for mobile phones. Also, how many of those Android developers take this opportunity? Will Apple Computer bring out that rumored TV set with far-advanced bells and whistle features, such as manipulating what you watch by voice and body? Will some set maker beat Apple to the punch on the latter?

A make/break year ahead for 3D. Something’s got to give in the chicken/egg dilemma paralyzing 3D TV. It’s not enough to make more original content. It’s not enough to expand cable/satellite distribution of what you can get via 3D now (ESPN3D/n3D/3net, etc.). It’s not enough to organize a fundamental pair of glasses that work with any TV set or multichannel distributor running 3D content. It’s not enough to catapult the origination and production of glasses-free TV sets which work from any angle you look. You break up this situation with all four developments simultaneously, or watch 3D TV fade into the horizon for good. That simple.

Get ready for the ultimate, most intimate social medium–video telephony. More new TV sets are having micro-cameras installed so family members can call each other and watch themselves in clear, crisp high-definition. Skype is a feature on some set models, and now that Skype’s under Microsoft ownership, look for a push for cable/satellite distribution. Same with set-top maker Cisco Systems, whose Umi “home telepresence” was an expensive dud. Create a groundswell among consumers for this kind of service next year, and we could be witnessing a birth of a new TV medium-within-the medium, possibilities limitless.

Video-on-demand’s spotlight time has arrived. In quiet fashion, VOD will surpass 10 billion, that’s billion, views this year. Look for another threshold to come: national advertising sales among on-demand’s 50-million-plus households, due to adoption of dynamic technologies from the likes of Canoe Ventures. If YouTube finally takes the VOD plunge, this TV domain will flourish even further. And stay tuned for more ambitious on-demand/interactive projects like AmberWatch TV, running on Cablevision Systems’ NYC area platform.

The next generation of TV, a far more diverse generation of TV,  will reach us quicker and benefit us all quicker if the venture capital, angel investor and incubator/accelerator communities step up and invest. The lack of participation by these communities, and their apathetic posture of TV despite the trends in play, is a national disgrace. It’s way overdue for some action, big action, among VCs, angels and the incubator crowds. It’s also way overdue for the TV industry to take bold steps reaching out to these communities, showcase what’s happening in an ongoing way, and showcase TV investments as a job producer. The establishment of Eureka Park at International CES next month, with some TV ventures involved, is a promising step. Next December, let’s look back and see many more taken.

Thank you for checking out this column all year long. Thank you for all the constructive feedback, and thanks to Jack Myers, Shelly Palmer, and their co-workers, for bringing what I write to you week after week. Also, thanks to all of you catching my Tomorrow Will Be Televised Internet radio program and podcasts.

May 2012 bring you more the best TV can offer than the worst, far more. Have a sensational year ahead that rewards you personally and professionally. Until 2012, stay well and stay tuned!